"The Cholera Wedding: East European Jews' Magical Ritual to End an Epidemic" Book talk by Natan Meir

Department: Jewish Studies

Date and Time: January 27, 2021 | 5:00 PM-6:00 PM

Event Location: Zoom

Event Details

Please join us for a book talk titled "The Cholera Wedding: East European Jews’ Magical Ritual to End an Epidemic” by Professor Natan Meir (Portland State University) on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 5:00-6:00 pm PST via Zoom.

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This talk explores the history and meaning of a peculiar ritual that emerged among East European Jews in the 19th century: to stop the spread of an epidemic, the community would marry its most vulnerable and marginalized members—orphans, beggars, and the disabled—to each other in a wedding held in the cemetery. We will examine an array of historical and literary sources that illuminate this hidden corner of Jewish life.

Natan M. Meir is Lorry I. Lokey Professor of Judaic Studies at Portland State University and author of Stepchildren of the Shtetl: The Destitute, Disabled, and Mad of Jewish Eastern Europe. From his groundbreaking research on the Jews of Russia to his work as a consultant for Moscow’s Jewish Museum, Professor Natan Meir has earned an international reputation as a scholar of Jewish social, cultural, and religious history. His latest book, Stepchildren of the Shtetl, recovers the histories of Jewish Eastern Europe’s social outcasts: the disabled, the mentally ill, orphans, and beggars, and he is currently engaged in a new project on folklore, magic, and sexuality in European Jewish culture. Students praise his classroom as an inspiring intellectual space. He also speaks eight languages, leads study tours of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and is probably pondering questions of historical causality—and what to make for dinner—while trail-running.

This event is presented by UCI Center for Jewish Studies.