Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology

Lore & Background

Raphael Patai, having failed to receive a post at the Hebrew University, pursued his own way to establish the Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology. The Institute was centered on Patai's figure, with contributors from the Jewish community in Palestine and anthropologists from abroad, mainly from the UK and the United States. Its presidents included Dr. Rabbi Max Grunwald, recognized as the founder of the study of Jewish folklore; Chief Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel; Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, later Israel's second president; and later Rabbi Y. L. Zlotnick (Avidah).

Reader's Guide

The Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology was a unique enterprise in mandatory Palestine, addressing a gap in ethnographic research at the time. Despite its short existence, it produced a journal series, Edoth, and a series of monographs, contributing to the documentation of Jewish and regional folklore. The Institute vanished by the end of 1948 after Patai left Palestine for the US on a Viking Fund scholarship. Attempts to revive it, notably by Zlotnick and ethnomusicologist Edith Gerson-Kiwi, failed. Its correspondence is stored at the archives of the Jewish National and University Library, preserving a record of its work.

Did You Know?

• The Institute produced only three volumes of its journal Edoth, the last in May 1948.
• Its presidents included Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who later became Israel's second president.
• Attempts to revive the Institute by Rabbi Y. L. Zlotnick and Edith Gerson-Kiwi failed.