Raphael Patai

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Raphael Patai (1910-1996) was a Hungarian-Jewish ethnographer and anthropologist whose life spanned most of the twentieth century. He was born Ervin Gyorgy Patai in Budapest, Hungary on November 22, 1910. His parents were Edith Ehrenfeld Patai and Jozsef Patai.

His father Jozsef was a prominent literary figure, author of numerous Zionist and other writings, including a biography of Theodore Herzl. He was founder and editor of the Jewish political and cultural journal Mult es jovo, [Past and Future] (1911-1944), a journal that was revived in 1988 by Janos Kobanyai in Budapest. Jozsef Patai also wrote an early History of the Jews in Hungary, and founded a Zionist organization in Hungary that procured support for the settlement of Jews in the British Mandate of Palestine.

Raphael Patai studied at rabbinical seminaries in and at the University of Budapest and the University of Breslau, from which he received a doctorate in Semitic languages and Oriental history. He moved to Palestine in 1933 (his parents joined him there in 1939) and received the first doctorate awarded by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 1936. He returned briefly to Budapest where he completed his ordination at the Budapest Rabbinical Seminary.

During the late 1930s and early 1940s Patai taught at the Haifa Technion and the Hebrew University. He founded the Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology in 1944, serving as its director of research for four years. He married Naomi Tolkowsky, whose family had moved to Palestine in the early twentieth century; the two had two daughters, Jennifer (b. 1942) and Daphne (b. 1943)

In 1947 Patai went to New York with a fellowship from the Viking Fund for Anthropological Research; he also studied the Jews of Mexico. Patai settled in the United States of America, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1952. He held visiting professorships at a number of the country's most prestigious colleges, including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Princeton University, and Ohio State University. He held full professorships of anthropology at Dropsie College from 1948 to 1957 and at Fairleigh Dickinson University. In 1952 he was asked by the United Nations to direct a research project on Syria, Lebanon and Jordan for the Human Relations Area Files.

Patai's work was wide-ranging but focused primarily on the cultural development of the ancient Hebrews and Israelites, on Jewish history and culture, and on the anthropology of the Middle East generally. He was the author of hundreds of scholarly articles and several dozen books, including three autobiographical volumes.

Patai died in 1996 at the age of 85.

[edit] Selected bibliography

Patai, Raphael. (1998) Arab folktales from Palestine and Israel. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, Raphael; (1998) The children of Noah: Jewish seafaring in ancient times. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1997) Jadåid al-Islām: The Jewish "new Muslims" of Meshhed Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1996) The Jewish mind. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1996) The Jews of Hungary: History, culture, psychology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, József; Patai, Raphael. (1995) Souls and secrets: Hasidic stories. Northvale, N.J.: J. Aronson.
Patai, Raphael; Goldsmith, Emanuel S.. (1995) Events and movements in Modern Judaism. New York: Paragon House.
Patai, Raphael. (1994) The Jewish alchemists: A history and source book. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Patai, Raphael; Goldsmith, Emanuel S.. (1994) Thinkers and teachers of modern Judaism. New York, N.Y.: Paragon House.
Brauer, Erich; Patai, Raphael. (1993) The Jews of Kurdistan. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1990) The Hebrew Goddess. 3rd enl. / edition. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, Raphael; Patai, Jennifer. (1989) The myth of the Jewish race. Rev. edition. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1988) Gates to the Old City: A book of Jewish legends. Northvale, N.J.: J. Aronson.
Patai, Raphael. (1988) Apprentice in Budapest: Memories of a world that is no more. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.reprint
Goldziher, Ignác; Patai, Raphael. (1987) Ignaz Goldziher and his Oriental diary: A translation and psychological portrait. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1987) Nahum Goldmann: His missions to the Gentiles. University, Ala.: University of Alabama Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1987) The seed of Abraham: Jews and Arabs in contact and conflict. 1st paperback edition. New York: Scribner.
Patai, Raphael. (1986) The seed of Abraham: Jews and Arabs in contact and conflict. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1984) The Kingdom of Jordan. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
Graves, Robert; Patai, Raphael. (1983) Hebrew myths: The book of Genesis. New York: Greenwich House.
Patai, Raphael. (197; 1983; 2002) The Arab Mind. Rev. edition. New York: Scribner. Reprint with introduction by Norvell de Atkine, Hatherleigh Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1983) On Jewish folklore. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Sanua, Victor D.; (ed.). (1983) Fields of offerings: Studies in honor of Raphael Patai. Rutherford N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1981) Gates to the Old City: A book of Jewish legends. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, Raphael; Rosow, Eugene; Kleiman, Vivian. (1981) The vanished worlds of Jewry. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Patai, Raphael. (1980) The vanished worlds of Jewry. 1st American edition. New York: Macmillan.
Patai, Raphael. (1980) Gates to the Old City: A book of Jewish legends. New York, N.Y.: Avon.
Patai, Raphael. (1979) The Messiah texts. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1979) The Messiah texts. New York: Avon.
Patai, Raphael. (1977) "The Jewish Mind. New York: Scribner.
Patai, Raphael. (1976) The Arab Mind. New York: Scribner.
Patai, Raphael; Patai, Jennifer. (1975) The myth of the Jewish race. New York: Scribner.
Patai, Raphael. (1973) The Arab Mind. New York: Scribner.
Patai, Raphael. (1973) Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria: An annotated bibliography. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.
Patai, Raphael; Utley, Francis Lee; Noy, Dov. (1973) Studies in Biblical and Jewish folklore. New York: Haskell House Publishers.
Patai, Raphael. (1971) Tents of Jacob: The Diaspora, yesterday and today. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall.
Patai, Raphael. (1971) Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel. New York: Herzl Press.
Patai, Raphael (ed.) (1971) Essays in Zionist history and thought. New York: Herzl Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1968) The Hebrew goddess. New York: Ktav Publishing House. reprint with an introduction by Merlin Stone
Patai, Raphael. (1967) Golden River to Golden Road: Society, culture, and change in the Middle East 2nd edition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1967) Women in the modern world. New York: Free Press.
Graves, Robert; Patai, Raphael. (1964) Hebrew myths: The book of Genesis. 1st edition. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday.
Patai, Raphael. (1959) Sex and the Family in the Bible and the Middle East. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday.
Patai, Raphael. (1958) The Kingdom of Jordan. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Patai, Raphael. (1947) Man and Temple in Ancient Jewish Myth and Ritual. New York: Nelson.