The Jewish Mother, or Jiddische Mamme, is one of the most popular images of the Jewess in mid-19th and 20th century. Linked to the biblical Jewish women and mothers, arises a complex negative-grotesque stereotype, which is connected to the traditional image of the Jewess as,,home-keeper“ and was developed by the Shtetl-literature into a bitter and inapproachable,,family provider“. Finally, the overprotective and manipulative Jewish Mother is an integral part of American literature, film and comedy. The paper will trace these changes of (...) meaning and also analyse the Jewish Mother in the framework of the different presentations and representations of the Jewish woman. (shrink)

The present research on Czernowitz focuses mostly on the 20th century and on the works and memoirs of Holocaust survivors. But Czernowitz was at its cultural and economical height at the end of the 19th century, and it was during that time that the myth of the,,ideal city" was established. This essay stresses the importance of that time period for understanding the,,Czernowitz myth," and it analyzes the relationship between the,,real" place Czernowitz and the literary topos of a,,sunken city".