ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in this book. The title of this book was chosen for the symbolic significance of those ingredients used in the purification ritual undergone by Adina: ginger, a spice used daily in Yemen for both flavour and healing, and salt, the mineral evoking the bitterness and troubles of the Jewish people. Ginger and salt, then, bring together two of the socially important identities and cultures of the Yemeni Jews in Israel. Ginger and Salt is concerned with Yemeni Jewish women of the immigrant generation and their Israeli–born daughters, but we can readily see their troubles and joys in accounts of immigrant family lives elsewhere in the world. This cultural and historical overview provides the wider context in which to understand Yemeni Jewish women of both generations in Israel. Yemeni has enormous implications for the family and community life of the immigrant generation.
