THE JEWISH NEWS
Eat, Eat,
We'll Talk Later:
The Jewish Low
Affair With Food
ELSA SOLENDER
Special to The Jewish News
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68, Friday, September 26, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Illustrations By Jim Paterson
ood. We Jews love it. And our
love infuses our mythology, our
psychology and our philosophy.
Food spices the Jewish life cycle
with sensory symbols, suffuses family
relations with a tangible aura of
warmth and generosity, and enriches
the liturgical calendar with savory
pleasures signifying continuity and
security.
How do we love food? We delight in
counting the ways!
How do we abuse food? A sadder
tale, a sometimes woefully frustrating
study, yielding "fruits" applicable not
solely to Jews, of course, but surely
revelant to the American Jewish
experience.
Do Jews have "special" food pro-
blems? Some informed observers believe
that we do, although much evidence is
anecdotal or open to varied interpreta-
tion. Certainly the question merits
attention.
Herewith, therefore, an account of
the Jewish love affair with food, and
some consideration of the love/hate
relationship as it seems to affect us
today.
A hypothetical exericse: Try
eliminating food from Jewish life. Slice
it out:
No holidays at table: No Shabbos
challah. No apples and honey for a
sweet year on Rosh Hashonah. No fast
or break-fast for Yom Kippur. No
latkes or doughnuts crisp from frying
oil for Chanukah. No hamantaschen
on Purim. No harvest bounty eaten
under the stars at Sukkot. No Shavuot
blintzes. No Pesach matzo. No sweet
haroset. No Seder foods at all, neither
signifying hardship nor those
celebrating redemption.
No foods to mark the lifecycle: No
honeyed sweet to be placed on a child's
tongue to imprint sweet memories of
his first day of study at school. No sip-
ping of wine together by a bride and
groom at their wedding. No l'Chaim to
toast great events or smaller blessings
(See Sidebar: "Culinary Connections").
No nostalgic yearnings for the tastes
and aromas of an American-Jewish
childhood: the pickle barrel, the bagel
bakery, toddies on crackers at the deli
counter, corned beef on rye with
mustard, blintzes slathered with sour
cream, and, finally, Mama's universal
cure-all and restorative, a bowl of
steaming hot chicken soup.
There are variations when it comes
to some of the specifics, of course.
What the Ashkenazim — Jews whose
ancestors lived in Eastern and Central
"They are all Jews,
with the 'ancient
Hebrews as their
common ancestors.
Their cuisines,
therefore, have the
same primary basis:'
Europe — think of as "Jewish food"
reflects the cuisine of their origins.
What the Sephardim — Jews whose
ancestors lived in Spain, then migrated
mainly east to the Balkans, the Ot-
toman Empire, and North Africa —
think of as "Jewish food" reflects the
cooking of their ancient exile.
So the Ashkenazim may fry in
schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) and the
Sephardim in olive oil. But, as Gloria
Kaufer Greene (JEWISH NEWS cooking
editor) points out in her Jewish Holiday
Cookbook "they are all Jews, with the
ancient Hebrews as their common
ancestors. Their cuisines, therefore,
have the same primary basis — namely,
the dietary rules, or laws of kashrut."
And although the laws of kashrut are