(
Czechoslovakia, shtrudel from the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Even
though the modern Jewish wife pays lip
service to the virtues of slimness, she
has no stomach for it. If the result of
overeating is overweight, is that a sin?
Is it not written in the Talmud that
"Man will be called to account in the
hereafter for each enjoyment he declin-
ed on earth without sufficient cause"?
For those who respect tradition,
Jewish mothers rule the kitchen un-
challenged, and virtually all of them
are said to have been great cooks.
Author Isaac Bashevis Singer has an
explanation for this: "Their sons were
big liars."
In the villages and ghettos of Eastern
Europe, many Jews ate a substantial
meal only on the Sabbath eve, surviv-
ing the rest of the week on bread,
potatoes, and — if they were fortunate
— herring.
The Heartburn
Of Nostalgia
ISRAEL SHENKER
Special to The Jewish News
A.
Frenchman says "Taste!" but
a Jewish cook says "Eat!" In
France a gourmet appreciates
the artistry of the chef and
develops a discriminating and educated
palate. Palate shmalate! In the world of
Jewish food, people who have wasted
their education on a palate are known
not as gourmets but as finicky eaters.
The way to approach a Jewish meal is
not delicately, but on the run. An ap-
propriate thing to say, though one
hardly has time to say it, is "I'm fain-
ting with hunger."
From his earliest a Jewish child would
hear his mother's entreaty: "Ess!" (Eat!)
A child had to be fattened to meet
life's trials. "Fix yourself!" was the ritual
phrase, meaning "Eat and put on
70
Friday, September 26, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
weight." No child was sent to bed with-
out supper; for a Jewish child, not
eating was a form of passive resistance.
Fannie Scharfstein, who lives on the
Lower East Side of New York City,
said: "I used to have quarrels with my
husband, and then I would serve him
and leave the room; I would never
dream of not feeding him."
Nostalgia is the essential ingredient.
The son remembers that for his mother
a cold meal was next to godlessness
and that he should "Eat first and talk
later." If anything was left on the plate,
it was a sign he did not love his
mother.
American Jewish nostalgia is the pro-
duct of scores of regional sources
abroad, just as the cooking is strongly
influenced by non-Jewish food. Eg-
gplant specialties, for example, come
from the Balkans, goulash from
Hungary, dumplings from
The first Jewish settlers — twenty-
three of them — came to America in
1654. Since then about three million
have immigrated, and the Jewish
population is now about six million.
Up to the 1880s, most Jewish im-
migrants came from Germany, and
from then until 1914 about two million
additional Jews fleeing persecution and
poverty arrived from Russia, Poland,
Austria-Hungary and Rumania. They
usually came without money, settled in
the humblest neighborhoods, and built
up their own schools, synagogues,
newspapers, trades, shops, home cook-
ing and desperate optimism — "He that
gave us teeth will give Lis bread." On
the Lower East Side, streets were jamm-
ed with pushcarts, and the air throbb-
ed with the redolence of fresh food and
the cries of vendors. It was hard to
starve and difficult to prosper.
In America as in Europe, observant
Jews sought their guidelines in the Old
Testament and in the commentaries of
rabbis who had built an elaborate
structure of regulations indicating
which foods and cooking methods are
kosher (conforming to Jewish dietary
laws) and which are trayf (not kosher).
"Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is
cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud,
among the beasts, that shall ye eat"
(Leviticus 11:3). Creeping animals are
forbidden as food, and so are fish
without fins and scales. Even the
slaughtering of animals is circumscribed
with religious laws.
In three places the Old Testament
prohibits seething a kid in its mother's
milk. This has evolved into the pro-
hibition of meat (fiayshik) and dairy