jews d

in
the

75th Anniversary

History Of
Jewish Food

Recipes from 1942 (below) and 1945 (right).

From the pages

of the JN.

Annabel Cohen

Food Writer

O

n page 8 of the Friday, Aug. 7, 1942,
issue of the Jewish News was a
regularly appearing column called
“Favorite Recipes.” In this week’s column
— which included a recommendation for a
cookbook called The Jewish Home Beautiful
and its recipes for kreplach and eierkichel
(those delicious bowtie egg cookies) — was
a tiny solicitation: “The Jewish News will
welcome recipe suggestions from its read-
ers for publication in this column.”
These were the early days of the Jewish
News and the globe was in the thick of
World War II. Most recipes published in
many of the first years’ content were for
traditional Eastern European Jewish foods
from the very countries being persecuted.
And because it was wartime, the paper
featured recipes (some of them sponsored
by big food companies such as Heinz) that
featured fewer amounts or substitutes for
rationed items, such as sugar, butter and
pricier cuts of beef.
Food connects us to our ancestors in the
same ways that literature, music and reli-
gious traditions do. It’s intimately linked to
why and how we celebrate, commemorate,
honor and mourn as a people.
By the late 1940s and 1950s, cooking for
pleasure was again in vogue as more post-
war “new and improved” products became
available to the “housewife.” The Jewish
News began publishing recipes — still many
of Jewish heritage with expanded sections
(no pictures!) for holiday cooking. And

continued on page 122

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July 18 • 2017

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