18 | JULY 18 • 2024 
J
N

O

n Sunday, June 
23, The Zekelman 
Holocaust Center 
hosted its Honey Cake & 
Latkes event with more than 
200 people in attendance. 
The event celebrated the 
publication of a new cookbook, 
Honey Cake & Latkes, by the 
Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial 
Foundation. The cookbook 
features the recipes and stories 

of survivors of Auschwitz-
Birkenau. 
The event began with 
introductory remarks from 
Rabbi Jeff Stombaugh of 
The Well, which partnered 
in hosting the event, and 
Sue Webber, daughter of 
local Detroit Holocaust 
survivor Ruth Webber, who 
contributed recipes to the 
cookbook. Following these 

remarks, Dr. Maria Zalewska, 
executive director of the 
Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial 
Foundation and editor of 
the cookbook, engaged in a 
fireside chat with Holocaust 
survivor Tova Friedman, also 
featured in the cookbook, and 
her grandson Aron Goodman. 
After the discussion, a dessert 
reception included Webber’s 
honey cake and cappuccino 
cookies — the recipes appear 
in the cookbook. 
Webber explained the 
inspiration for the cookbook 
came after a gathering of 
120 survivors of Auschwitz-
Birkenau at the camp to 
commemorate the 75th 
anniversary of its liberation 
and realized their conversations 
would always come back to 
food. The cookbook became a 
way for survivors to document 
and share their recipes, as well 
as the stories and memories 
that accompanied them.
Zalewska highlighted 

content from The Zekelman 
exhibition to explain that 
food and starvation were used 
to weaken and dehumanize 
prisoners and to produce a 
hierarchy based on which 
types of prisoners were able 
to receive different kinds and 
amounts of food. She described 
how sharing recipes in the 
camps was a form of resistance 
as a way for prisoners to 
maintain their culture, recall 
their lives before the camps 
and preserve their humanity.
Friedman, who was a young 
child when she was a prisoner 
in Auschwitz-Birkenau, 
explained, “Food was the most 
important thing” in the camps, 
sharing that, “to me, starvation 
was the way that everybody 
died.” She recalled that her 
mother would give her food, 
sacrificing herself so that her 
daughter could eat. 
Friedman talked about 
how her relationship with her 
mother was based on trust, as 
her mother taught her how to 
protect her bowl so she would 
be able to obtain food. Her 
mother also had her gradually 
increase her food intake after 
liberation, when many died 
from eating too much. She 
emphasized the connection 
between food, memories and 
love, as well as survival, food, 
memory and trauma. 
Both Friedman and 
her mother survived, and 
Friedman shared her memories 
of food in her life after the war. 
She described making gefilte 
fish with her mother and how 
she took over the arduous 
responsibility of chopping the 
fish once her mother became 
ill. Friedman further shared 
about how the experience of 
eating food from a restaurant 

JOELLE ABRAMOWITZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

The Zekelman 
Holocaust 
Center Hosts 
Honey Cake & 
Latkes Event 

LEFT: Grandson Aron 
Goodman shares the stage 
with his grandmother Tova 
Friedman, who is being 
interviewed by Dr. Maria 
Zalewska.

