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Jacquelyn Goldman
Margot Finn
UC 254: Section 007
March 28, 2013
Culinary Jewish Tradition in the United States
My Bubby, or maternal grandmother, still uses many of the recipes her Jewish Bubby
brought with her to the United States from Lithuania. My great-great grandmother was one of
two million Jews who immigrated to America from Eastern Europe between the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, bringing her culinary traditions with her (Jewish Virtual Library). Gradually,
the culinary traditions of my family and other Jews who migrated developed and became more
prominent in America as the Jewish population grew. Food and traditions surrounding food are
the epicenter of the Jewish home and this epicenter is upheld and perpetuated by female Jewish
homemakers. These homemaker mothers passed on these traditions orally and demonstratively,
rarely writing down concrete recipes until various synagogues and Jewish women’s
organizations decided to publish cookbooks to help young Jewish women cook like their
maternal ancestors. As time progressed, food became the way that many Jews decided to exhibit
their Jewish identity, especially through the celebration of holidays. Matzo balls, traditionally
served at Passover, exemplify the ways that Jewish cuisine and culinary culture are closely
linked to the history of Jewish food in America.
Jewish cooking in the United States “has developed gradually as a result of the
combination of dietary laws, festival customs, and historical and socio-economic influences,”
mainly as a consequence of the large wave of migration of Jews from Eastern Europe to the
United States in the late 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century (Hadassah
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Introduction). These Ashkenazi Jews, or Jewish people with descent from Eastern Europe,
possess different traditions, culinary and otherwise, from Sephardic Jews from the Middle East
and the Mediterranean. “For centuries most [Ashkenazi] Jews lived in stony ghettos where no
green thing ever showed its natural face,” greatly restricting the types of ingredients they used in
their cooking (Hadassah 10). When these Jews migrated to the United States, many of them
settled in the Midwest because it had a similar climate to what they were used to and there were
similar food ingredients available (Robins). “Since they were very poor, the principal articles of
their diet consisted of herring – the poor Jew’s meat –of cheese, potatoes, onions, garlic, dried
beans, and bread” which remained in their recipes upon emigration and remained to be eaten by
their families for generations afterward (Hadassah 10).
Jewish women have been closely associated with food and culinary tradition for a long
time, maybe even dating back to biblical times from “the days of [their] mother, Sarah…[and]
Jewesses have not disdained attending to culinary matters” ever since then (Levy 3). Middleclass Jewish women rarely possessed careers outside the home and the “lives of Jewish
homemakers were filled with child rearing, local female mutual-aid societies, and involvement in
religious life” (Jewish Virtual Library). According to The Jewish Cookery by Mrs. Esther Levy
“Nee Jacobs” published in 1871, “one of the qualities attributed to the model woman of the book
of Proverbs is, that she ‘…giveth provision to her household’…doing that which contributes to
the comfort of [her] famil[y] ” (Levy 3-4). This primary source suggests that the ideal Jewish
woman should reside in the home, which was common of most women in the United States at the
time. However, fulfilling the role of a homemaker is also tied strongly to Jewish culture and
spirituality because the practices, such as keeping a kosher home and going through the correct
method of eliminating leaven before Passover begins, “will redound to the spiritual welfare of
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[the family’s] co-relgionists, and secure…their kind approbation” (Levy 4). Basically, Jewish
practices in the home were believed to contribute to the family’s spiritual wellbeing and,
assuming they upheld these practices well, other Jews would grant their approval of how well the
wife ran the household. Thus, the wife felt the need of approval by her peers, affirming the
importance and influence of community in Jewish life. Furthermore, the idea that women are
predisposed to “family management” is apparent in that Mrs. Levy, the author of this cookbook,
appears to accept the idea that “[women] should try to be equal to the task that nature seems to
have imposed on [them]” (Levy 6).
Many cookbooks also reference the idea and importance of “Jewish daughters
follow[ing] in the footsteps of their mothers and…perpetuat[ing] the traditions…[of] the Jewish
home” (Rokeach 3). Evidence suggests that traditional Jewish recipes had not been recorded and
were rather passed down from mother to daughter orally and through cooking together (Robins;
Heidelberg; Hadassah). Jewish women in their culinary tradition perpetuate the idea of “l’dor
vador,” from generation to generation, which asserts the importance of transmitting Jewish
traditions, culinary and otherwise, within families (Robins). The teaching of “l’dor vador” is
integral in Jewish culture and has allowed for the Jewish population to retain their traditions and
pass them on to future generations so that they will remain as elements of Jewish life for years to
follow.
The function of many of these cookbooks was “not to replace Mama…but to aid and
assist her daughter in the preparation of Jewish dishes, and to help her make her little bit of home
away from home” (Heidelberg 1). Also, many of these recipes did not appear in conventional
American cookbooks, which necessitated the formation of cookbooks by “synagogue auxiliaries
and national Jewish women’s groups such as Hadassah, a Zionist organization” (Jewish Virtual
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Library). Many of these “domestic circles” of Jewish women asserted that “[their] main going in
compiling [cookbooks] [was] to present material, which could not be obtained from the ordinary
run of cookbooks” (Levy 5; Hadassah Introduction). The “young modern homemaker[s] who
ha[ve] always wanted to know how to duplicate the secret charms of what ‘mother used to
make’” were then given instructions and recipes on how to do so in order to keep these Jewish
culinary traditions alive (Hadassah Introduction).
By the 1950s, Jewish food and cooking had become emblematic of Judaism, especially in
America. “[M]any American Jews, who had…given up attending synagogue and…other ties to
the Jewish people…had the conviction that by being passionate eaters of Jewish cooking they
were thereby proving their loyalty to their Jewish identity” due to the rich culinary traditions
associated with Judaism (Hadassah 8). These cookbooks “[pay] tribute to the young Jewish
housewives whose tables reflect the unusual recipe-consciousness of the entire Jewish people,”
further asserting the want of approval from others in the Jewish community (The Rumford
Company 2).
One of the ways that Jewish culinary tradition is perpetuated is through the celebration
of holidays and “Passover is one of the holidays most closely associated with food” (Hadassah
34). One of the most emblematic foods of Jewish culinary tradition and of Passover, which
celebrates the Jews being freed from Egyptian slavery, is the matzo ball. A matzo ball is a
dumpling served in soup, usually composed of some element of animal fat, eggs, and matzo
meal. Investigating various matzo ball recipes in Jewish cookbooks starting in the mid-1800s
reveals that matzo balls (or matza kloesse or matzoh knadlach) demonstrate a food whose recipes
are passed down from generation to generation, from Jewish mothers to their Jewish daughters.
This food is relatively bland, but like most other Jewish foods, there is room for variation as
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many of the cookbooks suggest. Jewish cookbooks also reveal how Jewish women in America
were brought together through food due to the fact that synagogues and women’s groups such as
Hadassah often put cookbooks together. Food also served as the main mechanism through which
women brought their families together by cooking meals every day and varying the menu on
holidays (Heidelberg). Food is of the utmost importance for the young Jewish wife and she is
supposed to strive to make traditional foods in the ways her mother did, who made food the way
her mother did, and so on all the way back to the matriarch in the “old country” probably
somewhere in Eastern Europe, and maybe even all the way back to biblical times. Some of the
traditions in cooking involve using meat that is relatively inexpensive and slow to cook and that
none of it—no meat, marrow, bone, fat, or skin—is wasted (Liftman; Robins).
Food became a symbol of Jewish tradition that was continued upon the immigration of
Jews to the United States. Culinary tradition became a way for the Jewish female to assert her
role in the home and bring her family together. It also embodies how many Jews retained their
Jewish identity throughout the 20th century. Food is the fuel of the Jewish household and many
holidays are demarcated by the foods associated with them. In more general terms, food is
necessary for “your body [to] do its work…[and] rebuild body tissue” (Liftman 2). For Jews in
America, food represents more than a physical necessity; food demonstrates a rich culinary and
cultural history dating back hundreds and maybe even thousands of years.
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Works Cited
The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. “American Jewish Women.” Jewish Virtual
Library. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2013. Web. 28 March 2013.
< http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/ajwomen.html >.
Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America. Ann Arbor Chapter. Like Mama Used
to Make: A Collection of Favorite and Traditional Jewish Dishes. Ann Arbor: The
Chapter, 1952. Print.
Heidelberg Jewish Women's Club. Wir Gehen Essen : A Guide to Help American Jewish
Families Overseas to Set a Jewish Table with All the Old Time Delicacies. Heidelberg,
Germany: The Club, 1900. Print.
Levy, Esther. The Jewish Cookery Book, on Principles of Economy, Adapted for Jewish
Housekeepers, with the addition of many useful medicinal recipes, and other valuable
information relative to housekeeping and domestic management. Philadelphia: W.S.
Turner, 1871. Print.
Liftman, Matilda Schroeder. How to Feed the Family. New York: United Hebrew Charities,
1915, Print.
Robins, Judith. Personal phone interview. 23 March 2013.
Rokeach, Israel. Rokeach Cook Book. Brooklyn, N.Y.: I. Rokeach & Sons, Inc., 1933. Print.
The Rumford Company. What Shall I serve?: Famous Recipes for Jewish Housewives. Rumford,
R.I.: The Rumford Company, 1931. Print.