Food is not just a physical necessity but also a composite commodity. It is part of a communication system, a nonverbal medium for expression, and a marker of special events. Bringing together contributions from fourteen historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and literary critics, Volume XXVIII of Studies in Contemporary Jewry presents various viewpoints on the subtle and intricate relations between Jews and their foodways. The ancient Jewish community ritualized and codified the sphere of food; by regulating specific and detailed culinary laws, Judaism extended and accentuated food's cultural meanings. Modern Jewry is no longer defined exclusively in religious terms, yet a decrease in the role of religion, including kashrut observance, does not necessarily entail any diminishment of the role of food. On the contrary, as shown by the essays in this volume, choices of food take on special importance when Jewish individuals and communities face the challenges of modernity. Following an introduction by Sidney Mintz and concluding with an overview by Richard Wilk, the symposium essays lead the reader from the 20th century to the 21st, across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North America. Through periods of war and peace, voluntary immigrations and forced deportations, want and abundance, contemporary Jews use food both for demarcating new borders in rapidly changing circumstances and for remembering a diverse heritage. Despite a tendency in traditional Jewish studies to focus on "high" culture and to marginalize "low" culture, Jews and Their Foodways demonstrates how an examination of people's eating habits helps to explain human life and its diversity through no less than the study of great events, the deeds of famous people, and the writings of distinguished rabbis.
Autorentext
Anat Helman is Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Inhalt
Symposium Jews and Their Foodways Sidney Mintz, Introduction Anna Shternshis, Salo on Challah: Soviet Jews' Experience of Food in the 1920s-1950s Hagit Lavsky, In the Wake of Starvation: Jewish Displaced Persons and Food in Post-Holocaust Germany Ofra Tene, "The New Immigrant Must Not Only Learn, He Must Also Forget": The Making of Eretz Israeli Ashkenazi Cuisine Orit Rozin, Craving Meat during Israel's Austerity Period, 1947-1953 Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, Longing for the Aromas of Baghdad: Food, Emigration, and Transformation in the Lives of Iraqi Jews in Israel in the 1950s Hagar Salamon, Cutting into the Flesh of the Community: Ritual Slaughter, Meat Consumption, and the Transition from Ethiopia to Israel Liora Gvion, Two Narratives of Israeli Food: "Jewish" versus "Ethnic" Nir Avieli, Size Matters: Israeli Chefs Cooking Up a Nation Paulette Kershenovich Schuster, A Tapestry of Tastes: Jewish Women of Syrian Descent and Their Cooking in Mexico and Israel Shaul Stampfer, Bagel and Falafel: Two Iconic Jewish Foods and One Modern Jewish Identity Andrea Most, The Contemporary Jewish Food Movement in North America: A Report from the Field(s) Sander L. Gilman, Jews and Fat: Thoughts toward a History of an Image in the Second Age of Biology Richard Wilk, Paradoxes of Jews and Their Foods Review Essays Kim Wünschmann, Exploring the Universe of Camps and Ghettos: Classifications and Interpretations of the Nazi Topography of Terror Amir Banbaji, The Literary Character of the Haskalah Book Reviews Antisemitism, Holocaust, and Genocide Evan Burr Bukey, Jews and Intermarriage in Nazi Austria, Barbara F. Okun Geoffrey P. Megargee (ed.), The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, vol. 1, Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business and Administration Main Office (WVHA), Kim Wünschmann Dan Michman, The Emergence of Jewish Ghettos during the Holocaust, trans. Lenn J. Schramm, Kim Wünschmann Guy Miron and Shlomit Shulhani (eds.), The Yad Vashem Encyclopedia of the Ghettos during the Holocaust, Kim Wünschmann Biography, History, and the Social Sciences Pierre Birnbaum, La République et le cochon, David Weinberg Yossi Goldstein, Golda: biografiyah, Matthew Silver Sebastian Hoepfner, Jewish Organizations in Transatlantic Perspective: Patterns of Contemporary Jewish Politics in Germany and the United States, Tobias Brinkmann Alice Kessler-Harris, A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman, Nancy Sinkoff Guy Miron, The Waning of Emancipation: Jewish History, Memory and the Rise of Fascism in Germany, France and Hungary, Pierre Birnbaum Stephen Sharot, Comparative Perspectives on Judaisms and Jewish Identities, Eliezer Ben-Rafael Azriel Shohet, The Jews of Pinsk, 1881 to 1941, ed. Mark Jay Mirsky and Moshe Rosman; trans. Faigie Tropper and Moshe Rosman, Antony Polonsky Gerald Sorin, Howard Fast: Life and Literature in the Left Lane, Stephen J. Whitfield Scott Ury, Barricades and Banners: The Revolution of 1905 and the Transformation of Warsaw Jewry, Brian Horowitz Kalman Weiser, Jewish People, Yiddish Nation: Noah Prylucki and the Folkists in Poland, Gali Drucker Bar-Am Religion, Thought, and Culture Nathan Abrams, The New Jew in Film: Exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema, Aharon Feuerstein Hamutal Bar-Yosef, Mysticism in Twentieth Century Hebrew Literature, Galili Shahar Aliza Cohen-Mushlin et al., Synagogues in Lithuania: A Catalogue, Sharman Kadish David Ellenson and Daniel Gordis, Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policymaking in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Orthodox Responsa, Shmuel Shilo Sharman Kadish, The Synagogues of Britain and Ireland: An Architectural and Social History, Vladimir Levin Olga Litvak, Haskalah: The Romantic Movement in Judaism, Amir Banbaji Zionism, Israel, and the Middle East Yoel Cohen, God, Jews and the Media: Religion and Israel's Media, Kimmy Caplan Beverly Mizrachi, Paths to Middle-Class Mobility among Second-Generation Moroccan Immigrant Women in Israel, Henriette Dahan Kalev Anita Shapira, Israel: A History, Gideon Shimoni Ari Shavit, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, Gideon Shimoni Contents for Volume XXIX Note on Editorial Policy