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Showing posts from November, 2011

What does gefilte fish have to do with Jewish values?

Last week, our children discussed the challenges and opportunities new Jewish immigrants faced when it came to their dietary habits. Would they maintain the traditional laws of kashrut? Would they maintain their mothers' time-honored recipes from the old country? Or would the powerful allure of "being American" trump tradition? The children learned how well-meaning Americans (including Jews who had immigrated a generation earlier) sought to influence immigrant eating habits through influencing the children in public school. Social welfare, or coercion -- what do you think?  Oh, and about that gefilte fish... I want to recommend a touching story called The Carp in the Bathtub by Barbara Cohen.