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B'nai Emet -> Messages -> From the President -> 2001B'tei'avonFebruary, 2001I've heard it said that Jews are not only the People of the Book, but the People of the Knife and Fork. Most of our holidays and observances are associated in some way with food. Even on Yom Kippur when we don't eat, we plan how we will break the fast. Some time ago, my kids came home with a line that stuck in my mind: "All Jewish holidays have the same theme-They tried to destroy us. We prevailed. Let's eat." As I think back on holiday celebrations of my childhood and those of more recent years, whether or not I have been the host and chief cook, food memories are among my most vivid recollections of those special occasions. Thoughts of food can trigger other memories, too. One of my childhood food-related memories is of my father cooking mamaliga for me. Each time, he would remind me that when he was a boy, his Rumanian-born father often prepared that dish for him and cut it with a string. Somehow, my father was never satisfied with the authenticity of his mamaliga, no matter how he tinkered with his recipe. It just didn't taste quite the same as he remembered it. It took me many years to understand that he was doing more with his mamaliga than feeding me and educating me about ethnic food. I know now that he was trying to recapture feelings from his own childhood when his father cooked mamaliga for him. (Just for fun, I searched on the word "mamaliga" on the Internet and my favorite search engine produced 1850 articles! So, though my father never gave me his recipe, now I have no excuse for letting the tradition die.) The eating of particular foods is often integral to Jewish holiday observance. Specific foods play starring roles in the observance of three upcoming holidays-Tu Bishvat, Purim, and Pesach. The consumption of certain fruits is significant on Tu Bishvat. Please visit our website's Tu Bishvat page for information and recipe suggestions. During Pesach, foods are used to symbolize key aspects of the Passover story and ritual. And for many people, Purim means hamantaschen, first and foremost. I hear it from too many people to doubt the truth of the statement that B'nai Emet makes the best hamantaschen in town and sells them at the most reasonable price. I dropped by the B'nai Emet kitchen on a recent Sunday morning to observe hamantaschen-baking in progress. A group of hard-working B'nai Emet members spends ten consecutive Sunday mornings, and an occasional weekday, in the kitchen. At each baking session, they turn out 50 dozen hamantaschen, for a grand total of 6,000 hamantaschen each Purim. The three varieties-prune, apricot, and poppy seed-are equally popular, according to Fay Leader. Would she ever consider adding chocolate hamantaschen to the repertoire? Fay says, "Sure." So if our kids start lobbying, we may have a fourth variety to look forward to next year. Preparation of hamantaschen, like so many delicacies, is labor-intensive. More volunteers are needed for this project, including younger people who would like to carry on the tradition and learn cooking techniques from the masters. Oh, and if you'd like to bake B'nai Emet's justly-famous hamantaschen at home, Fay shared her recipe with me. Start with 600 pounds of flour, 100 pounds of sugar, 13 gallons of oil, and 30 dozen eggs. After you're done with that part, let me know and we'll get to work on the filling. Or you could do what I plan to do which is phone the office with my hamantaschen order in the very near future. B'tei'avon. Bonnie Berezovsky
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