Book Review | Secrets of a Musical Family
Mary Rodgers’s posthumous autobiography is a brash, outrageous and entertaining excursion into the life of its author.
28
Sep
06
Jul
Book Review | The Temple of Whitefish and Lox
Lori Zabar’s new book reveals the family history behind the iconic grocery store.
01
Jun
Book Review // Rhapsody in Schmaltz
Rhapsody in Schmaltz is not a book to devour in one sitting, nor should it be casually nibbled. Something of an oxymoron, this witty, entertaining volume overflows with food for thought and thoughts about food. It is stuffed with Talmudic arguments, biblical injunctions, slyly sexual linguistic tropes, and
01
Dec
Book Review // Knish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food
Knish:
In Search of the Jewish Soul Food
Laura Silver
Brandeis University Press
2014, pp. 275, $24.95
by Gloria Levitas
Reader alert: I am not now nor have I ever been a knish enthusiast. I find most knishes too doughy, too heavy and much too filling. So I approached this attractive volume warily. Why eat knishes when you can feast on similar delights like bourekas or blintzes or samosas? But like them or not, I was curious about knishes, remembering a long-ago encounter while driving through the English countryside. My husband and I stopped for a snack at a small roadside shop in Cornwall that offered a variety of local pastries neatly displayed in a glass case. I pointed to a dough-covered item. “You want a Cornish, Miss?” asked the clerk, pronouncing “Cornish” as “k’nish.” I glanced around in amazement: Was this a...
02
Dec
Book Review: The Book of Schmaltz by Michael Ruhlman
Think you know what to eat to stay healthy? That fats are bad for you? That you will never again be able to enjoy the umami taste of schmaltz on a piece of matzoh? Or the crunch of gribenes (chicken-skin cracklings) that brings back the joys of your grandmother’s kitchen?
28
Dec
Book Review | Black Jews in Africa and the Americas
How to Be Black and Jewish
Tudor Parfitt
Harvard University Press
2013, $29.95, pp. 232
Tudor Parfitt’s last book, Search for the Lost Ark, was a scholarly romp through history and linguistics—an adventure story that ended where his latest book begins: the remarkable discovery that male members of a black African tribe, the Lemba, carried the genes of the priestly caste of ancient Jews, the Cohanim. Currently living in Zimbabwe, far from their Middle Eastern origin, the Lemba practice a number of customs that resemble those of ancient Hebrews. But it was their claim to have an “ark” that caught Parfitt’s attention and led him to wonder if they might actually be descendants of an early Jewish community—a belief later confirmed by DNA studies.
Whether Lemba customs (including wearing yarmulkes) were simply local developments—what anthropologists call “independent...