I’ve never been one to cook on a daily basis (luckily I married someone who does!), but I always enjoy recreating the special recipes of our Jewish holidays, consecrated instructions passed down from generation to generation. In particular, I loved cooking Passover and Hanukkah meals with my Grandma Miriam, may her memory be for a blessing, whose Hadassah cookbook is still my handbook for all things holiday food related. This year, with Thanksgiving and Hanukkah only a few days apart, I am looking forward to meal planning for the American and Jewish holidays together, and thinking about how, now more than ever, we are blessed to be able to gather ever more safely with family and friends to share festive meals and create new memories.
Last night, Adam and I watched a fantastic episode of Padma Lakshmi’s program Taste the Nation. In this special installment, entitled Happy Challah Days, Padma explores the Hanukkah traditions of the Lower East Side, where hundreds of thousands of Jews lived after emigrating mostly from Eastern Europe. To this day, the flavors of the Lower East Side are quintessentially Jewish. From Russ and Daughters, to Katz’s, to the Pickle Guys, to a tiny kitchen at the Tenement Musuem, and finally to a particularly moving nosh and conversation with a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor, Padma—an immigrant herself—poignantly demonstrates that food is at the core of the Jewish-American story, and particularly our Hanukkah ritual.
This year, as I plan our Thanksgiving and Hanukkah meals, I’m thinking about my grandmother, how the meals she created for us represented her resilience, her love, and her commitment to the family traditions that her mother brought with her from Lithuania. As we enjoy our festive foods, our fat turkeys and our oil-drenched latkes, may we enjoy each bite with a deeper level of gratitude for the symbolic role that each dish plays in our family and communal history. בתיאבון — enjoy!
— Cantor Emma Lutz