By Rachel Gordan, National Endowment for the Humanities Scholar in Residence 2025 A Major Breakthrough: When Passover Cakes Were Big News At the end of the summer of 1955, Jewish novelist Herman Wouk’s (1915-2019) fourth novel, Marjorie Morningstar was published. At this point in his career, Wouk was a celebrity-writer, having won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his war novel, The Caine Mutiny…
By Ella Jordan-Smith Reference Services Librarian, Center for Jewish History Kosher Food Production in the United States and the Manischewitz Empire The Jewish population in the U.S. currently makes up just under 2.5% of the total population, with an even lower percentage keeping kosher. Yet, over 40% of the packaged food produced in the U.S. is labeled as kosher, and American food production companies…
by Elli Smerling, Reference Services Research Intern, Center for Jewish History Official Jewish law requires 10 to be in attendance for communal prayer. Unofficial Jewish law requires that if 10 people are in a room, there must be food. Every Jewish gathering, celebration or holiday revolves around food. You may ask: What about fast days? Well, they’re about food as well. Fact: Not eating food…
American Food and Jewish Tasteby Rachel Rudman, M.A., Reference Services Research Intern, Center for Jewish History In my first weeks as a research intern, I’ve had the opportunity to begin exploring the various collections housed at the Center for Jewish History. Coming from a background in women’s studies and Jewish studies, I find myself drawn to themes of traditional women’s roles and gendered language. Material…
