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…
Historic Recipes from the Jews of Alsace-Lorraineby David P. Rosenberg, M.P.A., Reference Services Research Coordinator, Center for Jewish History In my last blog post, I touched upon three upcoming events here at the Center for Jewish History: “Sex, Yiddish and the Law: Jewish Life in Metz in the 18th Century” (which concerns the “cultural, legal and sexual lives of members of the Metz Jewish community”) on…
Food and the Jews of Alsace-Loraineby David P. Rosenberg, M.P.A., Reference Services Research Coordinator, Center for Jewish History “Circles of Justice: Law, Culture and the Jews of Metz in 18th Century France” is now on view in The David Berg Rare Book Room here at the Center. Related programming includes “Sex, Yiddish and the Law: Jewish Life in Metz in the 18th Century” this Monday,…
“Yo Quiero” Sephardic Matzah Cookies!by J.D. Arden, M.L.I.S. candidate, Reference Services Research Intern, Center for Jewish History This Passover season, I invite you to try your hand at some sweet recipes from the Sephardic community of Turkey. For over 500 years since the expulsion from Spain, the Sephardic Jewish community in Turkey has maintained a cultural heritage of Ladino language, music—and tasty cookies and…
by David P. Rosenberg, Senior Reference Librarian – Collections, Center for Jewish History Above image: Hanukkah services for soldiers, circa 1917. National Jewish Welfare Board Records. c/o American Jewish Historical Society. Quizzes Prakim, a 1953 monthly program manual for synagogue activity, was published by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Before Hanukkah questions, it has a passage on “The observance and Meaning…