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Category: Holiday Food

Traditional Jewish Foods for Thanksgiving
November 20, 2022

Traditional Jewish Foods for Thanksgiving

Holiday Food by FunJoel0 comments

Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday for the Jews. Certainly we are quite familiar with the concept of a thanksgiving feast; in Hebrew it is called a seudat hoda’ah, and it is commonly done for personal reasons by Jews around the world. But since, in America, it is one of the most widely observed holidays, yet does not come with accompanying […]

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T’fina Pkaila: Something Old-New for the New Year
September 22, 2022

T’fina Pkaila: Something Old-New for the New Year

Classic Foods by FunJoel1 comment

When it comes to cooking for the Jewish holidays, people fall along a menu-selection spectrum that runs from fully traditionalist (“I make what my mother made, which is what her mother made”) to rather adventurous (“I want to serve something new for the new year”). I’ve typically leaned towards the latter end of the spectrum, though I still look for […]

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Shavuot Foods – Deeper Than Dairy
June 1, 2022

Shavuot Foods – Deeper Than Dairy

Holiday Food by FunJoel1 comment

When I first started this blog, over two years ago, one of the earlier posts I wrote was about the significance and meaning of eating dairy foods on Shavuot (the holiday that Jews will be celebrating this coming weekend). I reread that post last week in relation to a few interview requests I received, and since many of my current […]

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A Traditional Purim Food (That ISN’T Hamantaschen)
March 8, 2022

A Traditional Purim Food (That ISN’T Hamantaschen)

Classic Foods by FunJoel0 comments

The spirit of the Purim holiday (which is coming up next week), is one of near-reckless abandon, which shines through in the traditional Purim foods. This crazy-fun party holiday is one on which drinking is encouraged, even to excess (more on that in a future post), a festive meal is mandated, and gifts of food are traditionally exchanged between Jewish […]

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The Jewish Connection to a New Years Soul Food Classic
January 2, 2022

The Jewish Connection to a New Years Soul Food Classic

Holiday Food by FunJoel0 comments

One of the amazing things you uncover when you study food is the similarities between foods of different cultures. Flavors, cooking methods, symbolism and more — when similar things crop up in the cuisines of distinct cultures, they underscore how connected we all are, rather than the things that separate us. A symbolic New Years food from the American South […]

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Alternate Chanukkah Food Traditions and Their Surprising Sources
November 29, 2021

Alternate Chanukkah Food Traditions and Their Surprising Sources

Holiday Food by FunJoel0 comments

What are the Jewish Foods classically connected with Chanukkah (or Hanukkah, Chanuka, Hanuka, etc., choose your spelling…)? Most people would point to latkes or sufganiyot (potato pancakes or jelly doughnuts), or any of many other fried items from around the Jewish world, as the “traditional foods” for this holiday. And while I will not complain about fried yumminess (most things […]

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Yom Kippur Chulent (For Real)
September 15, 2021

Yom Kippur Chulent (For Real)

Holiday Food by FunJoel0 comments

One of the more intriguing things I’ve come across during my research on Jewish Food was a recipe for a Yom Kippur Chulent. (More accurately, it was a Yom Kippur Hamin, though I recognize that the term chulent is more recognizable for a number of my readers, so I grudgingly use it for ease of understanding!) I don’t mean a […]

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More on Rosh Hashana’s Symbolic Foods
September 3, 2021

More on Rosh Hashana’s Symbolic Foods

Holiday Food by FunJoel0 comments

Rosh Hashana is the start of the season in which we Jews ask for forgiveness — from those we may have harmed or offended, from God, and from ourselves. So in that spirit, I will first apologize for not posting in quite a while. I’ve been busy with moving apartments here in Jerusalem (an auspicious start for the new year […]

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Borscht’s Belt Wraps Ashkenazi Food and Broader Jewish Cuisine
March 23, 2021

Borscht’s Belt Wraps Ashkenazi Food and Broader Jewish Cuisine

Classic Foods by FunJoel1 comment

When it comes to holiday food, my mother is a real traditionalist. No need to ask what will be served at the Seder, for example, because it would be the same every year. Which was also the same as what her mother prepared. One of those standard Pesach/Passover dishes was always knobl borscht. I am much less of a traditionalist […]

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No, Virginia, Haman Did NOT Have Pointy Ears
February 24, 2021

No, Virginia, Haman Did NOT Have Pointy Ears

Classic Foods by FunJoel0 comments

Hamantaschen: those triangular stuffed cookies that so many of us eat on Purim. What do they actually have to do with this holiday? The answer is actually more complicated than you might think, but not as asinine as some might make it out to be (i.e. there actually is some mild significance). The most common explanations you will hear are […]

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I'm Joel Haber, and I love to talk about Jewish Food History. Learn more about me here. On this blog I explore Jewish Food and its links to Jewish Culture.

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Recent

  • Jan 30, 2023 Updates (about me and others)
  • Jan 20, 2023 Food Wins at the National Jewish Book Awards 2022
  • Jan 08, 2023 2022: The Year in Jewish Food
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