| Dr. Laurence Roth Office: Hassinger 4 Tel.: x4202 E-mail:roth@susqu.edu Office Hours: TTh 12:00-2:00 |
Dr. Shari Jacobson Office: Steele 206 Tel.: x4754 E-mail:jacobson@susqu.edu Office Hours: |
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The History and Culture of Jewish Cuisine
Required Texts:
Cooper, John Eat and Be Satisfied
Jacobson, Shari & L. Roth, eds. From the Bible to the Borscht Belt: A Jewish Cuisine Reader
Roden, Claudia The Book of Jewish Food
Roth, Laurence, ed. American-Jewish Cookbooks: A Case Study of
Prefaces,
Sheraton, Mimi The Bialy Eaters
Encyclopedia Judaica
On-Line:
Almost every topic discussed in this course is treated in the Encyclopedia Judaica, which is now available electronically in the Blough-Weis Library (the Encyclopedia is also available in a printed version in the reference section). Students are strongly encouraged to search for and read relevant entries in the Encyclopedia on each topic.
Objectives:
Forget bitter herbs and unleavened bread. The foods that symbolize and inspire contemporary American Jewish identity are to be found not on a seder table but in cookbooks like Jayne Cohen’s The Gefilte Variations and Gitlitz & Davidson’s A Drizzle of Honey: The Lives and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews. Jewish food, whether Ashkenazi, Sephardi, or Mizrachi, is a hot topic among American Jews—and nowhere more so than in the pages of New York magazine, the New Yorker and the Forward, where a war about which deli makes the best chopped liver raged a few years ago with an intensity once reserved for Talmudic arguments. Food is an obsession of national Jewish importance, and for good reason. Food has long been a barometer of fusion and change in Jewish social and cultural identities, and in contemporary America food also reflects an ongoing quest for Jewish self-definition. In order to understand the meanings and uses of Jewish cuisine, students in this course will study the laws of kashrut and their modern interpretations, the social history of traditional Jewish foods, the literary development of American Jewish cookbooks, and literary and cinematic representations of Jewish cuisine and dining. Each week’s topic will be introduced at the Tuesday lecture/cooking meeting through the in-class preparation of one dish that will help materialize the issue under discussion. On Thursdays the class will then review Tuesday’s “recipe” and analyze the texts assigned for that week.
Course Requirements:
—A midterm and
a final; an ethnic cookbook/final paper; participating in a student panel; and
actively participating in class discussion. There will be no incompletes given for this course.
—Students are required to attend all field trips.
These field trips are integral components of the course. If you have a
scheduling conflict, please inform us as soon as possible.
—Attending campus cultural events relevant to the
course. These will be announced in advance of the event, and attendance counts
toward your overall participation grade.
Academic
Culture/Personal Responsibilities:
—All texts
must be read by the scheduled deadlines, and you must be prepared to
discuss the texts or materials assigned for class. If you have not read the texts and cannot contribute
to class discussion there is no need to explain or provide an excuse; it’s up
to you to monitor your class
participation.
—Three to five absences will lower your course grade
significantly. You cannot pass this course with five or more
absences. If you must miss class for any reason do not explain or provide
an excuse for your absence; it’s up to you to
monitor your class attendance.
—You cannot
pass this course if you miss an exam or the paper. Papers must be typed and must follow the MLA
documentation style. If you are using a computer or a word processor do not use
any font larger than 12 point and leave 1 inch margins all around (header and
footer as well).
Plagiarism:
Please refer to the Student
Handbook for the University’s policy on academic honesty. Plagiarism,
whether intentional or not, is a serious academic crime, and will be referred
to the Academic Honesty Committee. If you use someone else’s words or
ideas—whether from a speech, an article, a book or any site on the
Internet—either footnote it, if the language is yours, or enclose it in
quotation marks and acknowledge your source.
Grading:
Your grade in this class will be based on your midterm (25%), your final (25%), your ethnic cookbook/final paper (25%), and your student panel/class participation (25%). The student panels are peer graded.
Communications:
We will always be available
during office hours in order to talk, answer questions, or address any
difficulties you may have with the course. You can leave messages for us via
e-mail, phone or by dropping a note in our mailboxes in Hassinger and Steele Halls.
Tues. 1/15: Appetizers/Introductions
Thurs. 1/17: Mintz, Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom (“Introduction”); Barthes, “Toward a
Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption;” Shapiro, “White
Chalah”
Tues. 1/22: Leviticus
11, 17, and Deuteronomy 14; Book of
Jewish Food (18-21); Eat and
Be Satisfied (17-36)
Thurs. 1/24: Douglas, “The Abominations of Leviticus;” Soler, “The Semiotics of Food in
the Bible;” Milgrom, “You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk”
Tues. 1/29: Book of Jewish Food (22-24); Eat and Be Satisfied (37-52)
Thurs. 1/31: “The Talmud on the Pig” (Book of Legends 171:50; 256-257:259; 286-287:447;
589:136; 605:353; 782:229-230); Harris, Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches
(“Pig Lovers and Pig Haters”)
Tues. 2/5: Trip to Empire Kosher
Thurs. 2/7: “The Talmud on Food, Hunger, Gluttony, and Fasting” (Book of Legends)
Food: 308-309:617; 585:95; 586:99-100 and 103; 587-592:114-71;596-
598:229-256; 600:280-282; 600-601:287-290
Hunger: 44:63; 317:688; 516:98; 598:246
Gluttony: 135-136:153; 222-223:94
Fasting: 585:97; 595:221; 749-754:266-286
Tues. 2/12: Book of Jewish Food (25-28, 96-98, 107), Eat and Be Satisfied (53-68, 97-112,
171-190)
Thurs. 2/14: Grade, “Women at the Cholent Oven;” Bahloul, The Architecture of Memory
(102-106); Englander, “The Gilgul of Park Avenue”
Tues.. 2/19: Student Panel: Book of Jewish Food (28-37), Eat and Be Satisfied (68-78, 112-
120, 190-196)
Thurs. 2/21: Aleichem, “A Yom Kippur Scandal;” Bahloul, The Architecture of Memory
(106-110); Ehrlich, “Passover”
Tues. 2/26: Films—TBA
Thurs. 2/28: Midterm
Tues. 3/5: Spring Break
Thurs. 3/7: Spring Break
Tues. 3/12: Student Panel: Book of Jewish Food “In Muslim Spain” through “The Ottoman
World”(216-231);
Eat and Be Satisfied (121-144);
Gitlitz & Davidson, A
Drizzle of Honey (“Preface” and “Introduction”)
Thurs. 3/14: Shmuel HaNagid, “How I Helped the Wise,” “Rouge in Appearance,” “The
Market;” Anon., “The Two Braided Sabbath Loaves;” Sciaky, “Our House
in Salonica”
Week 10
Tues. 3/19: Student Panel: Book of Jewish Food (41-57, 120-121), Eat and Be Satisfied
(79-89, 145-170)
Thurs. 3/21: Mocher Sforim, “The Calf;” Peretz, “Bontsha the Silent;” Spector, “A Meal for
the Poor”
Tues. 3/26: Student Panel: Book of Jewish Food (202-216), Eat and Be Satisfied (89-96);
Bahloul The Architecture of Memory (37-38, 43, 63, 93)
Thurs. 3/28: Anon., “The Champion of Hot Pepper;” Rejwan, Passage to Baghdad (excerpt);
Massad, “Zionism’s Internal Others”
Tues. 4/2: Student Panel: Book of Jewish Food (76-82); Joselit, “Kitchen Judaism”
Thurs. 4/4: “American-Jewish Cookbooks: A Case Study”
Tues. 4/9: Bialy Eaters
Thurs. 4/11: Trip to New York City; Bialy Eaters
Tues. 4/16: Gabaccia, We Are What We Eat (“Introduction” and “Nouvelle Creole”); Joselit,
“Kissing Business” (43-54)
Thurs. 4/18: Gabaccia,
We Are What We Eat (“Conclusion”);
Mintz, Tasting Food, Tasting
Freedom (“Preface” and Ch. 8)
Week 15
Tues. 4/23: TBA
Thurs. 4/25: TBA