On the Chocolate Trail

Recent media featured projects on the chocolate trail in celebration of Valentine’s Day and “Semi[te] Sweet: On Jews and Chocolate” at the Bernard Museum, NYC. Of course, Florence Fabricant’s mention of the exhibit in the New York Times was a highlight. Now, these stories just within the last two weeks:

• In The Jewish Love Affair with Chocolate, Wendy Paris shares her take on Valentine’s Day as a single mother. She then connects the chocolate for Valentine’s Day with its Jewish connections in her piece that was published in the Jewish Journal.
• Liza Schoenfein, food editor for the Forward, visited “Semi[te] Sweet” and wrote about it recently in her post titled ‘[Semite] Sweet’ Chocolate Exhibit Is Perfect Valentine’s Day Excursion. If you can’t get there today, there are still eleven more days until the show closes.
• The Forward also ran my piece about Jews and Chocolate: From Generation To Generation. It highlights the refugee aspects of the chocolate stories in the Bernard Museum. These are initially Sephardi stories and later Ashkenazi stories.
• Reform Judaism wanted a different viewpoint, so I wrote Behind the Scenes at “Semi[te] Sweet: On Jews and Chocolate – The Exhibition”. I loved the opportunity to reflect on the serendipity that led to the show, my learnings from co-curating, the visitor feedback, and our plans to travel the photos, facsimiles and labels around the country.
• A radio interview with Sari Kamin’s “Food Without Borders” program on Heritage Radio Network, took Curator Warren Klein and me out to Bushwick for the podcast at the back of a pizza restaurant. Sari’s great questions encouraged us to share our excitement about “Semi[te] Sweet” and its themes of chocolate as an immigrant and migrant food.

Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate.