Ten Facts about Jews and Chocolate
In response to a recent request:
(fuller information in my forthcoming book
Jews on the Chocolate Trail: Stories of Jews and Cacao)
1. Some people think that Jews brought chocolate to France.
2. In the eighteenth century, Jews were thought to be specialists in chocolate making.
3. Woody Guthrie wrote a song about Chanukah gelt.
4. North American Jewish Colonial traders were involved in the chocolate trade.
5. The popular Israeli chocolate company, Max Brenner, is owned by the Israeli food conglomerate Elite Strauss.
6. Jewish values such as oshek (honest and fair labor practices) and bal taschit (saving that which has potential for future use) should be considered when selecting chocolate.
7. We could add chocolate into more Jewish rituals and celebrations.
8. It is very difficult to buy an over the counter mold for Chanukah gelt.
9. Within the last twenty years, there were at least five Jews making artisanal chocolate in the San Francisco area.
10. Jews have been on the chocolate trail since it was discovered by Europeans.
Recent Posts
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On the Chocolate Trail in Bariloche, Argentina
In March, Mark and I finally extended our chocolate trail explorations in celebration of our special anniversary to Bariloche…via Miami, Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, Antarctica, and Buenos Aires again. There were international flights, a cruise, a couple of domestic flights to get there. All of the travel was amazing, but Bariloche, sometimes called the chocolate capital
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Sunday Yeast Polemics: On the Bread Trail
Leavened bread or not? While some of us may think of Passover, the question applied to Eucharistic bread and created significant division in the early Christian Church. The leavened bread for Sunday use was often baked at home by women. Over time, preferences shifted to clergy, church-produced, breads… and, the Eastern Orthodox Church preferred a
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Sweet Treat: Chocolate and the Making of American Jews
You may wonder: how did chocolate help define American Jews? Through chocolate, we see that Jews were part of America since its earliest days. Well, since 1701 at least, Jews in the Colonies made part of their living through chocolate. Several Sephardim, leaders of their New York and Newport Jewish and secular communities, participated in
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How About Some Uterus Challah?
When Logan Zinman Gerber felt enraged about the loss of reproductive rights in the U.S., she baked challah. Not any challah. She shaped it into a uterus. It wasn’t long after the birth of her daughter that Gerber, a longtime challah baker and staff member of the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, considered
Read more ›
Some Previous Posts
(in alphabetical order)
- "Boston Chocolate Party" Q&As with Deborah Kalb
- 2022 Media for The "Boston Chocolate Party"
- A Manhattan synagogue explores the rich, surprising history of Jews and chocolate
- About Rabbi Deborah Prinz
- Baking Prayers into High Holiday Breads
- Boston Chocolate Party
- Digging into Biblical Breads
- Exhibit Opens! Sweet Treat! Chocolate & the Making of American Jews
- For the Easiest Hanukah Doughnuts Ever
- Forthcoming! On the Bread Trail
- Funny Faced Purim Pastries
- Good Riddance Chameitz or, The Polemics of Passover's Leaven
- How About Some Uterus Challah?
- Injera*
- Jewish Heritage Month: Baseball & Chocolate!
- Matzah - But, the Dough Did Rise!
- Plan a Choco-Hanukkah Party: 250th Anniversary Tea Party
- Prayers Into Breads
- To Shape Dough: A Trio of Techniques