On the Chocolate Trail

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Rabbi Deborah Prinz authored the trail blazing book On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao, now in its 2nd Edition. She was awarded a Starkoff Fellowship and a Director’s Fellowship from the American Jewish Archives as well as a Gilder Lehrman Fellowship from the Rockefeller Library to pursue the research for the chocolate book. It stirs age-old passions for chocolate and religion using information gathered from travel to Belgium, Canada, England, France, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, and throughout the United States. The book spans several cultures, countries, centuries, and convictions. On the Chocolate Trail also explores how faith traditions share consumption, ritual, and business interests in chocolate.

Her newest book:

The Boston Chocolate Party melds themes of Jews in the chocolate trade, the American fight for independence, and Hanukkah’s messages of freedom. This picture book, written with award winning co-author Tami Lehman-Wilzig, is now available (Apples & Honey Press). Order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target.

Her forthcoming book:

On the Bread Trail: A Delicious Adventure of Celebration, Religions, History, and Recipes serves up explorations of heritage Jewish breads. Puffy yeast doughs, as expansive and mysterious as the survival of the Jewish people, mix with Jewish celebrations to yield surprising and diverse stories for all seasons. Feed your family and friends from the spirit and creativity of our ancestors through their migrations and adaptations when you dig into the background of these diverse doughs. It includes approximately 25 historical and contemporary recipes.

On the Chocolate Trail forms the basis for “A Sweet Treat! Chocolate and the Making of American Jews,” an exhibit at Central Synagogue (NYC) from November 10, 2023-February 16, 2024. Prinz also co-curated “Semi[te] Sweet: On Jews and Chocolate” which was exhibited at the Bernard Museum of Temple Emanu-El, New York City and now travels around the world. Both shows feature art, artifacts, and memorabilia portraying narratives of Jews and chocolate.

Rabbi Prinz lectures in-person and virtually about chocolate and Jewish celebratory breads nationally and internationally. Prinz has blogged at HuffPost, The Forward, The Jewish Week, ReformJudaism.org, and onthechocolatetrail.org and has published in scholarly, professional, and popular journals such as The CCAR Journal, The Hebrew Union College Annual, Reform Judaism Magazine, and The CCAR Yearbook. Articles about and interviews of Rabbi Prinz have appeared in the national and local media. She has delivered many talks to community organizations.

Rabbi Prinz has held a number of leadership positions in the national and regional Reform movement, having served the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) as Director of Program and Member Services and the Director of the Joint Commission on Rabbinic Mentoring. In addition she has also mentored rabbinical students through the Mayerson program at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) and was a Senior Fellow at HUC-JIR’s Center for the Study of Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems (2015-2016). She has consulted for HUC-JIR, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), and other organizations. Prinz was honored to conduct the worship services at regional and national biennials of the URJ. Elected by her colleagues, Rabbi Prinz held each office of the Board of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis including President.

The Rabbi Emerita of Temple Adat Shalom, San Diego County, California, she was its Senior Rabbi for almost twenty years. Prior to that she was the Rabbi of a synagogue in Bergen County, New Jersey, and also the Assistant Rabbi of Central Synagogue in Manhattan.

During her almost thirty years in congregational work, Rabbi Prinz contributed to the local Jewish community as well. She served on the Executive Committee, including as President, of the San Diego Rabbinical Association. In her position as a member of the Steering Committee of the United Jewish Federation’s Task Force on Jewish Continuity and Co-Chair of the Interfaith Committee, she was instrumental in bringing the Pathways program (outreach to interfaith children and families) to San Diego. In 1991, she was named “Woman of the Year” by Brandeis University National Women’s Committee. Together with other community leaders, she successfully worked to change the calendar of the Poway Unified School District to avoid the conflict of the first day of school falling on Rosh Hashanah. Temple Adat Shalom, under her leadership, participated in a local dialogue with the Lutheran Church of the Incarnation of Poway and with Chabad of Rancho Bernardo. Along with an Episcopal colleague in Teaneck, she developed an interfaith dialogue program which included an interfaith tour to Israel. She has led many trips to Israel.

Rabbi Prinz is married to Rabbi Mark Hurvitz. She is the delighted grandmother of Amiel, Pele, Ziv, Lior, and Yonah.