Recently in school, Nathan had to write the story of his ancestry. It was part of what his class was learning about the United States as a nation of immigrants. Since Paul and my families’ backgrounds are complex – we have ancestors from England, Wales, Scotland, France, Denmark, Germany and Greece who immigrated as long ago as the 1600s and as recently as 1960 – the paper ended up being two pages. Needless to say this was a fairly intense assignment for a second grader. (It’s part of the Core Knowledge curriculum – see What Your Second Grader Needs to Know.)

Nathan had a hard time understanding that my father, who was born in England, was both English and Jewish. It was even more confusing that my dad became a citizen when he was a kid and was more American than English having grown up in Brooklyn in the ’20s and ’30s and serving as an American soldier in World War II.

Exploring through TV and video

Just around this time, PBS was showing their wonderful documentary, The Jewish Americans. If Nathan was older, I would have had him watch watch it with me to understand more about Jewish immigrants and how they contributed to American society. I only caught the first marvelous episode, so I was happy to receive a review copy from Click-Comm.com of the newly released DVD so I could watch the episodes I missed. The description:

The Jewish Americans is a three-night (6 hour) documentary that explores 350 years of Jewish American history. Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin, The Jewish Americans is a journey through time, from the first settlement in 1654 to the present. It is about the struggle of a tiny minority who make their way into the American mainstream while, at the same time, maintaining a sense of their own identity as Jews. Focusing on the tension between identity and assimilation, The Jewish Americans is quintessentially an American story, which other minority groups will find surprisingly familiar. Louis D. Brandeis, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Henry Morgenthau, Hank Greenberg, Betty Friedan, Molly Goldberg, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, and Tony Kushner are all interviewed for the documentary.

PBS’s The Jewish Americans website also has video outtakes, links to the history of being Jewish in America, and a place to share your own story.

Exploring through food

No matter what your family’s background, you probably have a traditional dish from the “old country” that you serve during holidays. Growing up I had a French mother and a Jewish father. Luckily, my mom took up the challenge and her chicken soup and chopped liver were as divine as her French cooking.

I still love Jewish food – give me lox, pickled herring and gefilte fish any day! I’d love to share it with my family, but since my daughter Lucie is allergic to eggs and so many traditional dishes (like latkes – my favorite) use them, it’s a challenge. Thanks to FabulousFoods.com, I found a recipe for eggless kugel!

Eggless Sweet Potato Kugel
This recipe originally comes from A Taste of Nostalgia: Tales And Recipes to Nourish Body And Soul that contains more than 150 distinctive recipes that bring back the aromatic tastes of the Old Country.

Makes two 9” round pans

Ingredients:

1. 10 sweet potatoes
2. 4 tablespoons margarine (or 4 tablespoons cottonseed oil, frozen)
3. 1/4 cup wine
4. 1/2 cup orange juice
5. 3/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:

1. 1-2 apples
2. lemon juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Place unpeeled sweet potatoes in a pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until soft. Remove the potato peels and place potatoes in a bowl. Add the rest of the kugel ingredients to the warm potatoes. Mash ingredients together and spoon into a pan (loaf, square, round, whichever you prefer).
3. Peel the apples and cut into eighths. Slice thinly (dip slices in lemon juice so that they will not oxidize), and arrange in an attractive pattern on top of kugel. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Variation:
For a sweeter kugel, in step 2 add 1/2 cup sugar and 3-4 tablespoons potato starch to the mixture. (The sugar will loosen the mixture and the starch will thicken it again.) In step 3, after you slice the apples do not dip them in lemon juice. Layer them attractively on top of the sweet potatoes and sprinkle top with sugar or sugar/cinnamon mixture.

More History

If you liked  The Jewish Americans, you may enjoy Golden Door, which is about Italians emmigrating to the United States.

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