Representation of Jewish Culture Through My Family Archive
ABSTRACT:
Our ancestors keep objects that say a lot about our family’s history regardless of their monetary value. These objects are known as family archives. In my family, we persevere a recipe that not only highlights my family’s traditions over Jewish holidays, but also serves as a memorial for Jewish culture. My families matzoh ball soup recipe holds specific memories for not just myself, but for my grandfather and great grandmother who created the recipe. The Jewish holidays commemorate moments in history by gathering friends and family to give thanks and to stay connected to the ancient traditions that shape Jewish life and identity. These holidays, like Passover, use foods to represent their strength and pride. This essay highlights the significance matzoh ball soup represents in relation Jewish history while also on educating others Jewish tradition.
INTRODUCTION:
Many families keep objects that might not seem important to them when they start to collect them, but as time passes, the item gains importance and represents a whole generation or historical event. Archives are representations of a tradition and culture whether that be held in photographs, historical objects, jewelry, books, letters and even sometimes recipes. (Woodham et al. 210). But why do families keep these objects? In many circumstances, the kept object tells a lot about a person’s individuality. It can identify one’s personality who originally had the object while also connecting a family to their past. (Woodham et al. 207). It’s hard to decide what is to be kept or what is to be passed down to future generations. Especially in the digital age, many things are lost or are inaccessible, but no matter where your archive may lay today it is always a representation of who you are and what values you and your family may hold. (Woodham et al. 214).
For generations, Jewish families have adapted their own recipes in their culture’s style of food depending on where they are from in the world. As recipes age, they become artifacts of a family’s history. Traditionally, my family has passed down important recipes from one generation to the next. The oldest recipe we hold is from my great grandmother, Margret Kolsky who created the matzoh ball soup recipe that we still eat today on Passover and Rosh Hashanah. Today, my grandfather, Neil Kolsky who’s 82 years old, has kept this recipe since 1993 after his mother passed away from cancer. My grandfather currently lives in Saranac Lake, Adirondacks, New York, where he keeps many archives from his past.
In Jewish culture it not only is tradition to pass down recipes, but it is tradition to keep Kosher, go to Temple and keep Shabbat. While I was growing up my parents never required my sister and I to keep these traditions. Instead, we created our own traditions for some of the important holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, and Chanukah. Many friends of mine kept these traditions, so when I would visit their homes, I was able to get the experience of a Kosher household or Shabbat dinners. When I chose to be Bat Mitzva like my older sister decided to do 3 years before me, my parents supported me and encouraged me to explore my own Jewish identity. Every year on Passover while I was growing up, I traveled to my grandfather’s home in Morristown, New Jersey for Passover seders. I would watch my grandfather cook his mother’s matzoh ball soup and wonder how it tasted so good. During dinner, my grandfather would share stories about my great grandmother that I never got to meet. He talked about the soup recipe that he learned how to make with his mother based off her recipe. After all these years of making the infamous soup, my grandfather has memorized the recipe. It wasn’t until Passover 2023 when I saw the physical recipe for the first time.
After all these years, my grandfather has never rewritten the recipe. He kept it in my great grandmother’s penmanship since she originally wrote it for her own use. She had a very distinct handwriting that made it hard for me to read today, so when I saw the recipe for the first time, I had to have my grandfather read it to me. From what my grandfather has told me, my great grandmother had a wonderful personality that made everyone love her and after hearing the comments she left on the recipe, I can hear her personality shine through. The recipe has aged overtime with the visible stains that have accumulated over the years. Learning about the history that this recipe holds has inspired me to research about my Jewish culture that I was minimally exposed to when I was younger. I am given the opportunity to learn about my ancestors and where my family came from and our Jewish past. When I wanted to research more about my family’s history and the infamous soup, I gave my grandfather a call.
MY FAMILY HISORY:
My great grandmother, Margret Kolsky, had her own unique family recipe for matzoh ball soup. Her recipe was different from most classic recipes. Margret was born in Romania on May 1st, 1913, and migrated into the United States when she was 9. During World War I, 1914, Jewish families in Romania and Moldova left because they were facing looting from the Romanian army. Jews were being harassed because of the antisemitism in their home countries. Kishinev, the capital of Moldova, was home of many of the Jewish families that came from Russia. In 1903, riots broke out on the last day of Passover because of a rumor that was spread about Jews killing a young Christian Boy. This rumor led to a large uprising of antisemitism which resulted in the Kishinev Pogrom. During this time, 49 Jewish people were murdered, 550 were injured, and 2,080 homes and businesses were looted and destroyed. (JewishGen). My great grandmother, Margret, fled to the United States to get away from the antisemitism that was occurring in Kishinev and Romania.
Growing up my great grandmother was used to eating Romanian and Hungarian style foods. Their food culture developed more towards a sweet and spicy taste while other cultures adapted a sweeter flavor. My great grandmother’s family soup recipe developed a unique taste because of the sweet and spicy taste that the Hungarian and Romanian culture developed. When my great grandmother married her husband, he did not like her type of matzoh ball soup because he was from Poland. The food culture in Poland was not like it was in Hungary. He was not accustomed to spicy foods at all, so when my great grandparents got married, my great grandmother had to adapt her recipe to a more classic Polish recipe. The Polish foods weren’t spicy, instead they had a sweeter taste.
While talking on the phone with my grandfather, he was able to share some of the memories he held from his childhood. His father would serve their adapted family recipe during Passover and Rosh Hashanah. These holidays were a time where all my grandfather’s uncles, aunts, and cousins got together and got along. It gave him an opportunity to see his family that he didn’t get to see often. The soup only brings him happy memories of being with his family together celebrating Jewish culture. After talking to my grandfather for a while about my family that I never got to meet, he started to tear up. “My mother would never believe that her matzoh ball soup recipe would be in an academic paper written by her great granddaughter” (Kolsky, Neil, personal communication 2023).
HISORY OF MATZOH BALL SOUP:
Each year Passover is celebrated in Jewish culture during the month of April. It lasts for 8 straight days in celebration of the liberation of Israelites from slavery in Egypt. On the first two nights of Passover, family and friends come together for a large feast also known as seders. During seders, the story of the escape from Egypt is read to the table from a special text called the Haggadah which is Hebrew for “telling.” (History). Certain dishes are served throughout the meal to represent different points in Jewish history. For example, vegetables are dipped into salted water to represent the tears Jews cried during their slavery in Egypt. In the center of the seder table, there is a plate that contains traditional Passover foods that hold certain significance to the story. Foods like matzoh, bitter herbs, charoset (fruit, wine, and nut mixture), are spread throughout the table. Matzoh specifically, holds a large significance in Jewish history. Instead of bread, Jews eat a flatbread called matzoh. According to the tradition of Passover, when the Israelites were fleeing Egypt, they were in a rush, so they had no time to wait for their bread to rise. The bread became matzoh which made it easier to carry through the desert. (History). In present day, Jews usually stay away from foods that are “chametz.” These foods contain, wheat, oats, barley, and rye. This is to hold the tradition of matzoh. Today matzoh is made in many ways. It can be eaten as the cracker or flatbread itself, or it can be eaten in other foods like kugel and matzoh ball soup.
Matzoh ball soup has been a tradition on Passover since 1846. Traditionally, the soup is made with chicken broth and dumplings, which is also known as the matzoh balls. The matzoh balls are made from matzoh meal and eggs which is very popular in Ashkenazi homes during Passover and other special holidays. Many Jews today are Ashkenazi Jews. They originated from central and eastern Europe, and they now take up about half of the Jewish population (Jewish Virtual Library). During Passover seders, many Ashkenazim Jews make the soup and eat it throughout all 8 days of the holiday. Its recipe has adapted over time through middle eastern Jews who added variations to the recipe. The dumplings were not always called matzoh balls. They were referred to as “knoedel” in German, Austrian, and Alsatian homes, but once it hit the United States, the name started adapting to matzoh balls. (NPR). Matzoh ball soup like many other foods on Passover are a representation of the hardships the Jewish community faced during their escape from Egypt. The matzoh representing the unleavened bread is created into modern food that many families and friends enjoy today.
PRESERVATION OF THE ARCHIVE:
As time goes on, I hope to keep my families matzoh ball soup recipe just how it is today in my great grandmothers handwriting. It is important to my family, especially my grandfather, to continue the tradition of passing down family recipes that hold our family’s history. Food represents a lot in my Jewish culture, so with holding this recipe I can share stories about the significance it holds in my family and the significance matzoh holds in Jewish tradition. Not only does it share stories about the Israelites escape from Egypt, but it also is able to share stories about how Jews today are proud of their history and continue to share stories about their ancestors. In my family specifically, we have our own traditions which I plan on sharing to my future children and friends. Like the seders at my grandfather’s house, I will share the stories I’ve heard over the years with adding my own stories that represent my own involvement in my Jewish religion. Since completing this project, my grandfather has been aware of all the artifacts he currently holds in his home. He shared with me that he never thought of a recipe being able to hold so much memory, but after I had many discussions with him, he has become more conscious on the things he keeps. While on the phone with my grandfather, we decided to plan to make the matzoh balls and the soup together, so I can learn how to properly make it based on my great grandmother’s standards. After hanging up the phone with my grandfather he quickly called me back and said, “You know Olivia, one day I will pass this recipe down to your father and give him instructions to pass it down to you.” (Kolsky, Neil, personal communication 2023).
REFRENCES
How Traditional Are Matzo Balls? - Chabad.Org, www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/5068740/jewish/How-Traditional-Are-Matzo-Balls.htm. Accessed 20 May 2023.
Jewishfoods. “Matzo Balls.” Tablet Magazine’s 100 Most Jewish Foods List, 100jewishfoods.tabletmag.com/matzo-balls/#:~:text=Matzo%20balls%20began%20as%20the,onions%2C%20ginger%2C%20and%20nutmeg. Accessed 19 May 2023.
“Judaism.” Ashkenazim, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ashkenazim. Accessed 19 May 2023.
“Passover - Bible, Meaning & Traditions.” History.Com, www.history.com/topics/holidays/passover. Accessed 19 May 2023.
“The Pogrom of 1903.” Chişinău, Moldova (Pages 73-94), www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/kishinev/kis073.htm. Accessed 19 May 2023.
Staff, NPR. “Celebrating Passover: The History and Symbolism of Matzo Balls.” NPR, 3 Apr. 2015, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/04/03/397213116/ahead-of-passover-learning-how-to-make-matzo-balls.
Woodham, Anna, et al. “We Are What We Keep: The ‘Family Archive’, Identity and Public/Private Heritage.” Heritage & Society, vol. 10, no. 3, 2017, pp. 203–220, https://doi.org/10.1080/2159032x.2018.1554405.