Food, Love, and Stories

I was asked to run a workshop for Jews of color focusing on food as a way of transmitting culture to our children. My focus was to be Passover. So I decided to make a Sephardic Soup that I serve at my seder. I do no plan to have a seder at my home this year, and the session ended up happening via Zoom. So I made soup for 12 and then invited a bunch of neighbors over to eat it. During the Zoom session we talked about what it means to be a non Ashkenazi Jew. Some are converts, some are White parents raising Black children, some had been Jewish for generations. I wanted all of us to realize that we are not guests in the Promised Land. That Jews of color have been here from the beginning. So we made Moroccan Pesach Soup to honor the Jews of North Africa, and Shakshuka with my house spice to honor African American Jews. We talked about the story of Exodus which sits at the center of the Passover story, and how so many people are still in that narrow place. And then my friends came and ate soup, and shakshuka. We laughed and talked and had dessert (buttermilk cake and chocolate dipped coconut macaroons). I looked around my table at all my friends — Black, White, Asian, Jewish, Gentile and realized that I have built a community for myself that transcends racial and ethnic barriers. I’m still proud to be Jewish, but it has always been such a small part of who I am. Like I used to tell folks who got all tangled up in race: we’re just people. The soup was delicious.