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Neither Here Nor There: How Kashrut and Ritual Create Liminal Spaces in Southern Judaism

Ava Pomerantz REL401

December 1, 2017

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the many people who recommended books, edited my drafts,

and advised me. Thank you to my faculty readers and advisors, Dr. Anne Blue Wills and Dr.

Karl Plank for their time reading, commenting, and advising me throughout the process.

Thanks to Ava Todd for being my reading and writing partner, and to Austin Kistner for his

helpful comments.

I would also like to thank Marcie Ferris, for speaking with me about Southern Jewish

food culture as well as directing me to speak with others who share the same interest, like

Margaret Feinberg. Thank you Margaret for leading me to helpful articles and resources.

Thank you to Rabbi Micah Streiffer and the Kol Ami community, where I worked this

summer, and where my interest in kashrut originated.

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Preface

This topic has a personal connection in my life. This past summer I worked at a

synagogue in Toronto and was struggling with some digestion issues. I always thought that the

only way to connect with people was through food. However, my opinion changed after a home

visit I made with the rabbi. Right after sitting down, our host offered us some homemade

sandwiches and I politely declined explaining my digestion issues; I felt like I had severed a new

relationship. As I was leaving, however, the lady told me that I should be a rabbi because I have

such a great spirit. I realized that the food did not even matter, which was the opposite of my

previous expectation. It is not the food, but the conversation and stories behind the food, that

defines identity.

I also draw a strong connection to the topic within my own family history. My

grandmother was born and raised in Piedmont, Alabama, being the only Jewish family in the

town. Her father, like other Jewish storeowners who chose to immigrant down South, wanted to

escape the competitive market in the North.

I also want to note that there is no conversation of the Holocaust in this paper. For future

studies I would like to look at the role of the Holocaust in Southern Judaism.

I would also like to acknowledge that I aim to be empathetic in my analysis. The women

I will be discussing below endured difficult changes and therefore it is not my place or the

reader’s place to judge them. I can relate in my move from Los Angeles to Davidson, North

Carolina, where each year I struggle during major holidays feeling alone and out of place…

living in my own liminality.

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Setting the Table1

On a beautiful day in Concordia, Tennessee, a Jewish family sets out for a picnic. On the

buggy ride there, their goy2 host Miss Brookie, pokes fun at the strictly kosher mother, Reba

Bronson. Miss Brookie tells them to “save the oxygen” for Reba. “Since it’s all kosher, she can

partake of it without guilt.” They all laugh over the “kosher oxygen,” even Reba. The author,

Reba’s daughter Stella, writes that her mother “discovered that a laugh wasn’t always for

somebody else.”3 Left to wonder who is the “somebody,” the reader assumes that Reba laughs at

herself. This interaction sheds light on life as a Jew in the North American South.4 The transition

from majority to minority Judaism pushes one to cling to kashrut like oxygen, drop it, or adapt

“the fit” to somewhere in between––eased through laughter. I will study how this “fit” develops

from constant boundary negotiations of identity, community, and race. This paper will seek to

answer how Jewish kashrut rituals contribute to identity formation in Southern Jewish texts

through a liminal lens.

Kashrut is Jewish law that determines what an individual can and cannot eat. It comes

from the Hebrew word ר ש6 which means to be correct or fit.5 Different rules regulate how to ,כ8

cook foods, what dishes to use and when to use them, when to eat certain foods, and different

ways to kill animals. As with many Jewish laws, Jews hold varying beliefs as to why Kashrut

developed and how one should properly keep kosher. Some believe it is for health reasons, some

for ethical, and some because the Torah instructs one to do so. I believe that kashrut divides not

1 Each section heading plays on ritual and food. 2 A non-Jew.3 Stella Suberman, The Jew Store, (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2001), 103. 4 I will refer to the population as Southern Jewish people for the remainder of the study.5 “Judaism 101: Kashrut: Jewish Dietary Laws,” Accessed October 6, 2017, http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm.

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only Jews from outsiders but also from each other. For example, one keeping kosher cannot eat

at certain restaurants or other people’s houses if the kitchen is not blessed and observed to the

highest laws of kashrut. Kashrut becomes an important factor in Southern Jewish narratives

because many places in the South do not have kosher butcher shops or restaurants. Therefore

those who decide to keep kosher have difficulty adapting to new environments. According to the

laws, they cannot eat in others’ houses that do not observe kashrut––meaning they cannot share

meals and form relationships with neighbors. These families must choose whether to withstand

the difficult transition, or abandon years of ritualized eating and lose a part of their identity. Karl

Plank sums it up well in that “rejection of food becomes rejection of the people associated with

that food.”6 Plank means that what one eats represents one’s beliefs.

Kashrut, to many, is a strict set of rules, but as I defined above, it also means: “what is

fit.”7 In different spaces, when availability fluctuates, fitness changes. Although kosher meat is

readily available and many mashgichim8 live in New York, in the South, both are scarce.

Characters in the memoirs I will discuss below enjoy oysters on Shabbat or Maztoh Ball gumbo

during Pesach.

Mary Douglas elaborates on ritualized eating in her work, Purity and Danger.9 She states

that we create rituals to make order out of disorder, and that disorder equals dirt. Religion

cleanses us from life’s dirtiness and impurity. In Judaism, Kaddish, meaning separation, helps to

cleanse. One recites the Kaddish at many times in life, whether to separate one part of a Shabbat

service from the other, or to bless the wine on Shabbat. Historically, the Jews needed to separate

6 Karl Plank (Davidson College professor of religious studies) in discussion with the author, September 2017.7Avi Y Decter, et al. Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identity (Baltimore, MD: Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2011), 84.8 A Jew who decides what is kosher.9 Mary Douglas, Collected Works (London: Routledge, 2003).

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themselves from the hatred they endured from groups around them. Due to the social tension

erupting from the Jewish-directed hatred, kashrut formed. Kashrut separates the pure from the

impure, while reciting the Kaddish sacralizes the offering, deeming what was once unholy, now

holy. Kashrut sets up what Kaddish then accomplishes.

I will elaborate on these points in the following format: first I will outline the theory I

will be using, and then I will analyze three memoirs.10 I will then wrap up the discussion with

contemporary sources and my conclusions on the subject.

What’s a Meal Without the Ritual?

Ritual Theory

I will conduct the paper with a theoretical lens. Theological professor Tom Driver writes

in his book, The Magic of Ritual,11 on ritual and performance theory. I will define performance

theory, according to Driver,12 in order to explain ritual’s origins. Ritual is the idea that individual

lives are not just shaped by thoughts, but by actions and how one performs his/her body. For the

purpose of this paper, I will be relating Southern Judaism to two broader topics in ritual theory. I

will focus on Arnold Van Gennep’s concept of liminality, while also discussing how ritual acts

push Southern Jews into individualized liminal spaces.

Neither Here Nor There: Liminality

10 I acknowledge that because they are personal accounts, there may be inherent bias and selective or wishful memory. In professor Leigh Gilmore’s book, The Limits of Autobiography, she addresses the dangers of autobiography in that there is “a limit of representativeness…the way it makes it hard to clarify without falsifying what is strictly and unambiguously ‘my’ experience when ‘our’ experience is also at stake.” What she means is that autobiographies run into issues when the characters equate their own experience as the consensus for the greater population. Due to the generalization, I will analyze three different sources, as well as look at contemporary sources and acknowledge that these characters do not represent the collective Southern Jewish population.11 Tom Faw Driver, The Magic of Ritual: Our Need for Liberating Rites That Transform Our Lives and Our Communities. (San Francisco: Harper, 1991).

12

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Driver cites anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep’s concept of liminality. Van Gennep

writes that rituals shift a person from one stage of life to another: starting with preliminal (rites

of separation), then liminal (threshold time), and finally the post-liminal (incorporation period).

Preliminal rites separate a person from his/her old “condition.” Judaism encompasses many of

these rites such as the washing of hands before meals, and the monthly cleansing in the Mikvah

after a woman has completed menstruation. The liminal period is the space between the old and

new self in which a person is neither here nor there. Then leading to the post-liminal period

where the “new” individual enters a new society either through sharing a meal or participating in

the community’s celebrations.13 I will concentrate most attention on the liminal space for this

research, seeking to prove that the liminal space ranges from a desired, to ambivalent, and finally

to hated place.

Ritual Acts: Why Are They Important?

Driver cites Jacob Neusner,14 to provide another idea of ritual: the “feelings and thoughts

of the performers as a sacred duty” are not significant, but conducting the ritual creates the

significance.15 Neusner states that Judaism is one tradition in which this is especially true. For

example, he cites the recitation of the blessing of the Shema, when one goes to sleep or wakes

up, rather than understand the lyrics. It is written, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad

translated to “Hear oh Israel, Adonai is God, Adonai is One.”16 One learns in Hebrew school

however, that you recite the blessing feeling thankful (to God or something else entirely), that

you can go to sleep and wake up each night and day, rather than pledge love for Adonai.

13 Tom Faw Driver, The Magic of Ritual: Our Need for Liberating Rites That Transform Our Lives and Our Communities. (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 157.14 An academic scholar of Judaism.15 Tom Faw Driver, The Magic of Ritual: Our Need for Liberating Rites That Transform Our Lives and Our Communities. (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 141.16 Jules Harlow, Siddur Sim Shalom, (New York: Rabbinic Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 1989).

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Driver also cites, William Scott Green,17 who boldly proclaims that after the destruction

of the temple, there was a need for ritual and therefore the devotion to the Torah developed. In

other words, people came to worship Torah in order to continue carrying out rituals, once the

ritual space was demolished. The temple came first, then the Torah. Space and people was more

important than the actual words of worship.18 People practiced devotion hierarchically, first to

the space, then to the people inhabiting it, and finally to the Torah.

Linguist Jan Koster states that ritual manipulates one’s identity putting his/her

individuality at risk in order to enter a collective unity.19 He writes on ritual function and how

conducting ritual momentarily strips one of his/her individuality, therefore, uniting him/her with

community, both physically and spiritually. He even goes further in stating that entering a

community, the individual becomes closer to death because in death, all lie together as one.20 His

extremity does not apply at all times, because there are ways to balance community and

individuality. It is not one or other, but a uniquely personal spectrum. Also it is important to note

where the rituals take place. He defines ritual performance as a method of declaring space and

time to be sacred.21 I will reassess this point because the Jewish characters in the memoirs

emigrate from sacred spaces, and have to find or create sacredness in foreign land.

The Meat: Fresh Kosher Meat from The Jew Store22

17 Academic scholar of Judaism.18 Tom Faw Driver, The Magic of Ritual: Our Need for Liberating Rites That Transform Our Lives and Our Communities. (San Francisco: Harper, 1991), 141-142.19 Jan Koster, “Ritual Performance and the Politics of Identity: On the Functions and Uses of Ritual,” Journal of Historical Pragmatics 4, no. 2 (2003): 211–248.20 Ibid, 226.21 Ibid, 213. 22 Stella Suberman, The Jew Store, (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2001).

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We will begin with the meat, the kosher meat. Stella Suberman’s mother and father, Reba

and Aaron Bronson, move from the East to the South in Suberman’s memoir, The Jew Store.

Aaron wanted to start his own store and therefore he and Reba moved down South to work and

raise a family. Suberman details the simultaneous difficulties, and beautiful experiences they

endure while living there from fitting in to finding Jewish husbands.

I will study Reba, whom struggled to adjust to Southern life, which consequentially

pushed her into the liminal space. Reba feels conflicted from the moment they arrive in

Concordia, Tennessee and are to eat with their new host, Miss Brookie. When everyone heads

downstairs for dinner, Reba, refrains and does not eat, immediately disconnecting herself. Lizzie

Maud, the black woman who works for the family, confronts them. She asks whether Reba did

not join them because she was “kosher.”23 Aaron responds that Reba’s absence will not occur

again, because their rabbi back home told Suberman that in “alien situations” one could eat non-

kosher. This alien situation turns into Reba’s liminal permanence, to the extent in which she

makes herself sick around the time of the High Holidays.24 Lizzie Maud tries to feed her and heal

her, but she refuses. While sick and fasting for Yom Kippur, Reba imagines her Yom Kippur

break feast dinner in her old home without her in it, feeling truly “alienated.” Not just from her

old life, but her new one as well because she refuses to share a meal with her new community.

American Studies professor Marcie Ferris enters the Jewish food conversations in her

book Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South.25 She says that once separated,

one exists in this liminal, or “free space.” Ferris argues that the kitchen represents a space where

racial, socioeconomic, and religious barriers do not hold great power. In the Southern Jewish

23 Ibid, 14.24 Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).25 Marcie Cohen Ferris, Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (University of North Carolina Press, 2005).

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kitchen, women of all races and religions work together. It is not a matter of where you come

from or what color your skin is, but whether you can cook a good, kosher chicken.

Yet Reba struggles to interact with and respect Lizzie Maud, despite this free space. She

makes strong judgments about her because of her skin color. In the chapter, “My Mother’s

Dilemma,” the reader sees into Reba’s thoughts. First, we see her dilemma with having extra

hands around the house. She needs help, but at the same time, she does not want “a stranger-

around all the time.”26 Suberman does not tell the reader what she implies by “stranger” but one

can infer from her attitude towards the matter, that Reba does not want non-Jewish “help.”

Reba’s unease towards Lizzie Maud continues when in the next chapter she questions what

Lizzie Maud keeps in her “bag.” Clever Lizzie Maud, however, “had no trouble reading my

mother’s mind and says she knows that Reba thinks all people of color steal,” allowing Reba to

inspect her bag and find no stolen goods. Yet Reba continues her hostility towards Lizzie Maud

and her husband Seth. Aaron, however, hires Seth at the store––much to Reba’s disproval. She

warns Aaron that hiring him could put the business in jeopardy because he will stick out “like a

raison on top of a cupcake.” Yet, after he does, Lizzie Maud becomes pregnant and tells Reba

she wants to name the baby either Aaron Claudius or Reba Laverne. They share a beautiful

interaction in that Lizzie Maud asks if it is within Judaism to do so, and Reba says, “that’s one

thing that ain’t against our religion.”27 In this interaction from start to finish, we see Reba soften.

She has a strong opinion, holding constant until Lizzie makes a grand gesture. This baby, named

Reba Laverne symbolizes the connection between Jewish (Reba) and Southern (Laverne). Reba

preliminarily Lizzie Maud based on stereotypes because it helped Reba to remain in her

liminality. She did not interact because she was not inclined to leave her Northern Jewish

26 Stella Suberman, The Jew Store, (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2001), 176.27 Ibid, 190.

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identity, she did not have to. She could be herself while interacting with others minority groups

whom also loved cooking. Even further she starts to see all white Gentiles the same.28 She moves

farther from the White Christians and connects more to the women of color, initiating her

Southern connection.

Diner 29 elaborates upon this point in a volume of short essays on Jewish cuisine.30 She

discusses Jewish, immigrant women’s role in the home. In general, she narrates that women did

not venture outside but remained inside the house as “custodians of the domestic sphere.” Reba

struggles with this when her Aunt Sadie comes to visit and hears the kids singing church songs.

She hassles Reba to such an extent that Reba responds, “It’s so awful hard down here. You don’t

know how it is with nothing Jewish. Can I keep my eyes on them every second?”31 She cannot

control every moment of her kids’ lives and I believe that subconsciously, she wants them to fit

in as well. Women like Reba realized their bridge-builder role between Eastern European and

American traditions. This justifies Reba’s distant and reclusive feelings as she battles how to be

both a Jewish Northerner as well as a Jewish Southerner.

Reba’s misses the South once she moves back to New York. Her homesickness surprises

the reader. Only in the last few pages while the Bronsons are packing up to leave, does the reader

start to witness Reba’s nostalgia for Concordia. Suberman states that her mother did not want to

leave but felt she had to because “down here we’re like jelly in iced tea. It just don’t go.”32 To

Reba, the Jewish jelly can never full immerse into the sweet Southern tea. It seems though that

Reba did not even try to mix the drink. Yet, to Reba, perhaps she did mix and her mixing may

28Stella Suberman, The Jew Store, (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2001), 229.29 Professor of American Jewish history.30 Avi Y Decter, et al., Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identity (Baltimore, MD: Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2011), 11.31 Stella Suberman, The Jew Store, (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2001), 204.32 Stella Suberman, The Jew Store, (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2001), 293.

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have just been coexistence. She lived near people who were different form her, but chose not to

interact much with the goyim.33

It was easier not to mingle because it allowed Reba to stay in control. She had to balance

raising her children in two different spheres, Jewish and Southern, as well as raising herself.

Therefore had to exert some sort of control, possibly similar to the control one feels during

meditation. According to, Don Miguel Ruiz, an author of spiritual texts, meditation transports a

person to a state of nothingness, and there, and allows one to be in control of his/her mind.34 I

argue that Reba lived in this state meditative state, of nearly nothingness, and of control. She was

the true head of the household, determining what her family ate and when, and ultimately she

made the final decision to move back North. Although she did not connect deeply, she also was

the one to make efforts to befriend the few Jews in the town of Concordia. She decided to not

join the Southern community and decided instead to continue the rituals of Judaism despite the

difficulties (i.e. finding kosher meats and places open on Sundays). These rituals functioned to

connect her with the past not the present because she only continued rituals of her past.

Reba continues to take charge in her ritual actions. She chooses the right dishes for

meals, and properly cleans them afterwards, thereby ritualizing the household.35 Reba purchases

special dishes for milk and for dairy adhering to the rules of kashrut. In her mind, by continuing

to keep kosher dishes, she continues to connect, spiritually with the Jewish people. Not by

understanding the meaning behind kashrut, but by buying and using the plates, she connects to

her past. After hosting a dinner party in her house in Concordia, Reba again loses the chance to

drop her New York Jewish identity, and dissolve into the Southern identity. Reba provides

cigarettes to her husband while she performs her “ceremony” of washing the supper dishes.

33 Non-Jewish people.34 David Dobrik Podcast, Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations - Don Miguel Ruiz.35 Stella Suberman, The Jew Store (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2001), 49.

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Suberman’s word choice of “ritual” and “ceremony” highlight the regularity and repetitiveness

for this act that goes on without question. The Shabbat rituals also continue unquestioned. Reba

establishes early on that Shabbat must continue the same as it did up north: salting the chicken,

cooking ahead of time (cooking is prohibited on Shabbat), and performs the blessings within the

home.36 The reader does not hear Reba’s thoughts, but Suberman depicts the mindlessness in the

ritual process: it happens each week, without question or further investigation into the meaning

each time. It happens because it always has, from generation to generation, l’dor vador.

Aaron finds his rituals as well. His ritualized store-closing, remains even when he shuts it

down for the last time: “he made no fuss about the closing, just followed his routine: He showed

up early, stayed late, and in between good-byes did some selling. At midnight, in his customary

way, he stood at the door to give his last inspection.”37 He merely follows his routine, leaving

without a “ceremonial leave-taking from the store.” Instead he continues his monotonous store-

closing ritual because by performing his ritual he finds comfort. In this comfort he says good-bye

to a space he loved.

Reba’s striving to continue ritual practice incites debate between she and Aaron. When it

is time for their son Joey to have a Bar Mitzvah, Reba wants him to him to New York to do so,

but Joey rebels. Aaron sides with Joey, but Reba insists he must because “he’s a Jewish boy, and

a Jewish boy has to have a bar mitzvah. We have to do right!” and Aaron questions to whom

they have to do right by, to which she responds: “by God.” Aaron, outraged, responds, “What

God? Who God you only know people who say they speak for God.”38 He calls Reba’s practice

out, putting into question why she does what she does, and as expected, she has no answer.

36Stella Suberman, The Jew Store (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2001), 86.37Ibid, 295.38 Stella Suberman, The Jew Store (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2001), 220.

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Perhaps then, it is not that Reba does not want to be part of a new community entirely,

but she finds comfort in rituals. Rituals appear to keep one within his/her comfort zone. Aaron’s

ritual integrated him into this new community. He used rituals to create connections to people

and place. Reba, however, continued rituals from her past, but never felt the same effect as she

did previously. The old rituals conducted in the new space granted new meaning to the ritual

despite her efforts to keep them the same.

The Dinner Table Set by The Peddler’s Grandson

Diving right in, Edward Cohen39 declares “but I being both Southern and Jewish,

identified with no home.”40 He, like Suberman begins with his parents’ story. Cohen’s parents,

Leonard and Pauline, were both from the South, she from Louisiana and he from Jackson. After

meeting, his mother moves to Jackson, to marry Leonard and start a family there. Edward tells

his story of living in his Jackson Jewish bubble, until he begins public school where he becomes

an outsider. He never fits in with his Gentile schoolmates, ultimately forcing his abandonment of

his Southern identity through his matriculation into college in Miami. There, he not only loses

his Southernness but also, his Judaism. After this rejection of identity, he undergoes a

reawakening. He finds that his home is Jackson.41

Cohen’s account brings a lot to the table, quite literally. At the dinner table, work talk is

prohibited. Cohen, both in the beginning and end of the text, states this rule’s prominence. His

father honors the table as a holy place, a mikdash me’at in which if blessed the right way is like

39 Author of The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing up Jewish in Mississippi40 Edward Cohen, The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing up Jewish in Mississippi, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), https://muse.jhu.edu/book/19671.41 Ibid, 187.

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eating at the table of God.42 Professor Julianna Ochs describes the Jewish table as “mensch-

training” time, when children, and adults, learn manners and how to heal the world, tikkun o’lam.

All present at the table act as priests, reciting the blessings and honoring God. Therefore, the

table is sacred because people have the ability to declare something that was unholy, holy. Older

generations also teach and pass along stories and life advice from one generation to another,

l’dor vador.

Speaking from my own experience, I feel that meals are the one time I can discuss the

happenings in the world with family––minus formal rules. It is a time to escape work, but also a

time to share what happened throughout the day. Most family dinners in my house began, “How

was school?” or “How was work?” Therefore, the restriction of this topic at mealtime creates this

bubble in Cohen’s home and more specifically the kitchen. It becomes a space where reality does

not interact with food––his parents’ purpose.

Cohen wrote his memoir placing him physically in the middle as well. He begins the

account before his birth with his parents’ union, then moves to his birth, and ends with his adult

life. To begin, Cohen’s parents meet once they are both situated in the South, a key point that

eliminates many of the issues with which Suberman’s family struggled. Pauline, although not

born in Jackson, understands Southern Judaism, making her transition easier. Yet, both Reba and

Pauline have a harshness to them, which Cohen explains well in that “Jewishness was the core of

her being, defined by the Christian world.”43 Surrounded by Christianity, Pauline was forced to

appreciate her Judaism, holding on to it more defensively because it differentiated her. She in

42 Avi Y Decter, et al., Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identity (Baltimore, MD: Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2011).43 Edward Cohen, The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing up Jewish in Mississippi, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 29, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/19671. Some citations will be as pages, and some as chapters as I used both a Kindle edition and hard copy.

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turn became stern, unlike Leonard. His interactions with the goyim at the store did not close him

off, but open him to the Gentile world.

By working in the store and interacting with the Gentile world, he does not conduct

kosher rituals anymore, and therefore loses his connection. He instead, creates new ones just as

Aaron Bronson did. Cohen writes a whole chapter dedicated to the store, or what he calls, “The

Big House.” His father and Uncle Lazar, have their set duties in which Leonard persuades

customers to purchase more than intended, while Lazar tends to the office and phone. It becomes

so ritualized that Cohen even states, that becoming a man in the Cohen family was not by having

a Bar Mitzvah, but by working on Saturdays and Christmas.44 Cohen loved working Christmas,

therefore declaring his masculinity. He looked forward to, the non-stop work, the time he spent

with both his family and the goyim customers, symbolized by the meals he loved that day. He

remembered those meals so clearly: his father’s factory-line preparation of a cold cut sandwich

lunch because of the non-stop day, laying out the preparations for each worker to assemble

themselves, and ending the night at Crechale’s restaurant, absolutely exhausted.45

Christmas at the store was as meaningful to him as a Passover Seder. The Passover Seder

represents rituals, in my opinion, more so than any other Jewish holiday. Seder by definition

means, order. On Passover one follows a seder recounting history through food and wine. Order

in this sense also presents a duality: keeping things in a set order, but also creating order out of

disorder––creating ritual. We remember when we eat Matzoh Ball soup based on where it falls in

the story, but not why our ancestors began the tradition. Cohen loves the Christmas schedule

rituals paying zero to little attention to the meaning behind the holiday. If he were to, he would

realize that he lacks the most important part of the holiday: a belief in Jesus. The appeal

44 Ibid, Chapter 10.45 Ibid, 131.

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originates from the ritualized repetition that results from the predictability each year: the special

meals, family time, and the Christmas spirit.

The store is a liminal space where white people and people of color could interact.46

Leonard and Lazar feel connected to the black population because blacks and Jews suffered

similar hardships. (Cohen does make an important note, however, that they are not black and

they did not suffer the same).47 They want to help others who have been persecuted. Although

Jews may be white, and some blacks may be Christian, both groups fall somewhere in and out of

the majority. Therefore the Cohen Brothers protect their clients when the NAACP48 orders a

boycott intended to restrict people of color from stores. Each store is supposed to stop the:

“courtesy titles for black customers, the hiring of black employees, and the elimination of

segregated water fountains and rest rooms in stores.”49 The Cohen brothers, however, refuse and

even though their business suffers they keep the black workers and clientele. Their Jewish values

shine through as they want strive to be mensches and apply tikkun o’lam. They even go so far as

posting signs saying “we deliver” in hopes that even though the black customers cannot shop at

the store, the Cohens will cater to them.50 The store becomes a liminal space, not being black,

Southern, Christian or even Jewish, and at the same time, being all of them at once.

I also note his mother’s absence from the store. Since she does not partake in activities

outside of the house, she does not see the beauty in rituals outside of Judaism. She does not

interact with people in the town trying to connect and find similarities, but rather remains in her

46 Edward Cohen, The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing up Jewish in Mississippi, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 131, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/19671.47 Ibid, 145.48 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People49 Ibid, 156.50 Edward Cohen, The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing up Jewish in Mississippi, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 157, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/19671.

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bubble. Perhaps not in the Cohen men’s liminal space, but one of her own as liminality is

specific to each person.

I argue that she undertakes a different technique for adaptation. Carol Harris Shapiro,

professor at Temple University, writes a short essay on the ability of the Jewish mothers to

compartmentalize.51 Doing so helps the women to categorize food in one area and separate it

from a person. She cites the example of an interfaith couple. The Jewish wife tolerates her

husband’s non-Judaism when it applies only to him. She can deal with his non-kosher eating and

not attending synagogue, but when it comes to their children, she cannot compartmentalize their

differences. Shapiro writes, “compartmentalization only works where there is control…an

attempted practical and narrative strategy to put ‘otherness’ away, but ultimately is

unsuccessful.” As seen with the couple studied, it may work for some controlled times, but

ultimately it fails. Pauline compartmentalizes her Jewish life with the non-Jews around her. She

successfully lives among people who are different from her. This changes, however, once Cohen

starts attending public school, and eventually attends college far off in Miami, where she lacks

control and he loses his Judaism.

Public school is the first wrench in Pauline’s compartmentalization. Until he started

school, Pauline and Leonard kept Cohen in a Jewish bubble. His parents kept him separate from

Christianity, keeping his preliminal identity purely Jewish. When he begins school, however, he

exits the Jewish bubble and enters the Bible belt. He details these interactions in the cafeteria. It

was there that he “tasted the apple of otherness,”52 (non-Jews) and could not will himself to eat

Southern food. Therefore, the cafeteria became his most difficult place in school. Here, he was

51 Avi Y Decter, et al., Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identity (Baltimore, MD: Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2011).52Edward Cohen, The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing up Jewish in Mississippi, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 45, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/19671.

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more afraid to clean his plate than participate in any Easter pageants.53 Only in the cafeteria did

he feel weak and like an outsider because there was nowhere to hide in there. Everything was

public: where to sit, who to sit with, and what to eat. Hierarchy was established through table

seating and whether one bought or brought lunch. Interesting enough, he did not have an issue

with whether the food was kosher or not, but more so the interactions that accompanied the food.

He said it was “inedible” but did not clarify whether it was kosher. He could not adapt to the

taste of Southern food, instead preferring his Jewish staples of kreplach and latkes. The cafeteria

food symbolized how he felt about the cafeteria: disgusted and afraid.

He hopes that his outsider identity will change when he attends of University of Miami,

but it does not. Although still somewhat in the South, Cohen matriculates into a mostly Northern

Jewish population. He feels part of the “tribe,” but still something feels off. It is not the food that

separates him at this point, but that he cannot relate to these people who should be like him. He

writes: “My pledge class was filled with fast-talking boys from Long Island who seemed to

know the score on everything from horseracing to the phone numbers of the best-looking Jewish

girls to what to order at Wolfie’s delicatessen. I, however, didn’t know in which direction to cut

a bagel in half.”54 Where does he belong? Finally in his Jewish dream, surrounded by other Jews,

and yet he still does not feel that he “fits.” He cannot blame food like he did in the Jackson

cafeteria, because this time he is surrounded by Jews and Jewish food––just not his Jewish food.

At this point he is so immersed in the liminal space, feeling now far from the Judaism he knows

and the South. He, not feeling part of any community, tries to leave his liminal space by

“annihilating [his] Southern self.”55 He does this through the ultimate form of rebellion in his

53 Ibid, 52.54Edward Cohen, The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing up Jewish in Mississippi, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), Chapter 5, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/19671.55 Ibid, 179.

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family: dating a goy. He then has no identity at this point. Returning home to introduce his

family to his girlfriend, food becomes an interactional platform once again. He arrives home with

a suitcase full of brown rice and refuses to eat his mother’s latkes and cabbage claiming to be

following a “macrobiotic” diet. Digging below the surface however, the diet appears to strip him

of his old Southern and Jewish self. He chooses to abandon both his Jewish and Southern

identity for the time, yearning to leave the liminal space. However, as with any diet, it only lasts

for so long. At the end of the book, he returns “home” to the South and Judaism, to his latkes,

and to his space in between.

Only Provincials Eat Oysters on Shabbat

Eli Evans’56 account differs from the other two. His title, The Provincials: A Personal

History of Jews in the South, suggests that the text centers on the land. He details his family’s life

in the South, introducing points about Israel, ritual, politics, and religion in the South. He brings

points to the table that the other authors did not discuss: politics and Jesus. At this table, he eats

oyster stew on Shabbat as well as ham and sweet potato pie. Although his family does not eat a

halakhically57-blessed meal, they eat this to fit into their environment. For the Evans family,

Judaism means being together for Shabbat, not what food is on the table. He describes food

culture in the South through a young man in Montgomery response to kashrut: “Do we keep

kosher? Sure, I eat kosher grits.”58 For some, adding “kosher” on to any food, makes them feel

that yes, they are keeping kosher because they are calling it kosher. The name causes them to

56 Author of The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South.57 Halakha is the collective Jewish law.58 Eli Evans, The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South, (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 90.

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feel that they are in fact kosher, and more importantly Jewish––like Miss Brookie, you can make

even oxygen kosher.

For the Jewish people, kashrut is religion. It unites family and tradition––a critical theme

in Southern Jewry. Those who do not adapt are unaware that tradition can play a role in

adaptation. Reconstructionist 59Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan stated, “the past has a vote, not a veto.”

We need the past to continue tradition, but we do not need it to rule the present because times

have changed. Evans narrates the time a rabbi from Jackson comes to visit. He claims there is

only Reform Judaism in the South because “that’s the only kind of Jewish religion you can have

down here and stick to it.”60 Later elaborating on the point by saying that “Judaism must be fluid,

flexible, and adaptive to survive.”61 For example, in order to survive, the Evans family keeps the

store open on Yom Kippur.62 This is not just equivalent to keeping it open for Shabbat. Yom

Kippur constitutes the holiest holiday for the Jewish people––one in which food is absent. It is

the time when the higher power supposedly decides the fate of the Jewish people, and closes the

book of life for the year. By not observing this holiday, the family chooses to move closer into

the Southern space, leaving behind Judaism. This is the ultimate sign of adaption, further proven

by its absence of food––one of the most important parts of the tradition.

American Judaism, because of this, separates from other forms of Judaism around the

world. It celebrates its own traditions because of the context it is in, such as celebrating

Chanukah with gifts because of the proximity to Christmas. I argue further that Judaism is

unique to the South. In the South, religion is respected and encouraged because of church

59 The most progressive form of Judaism.60 Eli Evans, The Provincials, (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 91. I do not have the space in this paper to further research the break down of denominations, but I hope to in future work.61 Ibid, 46.62 Ibid, 84.

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popularity. Just as Jews revolve their culture and life around food, the non-Jews are “fed” by

converting Jews to Christianity. Food completes conversion. Nourishment is religion. It is not

only the people, but holy space one practices and lives in that alters religion. Therefore, space

affects religion. Perhaps the rabbis who created kashrut and those that defined it as fit had this in

mind. The displaced Jews scatter across the world, from one space to another. Consequentially,

the laws had to adapt and fit to the changing environment. Kashrut, takes on a new definition of

survival of the fittest. Evans “fits” into his environment by modifying prayer. When he is asked

to lead lunchtime prayer for his junior high student council, his father instructs him to find a

prayer that suits all religions. He finds a Jesus-less prayer, not a Hebrew prayer, but one that at

least those around him would recognize, while allowing himself to recite it as well.63 While

everyone bows down to pray, he opens his eyes to see his father staring at him. They both

appeared as if they were reciting the prayers, but some part of them could not fully commit. This

scene is a microcosm for Jews in the South. At first glance, they pass for white and Christian, but

inside they are vastly different than their Christian counter-parts. However, the black people

they work with and befriend cannot hide. Yet, this slight anonymity, only lasted until the town

gossiped and everyone knew they were Jewish.

Therefore, the Southern Jews learned how to live in the in between. It was either that or

the option: “to disappear, be swallowed up in the terrain of the Southern mind and soul, to

change names and identities, marry their women, and become Southern white men, so the next

generation would be indistinguishable from the Southerners.”64 Many instead, found their place

in liminality––peddling through. They saw the gap and saw their place in society as a messenger

63 Eli Evans, The Provincials, (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 133.64Eli Evans, The Provincials, (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 40.

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between the white and black community, of which they were neither. Working as a peddler

allowed them to exist in this utopian grey area: “he was conscious of the differences, of the

permissible boundaries of attitude and act, of just how far, was too far, and protective enough of

his own body and act… to take on whatever colors were necessary to get through the day.”65 The

immigrant Jews saw their place in society. Here, they could interact with both groups from the

outside while remaining distant from the issues on the inside; they understood living as the

outsider and the insider. The Jew then was the intermediary, taking the good and bad from both

sides. With the good, the Jewish families coexisted and ran shops. Yet with the bad, they looked

for outlets to exert power. Many Jewish recipe book authors do not acknowledge African-

American help, although they were many times (such as Lizzie Maud in The Jew Store) the head

cooks in the house. Marcie Ferris writes, “although African American women were central

figures in synagogue and home kitchens throughout the Jewish South, they did not appear in

synagogue and community cookbooks.”66 Perhaps the mothers and grandmothers writing the

recipes at the time did not want to risk their safety in order to defend black workers. Even though

these women have helped the Jewish families for many years: cooking, cleaning and adding their

own twist to the Jewish food culture. At the end of the day, however, these women step out of

their role as a cook and into their own identity. For them, cooking is only a job, not an identity.

This exertion in power translates to kashrut as well. Pigs are taboo in Jewish eating. In

Marvin Harris’ article, “The Abominable Pig,”67 Harris explains why pigs became taboo in

Middle Eastern ancient history and how that practice survives today. He discusses how the

demand for pigs diminished because the pig was one of the most expensive animals to raise.

65 Ibid, 40.66 Marcie Cohen Ferris, Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 18.67 Marvin Harris, "The Abominable Pig," in Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture, (Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, 1985).

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Consequentially, people did not want to pay for them.68 He also cites Douglas who agrees that

pigs deviated from the typical animals because of their cloven hoof. Following her analysis,

things that are out of place are dirty need to be ordered. Their cloven hoofs and mud bath

regimen disgusted outsiders. Even further, pigs are “neither here nor there” as they are dirty and

dangerous… they do not belong.69 It seems this hatred towards pigs is misdirected hatred from

the Jews. Jews experienced hatred and persecution throughout history, and perhaps needed an

outlet to then hate something else in return. Instead of hating a people, a pig, in a parallel animal

experience, was the next best thing. I want to clarify however that the liminal space is a

spectrum. We have seen earlier that some characters fall almost to the point of fitting in, while

others fall closer to their original community. Pigs and Jews do not fall in the same liminal space

or at the same point. I believe that liminal spaces change from person to person because each

individual undergoes different experiences. Why then, can we practice Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s

“vote but not veto” and move forward from these ancient ways? It is as if an unspoken line exists

between what can be altered and what can progress forward. At one does one cross that line

altering tradition to the extent of extinction?

Evans addresses the tension between progress and tradition by discussing assimilation

and disintegration of Judaism in the South. He compares it to a recipe stating that it “is a gradual

process because Judaism is multiple in ingredients, and its elements are dropped singly over a

time span ranging from years to generations.” He cites the impossibility of keeping kosher

because there are no mashgichim, American workweeks do not favor Shabbat, and most

importantly, more of the younger generations intermarry.70 Each generation moving forward

68 Ibid, 70.69Ibid, 70.70 Eli Evans, The Provincials, (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 167.

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moves farther from the pre-liminal European Judaism, and closer to the liminal Southern

Judaism.

Evans then discusses how Southern Jews viewed progress. He introduces his

grandmother Sadie, who was “not given to reminiscence; she said the times were too hard to

merit remembering and better to forget.”71 Therefore she kept a coin jar in the place where she

spent the most time and where she taught her children the most important life lessons: the

kitchen. This coin jar was there “to build a homeland for the Jews.”72 She was not keen on

reflecting on ways of the past because those ways did not fit, or were not kosher, in the present.

She wanted a new future for the Jewish people, which was a point of contention in Southern

Jewry.

The Jews needed a homeland. They even pushed for it to be in the South due to the

socialist and collective ideals that could flourish in the open farmland.73 Yet when Israel became

the chosen place, the Southern population was split. Many Jewish people were in favor, as well

as Christians in the South who felt they could then follow and claim some of the biblical land in

the future.74 Evans details an account with Mr. Rosenfield, a strong anti-Zionist who boldly states

that church and politics should not mix.75 In other words, he disagrees with the majority and

believes that Israel should not be a Jewish state. He does not want to live in a Jewish fusion of

politics and religion. He wants it separate: either fully Jewish or none at all. That utopia could

not exist because the Jewish people’s homeland itself is liminal. Its leaders and citizens

71 Ibid, 71.72 Ibid, 71.73 Ibid, 98. 74Eli Evans, The Provincials, (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 105.75 Ibid, 102.

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constantly negotiate control: neither theirs nor the Palestinians, neither home to only Jews but

people of all religions and backgrounds. It falls somewhere in the middle of Judaism.

Who Changed the Recipe? These Darn Contemporary Sources

At this point I would like to assess some contemporary sources on the subject. First I will

begin with Michael Twitty. He writes a food blog entitled Afroculinaria in which he both

assesses food looking through African American history in the South as well as Jewish food. He

splits his studies into Antebellum Chef and Kosher/Soul. The Antebellum Chef honors his

ancestors and the slaves that brought recipes and food to the south through “culinary justice.” For

the purpose of this paper, I will focus on the Kosher/Soul aspect. This concept assesses what he

has created, “identity cooking [which] isn’t about fusion; rather it’s how we construct complex

identities and then express them through what we eat.”76 He argues in Western society today, we

never eat within one culinary dialect. We are always combining “histories, tastes, flavor” and for

him specifically, combining the “Diasporic wisdom of being Black and being Jewish.” Is that not

fusion? I think what he means is that the plate allows for multiple parts of identity to be

expressed because he dislikes fusion and how two different things become one. Instead, he

believes that ne can have many foods on a plate, together; perhaps some are combined, but never

losing the individual identities. Twitty represents this point in his identification as Kosher/Soul––

two words coming together as one entity but keeping their separate identities as well. Seemingly

great, for a utopian identity, but in reality, fusion exists. The people juggling these identities vary

in how much of each identity they show and compartmentalize. Many Southern Jewish recipes

76 Michael Twitty, "About Afroculinaria.” Afroculinaria (blog), January 12, 2011, https://afroculinaria.com/about/.

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fuse two cultures into one dish. That is why my recipe below will be joining two dishes but

keeping them in their entirety.

Another contemporary source on the subject is a blog surfacing from the Institute of

Southern Life.77 One woman posted about how accepting any food that a host offers equates

being a good guest. Why is food so engrained in both Southern and Jewish cultures? Is there any

way to change the interdependence between food and culture, especially with people being more

health-conscientious and allergic to different foods? This is one area where Southern and Jewish

cultures overlap. I think this articulates the importance of food in identity. One performs when

accepting any food offered. The good guest role accepts any food offered in order to please the

host. If he/she does not accept the offering, he/she appears insincere and disrespectful of the

host’s hard work. This is not kosher for the times today when people have severe allergies to

food or may not want to eat certain foods. Not able to share a meal with a host, these individuals

feel that they have destroyed a connection to their host. After reading the memoirs however, food

reveals more to a person than one can imagine. I do believe however, that the food, whether

eaten or not can be a connector. When one chooses not to eat a food, it is the way they go about

the action that portrays character. If one is impolite like Reba Bronson, then the relationship is

altered, but if one is courteous and remains at the table, they can create dialogue.

Conclusion: Where and When’s the Next Meal?

Kashrut is: liminality, fusion, kosher/soul, abandonment or somewhere in between.

Which one is correct? In Jewish studies, there is debate regarding Judaism as a religion, race,

culture, etc. In my opinion, and after writing this paper, it boils down to the person and how

77 Rachel Stern, “Can Southern Jewish Hospitality Ever Go Too Far?” My Jewish Learning (blog), June 14, 2017, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/southern-and-jewish/can-southern-jewish-hospitality-ever-go-too-far/.

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he/she identifies and chooses to live. Whether it is Reba Bronson who treats her religion as her

entire identity, or Eli Evans’ mother who believes in the Jewish ritualistic culture rather than

religious culture. Food preference therefore becomes a deeply personal decision that we as

outsiders cannot judge. In a broader religious studies context, it deals with the idea of

displacement through religion. How do we coexist between religions? How do we find what is

kosher or how to fit in society?

Further I state that Judaism is a liminal religion. Different liminal spaces are present in all

Jewish communities. In high dense Jewish populations, individuals are closer to the Jewish end

of the spectrum because that is the community in which they are immersed. Taking a different

approach, we can assess liminality scientifically. We learn in school that as biological beings we

work to maintain homeostasis. We try and reduce tension to find this state of perfect harmony

and balance. This may be finding that perfect place in between, or abandoning one side for

another, embracing one identity entirely. It is easiest to see this visually in the scale below.

Tight-Knit Hatred Woman

Power in the Kitchen

Southern Jewish

Pomerantz 29

“Pushers in the Kitchen”

Ritual creates harmony out of disharmony. It is not the meaning, but the importance of

carrying on rituals that keeps one tied to his/her Judaism. Even the definition of ritual speaks of

actions carried out to a certain order.78 Ritual itself specifies ways to conduct actions, but also

ways to transform chaos into harmony. Professor of anthropology Carole Counihan sums up the

Jewish food experience in the following paragraph:

“belonging, exile values, identity, and community. What emerges with striking clarity is

the diversity and fluidity of Jews’ constructions of food embroidered on top of the ancient

foundation of kashrut, which is constantly reinterpreted, called into question, reformed,

and even rejected.”79

Food has helped the Jewish people through waves of exile and community, adaptation and

comfort. The liminal space and the rituals performed in individuals’ liminal spaces helped Jews

adapt to the changing environments in which they lived. This space is not a fusion, but a meeting

ground of Southern/Jewish identity.

78 “Definition of religion,” Google Search.79 Avi Y Decter, et al., Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identity (Baltimore, MD: Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2011), 114.

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A Taste of Southern Judaism

I created my own recipe using two different sources. At first I had thought about creating

an apple and sweet potato combination latke, all mixed together as Marcie Ferris does, but after

reading Michael Twitty’s theory, I had a new thought. Instead of mixing the two foods, fusing

them together and not allowing them to appear in their truest form, I would try something else

instead. I decided instead to make a recipe that allowed both foods to be present in their whole

form, but exist together to create something spectacular.

Caramelized North Carolina Apples Over Sweet Potato Latkes

Sweet Potato Latkes:80

80 Ellen C. Bush, “Marcie Cohen Ferris: Hanukkah Memories & a Latke Recipe,” UNC Press Blog, December 2, 2010, https://uncpressblog.com/2010/12/02/marci-cohen-ferris/.

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1 ½ pounds sweet potatoes (that’s about 3 medium sized ones), peeled4 large eggs¾ cup Matzoh meal1 teaspoon kosher salt¾ teaspoon freshly ground pepperOil (chef’s preference of type)

Cut the sweet potatoes into pieces and place them in a food processor, or grate by hand. Add them to a large bowl with the eggs, Matzoh meal, salt and pepper. In a large skillet, begin to fry the latkes until nicely golden and crisp on both sides. Have a plate with paper towels ready to place the latkes on to drain the oil.

Caramelized Apple:81 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter (sub coconut oil)1/3 cup sugar (sub brown or coconut sugar)2 pounds North Carolina apples, peeled, and cut into cubes

Melt the butter or oil in a large skillet and sprinkle the sugar into the mixture until it all melts. Add the apples and sauté until the apples are brown and juices form (about 10 minutes). Finally, place little dollops of the caramelized apple on top of the sweet potato latkes and enjoy.

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