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Overview
Like many Jewish Americans, Elizabeth Ehrlich was ambivalent about her background. She identified with Jewish cultural attitudes, but not with the institutions; she had fond memories of her Jewish grandmothers, but she found their religious practices irrelevant to her life. It wasn?t until she entered the kitchen--and world--of her mother-in-law, Miriam, a Holocaust survivor, that Ehrlich began to understand the importance of preserving the traditions of the past. As Ehrlich looks on, Miriam methodically and lovingly prepares countless kosher meals while relating the often painful stories of her life in Poland and her immigration to America. These stories trigger a kind of religious awakening in Ehrlich, who--as she moves tentatively toward reclaiming the heritage she rejected as a young woman--gains a new appreciation of life?s possibilities, choices, and limitations.
Cooking lessons lead to the author's rediscovery of her Jewish heritage.
Synopsis
As a girl, Elizabeth Ehrlich loved to visit her grandmother's kitchens. These were busy, onion-scented, Yiddish-accented places. Within their steamy plaster walls, the grandmothers -- remarkable women of insight, strength, and grace -- preserved and handed on history, tradition, community connection, humor, and wry lessons of life. As an adult, Ehrlich followed the path of her assimilating clan, forgetting the kitchen lessons. Her memory was awakened by her mother-in-law, Miriam. A Holocaust survivor who had suffered unspeakable losses, Miriam cooked the flavorsome dishes and carried on the customs of her childhood. Certain that her work mattered, she rebuilt a life of dignity and meaning. Under Miriam's spell, Ehrlich began to reclaim family memories and explore tradition in her own home. Reciting a prayer, grating a potato, lighting a candle, she found a way to build bridges from her grandparents to her children, and to give her children a timeless legacy. Miriam's Kitchen is Elizabeth Ehrlich's preservation of recipes, immigrant stories, childhood memories, droll musings over ritual, and sincere habits of the heart. It is a wise exploration of the need to connect with the past and with tradition, and of our hunger for meaning in a chaotic world.
Newsweek
In this wonderful book, Ehrlich describes a growing commitment, not just to a set of laws but to the women who came before her.