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The Jewish-American patronage of Chinese restaurants became prominent in the 20th century, especially among Jewish New Yorkers. It has received attention as a paradoxical form of assimilation by embracing an unfamiliar cuisine.
Factors include the relative absence of dairy products compared to European cuisines, concern over German and Italian antisemitic regimes in the 1930s and the proximity of Jewish and Chinese immigrants to each other in New York City.
The American Jewish habit of eating at Chinese restaurants on Christmas is a common stereotype portrayed in film and television, but has a factual basis as the tradition may have arisen from the lack of other open restaurants on Christmas Day.
According to Jennifer 8. Lee, producer of The Search for General Tso , at the turn of the 20th century in New York City, Jewish and Chinese immigrants were bound by proximity and otherness. They lived in close proximity to each other on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and were the two largest non-Christian immigrant groups. [1] [2] [3] By 1910, there were nearly a million Americans of Eastern European Jewish ancestry living in New York City, where they constituted over one-fourth of the city’s population. [4]
The first mention of American Jews eating Chinese food was in 1899 in The American Hebrew . An article in the magazine criticized the Jewish community for eating at non-kosher restaurants, particularly singling out Chinese food. [5] In 1936, there were at least 18 Chinese tea gardens and restaurants open in heavily populated Jewish neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side, all of which located in close proximity to Ratner's, then the most famous Jewish dairy restaurant. [5] [6] Jews felt more comfortable at these restaurants than they did at the Italian or German eateries that were prevalent during this time period.
In Lower Manhattan, immigrant eateries were usually operated to serve their own communities. Jews would open delis for other Jews, Italians ran restaurants primarily for other Italians, and Germans had many places that would serve only Germans. However, Chinese restaurant owners accepted Jews and other immigrant and ethnic groups as customers without precondition. [4] [5] In addition, unlike many Italian establishments in Lower Manhattan, Chinese restaurants usually lacked Christian iconography. The lack of antisemitism from Chinese-American restaurateurs gave Jews a sense of security, and the Chinese didn't look down on Jews as being less American like other immigrant groups did. [7]
For the Jewish immigrants seeking to assimilate into American life, Chinese restaurants gave the illusion of adherence to Jewish dietary laws. According to these laws, Jews are forbidden from mixing milk and meat, which are traditionally excluded from Chinese dishes. However, the dishes were still treyf due to ample inclusion of pork and shellfish. [1] [5] [4] According to Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, the process of cutting, chopping, and mincing, called ko p'eng (to cut and cook) in ancient Chinese texts, made foods like pork, shrimp, and lobster appear disguised and thus appear as safe treyf to Jews seeking to assimilate into American culture. [4] For example, pork was hidden and wrapped in wontons that looked similar to Jewish kreplach (dumplings). [5]
Ultimately this gave way to many US-born Jews rejecting kashrut altogether as "impractical and anachronistic". [8] Breaking the rules of kashrut by eating Chinese food allowed the younger generation to assert their independence and further established a "cosmopolitan spirit". [5]
Jews were also drawn to the restaurants' oriental exoticism. "Of all the peoples whom immigrant Jews and their children met, of all the foods they encountered in America, the Chinese were the most foreign, the most 'un-Jewish'." [4]
A large majority of the Jews saw "eating in Chinese restaurants as an antidote for Jewish parochialism, for the exclusive and overweening emphasis on the culture of the Jews as it had been." [4]
Many of the people whom Tuchman and Levine spoke to felt that eating in a place that was "un-Jewish" showed that they could be "somewhat sophisticated, urbane New Yorkers." [4] The restaurants had unusual wallpaper, eccentric decorations, chopsticks, and exotic food names.
The generations of Jews who grew up in New York after the initial Eastern European Jews immigrated wanted their identity to be based on cosmopolitan ideals. [4]
Before the emancipation of the Jews in Europe, Christmas was a dangerous holiday for Jews. It was a night of drunken violence and sometimes pogroms against the Jewish populations. Jews stayed at home for their safety. [6] In America, Jews felt alienated but did not want to stay home. [7]
The tradition of Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas dates to as early as 1935, when The New York Times reported a restaurant owner named Eng Shee Chuck brought chow mein on Christmas Day to the Jewish Children’s Home in Newark. [6]
"Over the years, Jewish American families and friends gather on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Chinese restaurants across the United States to socialize and to banter, to reinforce social and familiar bonds, and to engage in a favorite activity for Jews during the Christmas holiday. The Chinese restaurant has become a place where Jewish identity is made, remade and announced." [5]
According to historians, eating Chinese food became a meaningful symbol of American Judaism and part of a ritualized celebration of immigration, education, family, community, and continuity. [8] [9]
Michael Tong of Shun Lee Palace talked about the issue in a 2003 interview with The New York Times: [10]
Welcome to the conundrum that is Christmas New York style: while most restaurants close for the holiday, or in a few cases, stay open and serve a prix fixe meal laden with froufrou, thousands of diners, most of them Jewish, are faced with a dilemma. There's nothing to celebrate at home and no place to eat out, at least if they want a regular dinner. That leaves Chinese restaurants...
American Chinese cuisine is a cuisine derived from Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. The dishes served in many North American Chinese restaurants are adapted to American tastes and often differ significantly from those found in China.
Kashrut is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the term that in Sephardi or Modern Hebrew is pronounced kashér, meaning "fit". Food that may not be consumed, however, is deemed treif, also spelled treyf. In case of objects the opposite of kosher is pasúl.
A mashgiach or mashgicha is a Jew who supervises the kashrut status of a kosher establishment. Mashgichim may supervise any type of food service establishment, including slaughterhouses, food manufacturers, hotels, caterers, nursing homes, restaurants, butchers, groceries, or cooperatives. Mashgichim usually work as on-site supervisors and inspectors, representing a kosher certification agency or a local rabbi, who actually makes the policy decisions for what is or is not acceptably kosher. Sometimes certifying rabbis act as their own mashgichim; such is the case in many small communities.
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Chrismukkah is a pop-culture portmanteau neologism referring to the merging of the holidays of Christianity's Christmas and Judaism's Hanukkah. It first arose in the German-speaking countries within middle-class Jews of the 19th century. After World War II, Chrismukkah became particularly popular in the United States, but is also celebrated in other countries.
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Cholent or Schalet is a traditional slow-simmering Sabbath stew in Jewish cuisine that was developed by Ashkenazi Jews first in France and later Germany, and is first mentioned in the 12th century. It is related to and is thought to have been derived from hamin, a similar Sabbath stew that emerged in Spain among Sephardic Jews and made its way to France by way of Provence.
Kosher style refers to Jewish cuisine—most often that of Ashkenazi Jews—which may or may not actually be kosher. It is a stylistic designation rather than one based on the laws of kashrut. In some U.S. states, the use of this term in advertising is illegal as a misleading term under consumer protection laws.
Israeli cuisine primarily comprises dishes brought from the Jewish diaspora, and has more recently been defined by the development of a notable fusion cuisine characterized by the mixing of Jewish cuisine and Arab cuisine. It also blends together the culinary traditions of the various diaspora groups, namely those of Middle Eastern Jews with roots in Southwest Asia and North Africa, Sephardi Jews from Iberia, and Ashkenazi Jews from Central and Eastern Europe.
A kosher restaurant or kosher deli is an establishment that serves food that complies with Jewish dietary laws (kashrut). These businesses, which also include diners, cafés, pizzerias, fast food, and cafeterias, and are frequently in listings together with kosher bakeries, butchers, caterers, and other similar places, differ from kosher-style businesses in that they operate under rabbinical supervision, which requires the observance of the laws of kashrut, as well as certain other Jewish laws, including the separation of meat and dairy.
A kosher airline meal is an airline meal that conforms to the standards of kashrut. Many airlines offer the option of kosher meals to passengers if ordered in advance. These not only contain food that is kosher, but also other features to aid observant Jews, such as copies of Tefilat HaDerech and prayers that are recited before and after eating and bread on which the mezonot blessing is recited, thereby enabling observant Jews to consume the bread without washing hands.
Eco-Kashrut, also called the Eco-Kosher movement, is a movement to extend the Kashrut system, or Jewish dietary laws, to address modern environmental, social, and ethical issues, and promote sustainability.
The "Kosher tax" is the idea that food companies and unwitting consumers are forced to pay money to support Judaism or Zionist causes and Israel through the costs of kosher certification. The claim is a conspiracy theory, antisemitic canard, or urban legend.
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American Jewish cuisine comprises the food, cooking, and dining customs associated with American Jews. It was heavily influenced by the cuisine of Jewish immigrants who came to the United States from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th century. It was further developed in unique ways by the immigrants and their descendants, especially in New York City and other large metropolitan areas of the northeastern U.S.
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Criticism of kashrut is criticism of or opposition to the laws of kashrut and/or dislike of kosher foods. Criticism of kashrut can either come from non-Jews or it can come from Jews who don't keep kosher, and it may or may not be motivated by antisemitism. In some European countries, kosher slaughter is either banned or restricted by law, often because nationalists or animal rights activists object to the practice. Certain aspects of kashrut have been alleged to promote sectarianism or racism, a claim that is rejected by Jews who keep kosher. Right-wing extremists sometimes criticize kashrut due to their belief in antisemitic canards and antisemitic conspiracy theories. In Classical Reform Judaism, the keeping of kosher has been discouraged, based on its belief that the keeping of Kosher is an unhelpful vestige of the past. In the Soviet Union, the keeping of Kosher was discouraged, due to the anti-religious and antisemitic policies of the Soviet government, and the anti-religious views of secular Jewish Communists.