The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center and UJA-Federation of New York Present:
Naama Shefi in conversation with Michael Solomonov
For many Jewish people, the meal is the holiday. And for Naama Shefi, founder of Jewish Food Society, that sentiment is even more meaningful. Through the organization’s vast archive, stories and recipes from Jewish families around the world are preserved and cherished, tracing thousands of years of culture and Jewish food traditions.
Naama’s career has always centered around Jewish food, from founding Jewish Food Society and its companion storytelling event and podcast Schmaltzy, to launching Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel in Tel Aviv, to her extremely popular Kubbeh Project pop-up in New York City.
Now Naama, alongside co-author Devra Ferst and the team at Jewish Food Society, is thrilled to introduce The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long, a collection of 135 recipes from celebrated chefs, home cooks, artists, creatives and more, all reflecting the diversity of Jewish cuisine. Within its pages, readers will discover recipes for an Iraqi Purim party, a festive French Shabbat, and a Moroccan Mimouna gathering to mark the end of Passover. There are also stories of a long journey by camel in Yemen, of survival in Ukraine, of a Bukharian grandmother on YouTube and of women baking holiday sweets together in what’s now Zimbabwe. The book is a dynamic expression of all the ways we celebrate through what we bring to the table, with images from award-winning photographer Penny De Los Santos.
Naama joins us to share the stories behind the recipes, and to discuss how food is an expression of Jewish identity in conversation with James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Solomonov, owner of Zahav, Abe Fisher, Dizengoff and other restaurants in Philadelphia and Laser Wolf in Brooklyn. He is co-author of the cookbook Zahav, which includes his recipe for hummus, chosen as Bon Appétit’s "2015 Dish of the Year.”
Naama and Mike will conclude the program with a short hands-on demo of a recipe from The Jewish Holiday Table.
