The Yiddishe Mama Roadshow: Foodways and the secular Jew
Felicity Newman, PhD candidate, School of MCC, Division of SSHE
Pub Talk
Thursdays at the Fremantle Hotel, corner Cliff & High Streets
Presentations start 6.30pm sharp.
24 October 2002
Abstract
Foodways are increasingly recognised as fundamental modes of cultural identification amongst diasporic communities. Within Jewish communities these understandings are complicated by Kashruth, the complex web of dietary practices required in order to 'keep kosher' and thus be considered 'observant'.
Jewish foodways need also to be understood in the light of Jewish families and therefore, Jewish mothers. The Yiddishe mama has been caricatured either as an angelic, long suffering, brown-eyed über-nurterer or an overbearing, obsessive, force-feeding machine. These representations are of course, opposite sides of the same coin; but certainly diasporic life has taught Jewish mothers to adapt their show to life on the road.
The role that Jewish food plays in the lives of non-observant Jews, cannot be understood without further considering the tensions between Jew and Judaism, between cultural, racial and religious identity, between patriarchy and cryptomatriarchy and between observance and transgression. Incorporating interview material and video and film footage, this paper begins the unpacking of the Yiddishe Mama Roadshow.
A Yiddishe Mame (A Jewish Mother)
By J.Y. Polack and J. Yellen
| My Yiddishe mama - I miss her more
than ever now My Yiddishe mama - I long to kiss her wrinkled brow I long to hold her hand once more as in days gone by And ask her to forgive me for things I did that made her cry |
|
| How few were her pleasures She never cared for fashion styles Her jewels and her treasures She found them in her babies’ smiles Oh I know that I owe all I am today To that dear little lady who’s old and gray My wonderful Yiddishe mama Mamenyu mayn (Dear mama of mine) |
|
| Vi shayn vi likhtig iz in hoyz Ven di mame iz du Vi troyerik biter vert Ven got nemt ir oyf olam habo |
How beautiful and full of light is the
home When mother is here How gloomy and bitter it is When God takes her to the next world. |
| n vaser in fayer - volt zi gelofen far
ir kind Nit haltn ir tayer, dos volt geven di greste zind Oy vi gliklakh un raykh iz der mentsh vos hot Az a sheyner matone geshenkt fun got Nor an altichke yiddishe mame Mamenyu mayn |
New: 26 September, 2002 | Now: 8 May, 2015