A Jewish Holiday cookbook

Participants: grades K-5

Duration: 2 months 

From the guiding question, “How do customs develop, evolve and pass down?” the students asked:

• What is a custom?

• How do Jewish people tell stories, share customs, and mark time through food?

• Why did recipes develop differently in Jewish communities around the world?

• How are cookbooks constructed?

• What is collage? How can we tell stories through images, layering and texture?

Kesher students discovered that Jews around the world have used local ingredients that are easily accessible to create traditional foods for the holidays, like charoset. These food customs are reinforced through ongoing repetition, and provide a shared experience that is handed down through the generations. Traditions can also be created within families - Shorashim students (Kindergarten-grade 1) explored how certain dishes or activities have become “traditions” within their individual families. This expedition also reached beyond our families. Nitzanim students (grades 2-3) interviewed a Jew-by-choice whose “coming to Judaism” story involved baking 2000 hamantaschen at a college Hillel. They used his suggestions when they made their own hamantaschen. Our Anafim students (grades 4-5) partnered with a handful of residents from the 2Life Communities at the Golda Meir House, gathering their food stories and traditions through in-person interviews. The children’s pages for the residents’ recipes are also in the cookbook titled B’tayavon בתאבון).