YIVO’s Newest Online Course, Focused on Jewish Food, Launches May 1

(New York, NY)  –  On Friday, May 1, 2020, YIVO will launch the fourth class in the Shine Online Educational Series, A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, A Seat at the Table, along with all of YIVO’s Shine Online courses, will be free of charge.

What defines Ashkenazi Jewish food? Like any great Jewish debate, the arguments are endless: Should matzoh balls be fluffy or dense? Gefilte fish, sweet or peppery? Borsht, hot or cold, creamy or not? While these questions might seem trivial, they carry deep emotional and historical resonance. Food is a vehicle through which Jews (and all cultures) carry their stories and traditions.

YIVO’s newest online course will explore these questions and more as it delves into the heart of Jewish food, with an emphasis on the Ashkenazi table. A Seat at the Table features cooking demonstrations of your favorite Jewish recipes by renowned chefs and cookbook authors like Joan Nathan, Liz Alpern & Jeffrey Yoskowitz (The Gefilteria), Lior Lev Sercarz (La Boite), Adeena Sussman, and Leah Koenig; site visits with Niki Russ Federman & Josh Russ Tupper (Russ & Daughters) and Jake Dell (Katz’s Deli); lectures with scholars and authors such as Michael Twitty, Alice Feiring, Mitchell Davis (James Beard Foundation), Darra Goldstein, Ilan Stavans, and Michael Wex; and hundreds of never-before-seen archival objects from the YIVO Archives. Discover how the essence of Jewish food has remained constant even as the recipes have evolved and changed with the migration of Jews around the world.

Register for the course at yivo.org/food and follow us on Facebook over the coming weeks for teasers and sneak previews of A Seat at the Table.

We encourage you to also take one of our other Shine Online courses and explore the evolution of Yiddish theater with Oh Mama, I’m in Love!, learn about the rich history of Jewish life in Eastern Europe with Discovering Ashkenaz and Ashkenazi folklore with Folksong, Demons, and the Evil Eye. Join our global community of online students in 48 states across the United States and 49 countries around the globe. To register for your free Shine online course, go to yivo.org/shine.

For more information contact:
Ben Kaplan
Director of Education

This online course is sponsored by: 
Edward Blank and Family
The Covenant Foundation
The Shine Trust

YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story