Hi Friends,

I hope this email finds you well, in good health and in safety. I’m writing to you from New Jersey where I’ve spent the last two months. It feels strange to provide an update about my work during these difficult times, though I have exciting updates that I hope will provide a measure of comfort and opportunities for engagement.

As you may imagine, and as you may have read about, the food world––along with the diverse community of individuals who work to sustain it––is struggling greatly. Many restaurants, for instance, have either been working overtime to feed the hungry, the frontline healthcare workers, and so many of us who are socially distancing, or they have had to close.

So much of my work over the past few years has been in-person and live culinary events. That work has mostly vanished for now. The pivot to digital platforms in recent weeks, however, has opened up new possibilities to connect and bring people together. I’ve been asked to lead a number of virtual culinary workshops and talks from my kitchen via Zoom and have been delighted by the response and the impact!

The Great Big Jewish Food Fest: Online & In Your Kitchen
With that in mind, I’ve spent that past few weeks working extremely hard (and quite quickly) with a stellar team to produce The Great Big Jewish Food Fest, a free ten day celebration of Jewish food and a way to support the industry. The festival was born of this moment, for this moment, and will be raising funds for a handful of charities and COVID-19 relief efforts to support restaurants, frontline workers, and vulnerable people during this precarious moment. Learn more and donate here.

I hope you’ll check out the incredible roster of presenters and events, as well as the specially curated content (some of which has yet to be announced). A few highlights include a pre-Shabbat cook-along hosted by Top Chef's Gail Simmons featuring Chef Mike Solomonov (Zahav), Chef Einat Admony (Balaboosta), and bestselling cookbook author Adeena Sussman (Sababa), as well as a panel discussion hosted by The James Beard Foundation on restaurants in the age of COVID-19. In addition to culinary events and fascinating conversations, there will also be themed happy hours each night and community-organized Shabbat dinners. Please follow along on Instagram! And you can read about the festival and its genesis in this article in The Forward.

If you're looking to catch me during the festival (hi Mom!), on Tuesday, May 19th at 8pm ET I’ll be featured in The State of the Deli Hosted by David Sax and then on Sunday, May 24th at 4 pm ET I will be co-leading a playful and dynamic cooking demonstration called The Shtetl Pantry of Your Dreams with The Gefilteria. I hope you’ll join!

The City College of New York Course Now Inviting Auditors
For the last two semesters, I’ve been teaching the anthropology of Jewish food at CCNY, a course I developed after years of research. It’s been an incredible year, despite having to move my course online this semester. As I’m looking ahead to the fall, there’s a high probability the course will be remote. The good news is that this opens up the possibility of inviting senior auditors (age 60+) who don’t live in New York City! If you’re interested, it’s quite inexpensive to join for the semester. We’ll be discussing the origins of religious food traditions around the world, the American immigrant experience, Jewish food in the Twenty-First Century (including the digital age), and more. Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. ET to 10:45 a.m. ET. Please sign up for admission here (and between now and August the registrar will guide you through registering for my course, which is JWST 31906). Feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

A Free Online Course about Ashkenazi Jewish Food and Culture with YIVO
Speaking of learning, fun, food and online content, the course on Eastern European Jewish food and culture that I co-produced and for which I serve as guide, “A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food,” launched on May 1. Each week a new unit is added (7 in total). There are cooking demonstrations with cookbook authors and chefs (I lead a good many of them), lectures from leading scholars, discussions, and a treasure trove of archival objects. I’m very proud of what this adds to the field and I hope you’ll enjoy it. It’s free if you register before September. Register here.

Wishing you all health, safety, and inspiration,
Jeffrey

p.s. Support immigrant youth: My partner Rachel is managing policy attorney at The Door’s Legal Services Center and she just launched a COVID-19 Relief Fund to support her clients––immigrant youth who were abused, abandoned, and neglected. Many of her clients––the ones delivering your food and shelving your groceries, with no safety net in place should they become ill or experience job loss––are experiencing extra hardship due to COVID-19, and are struggling to meet their basic needs. Donations can be made through the Door website:  door.org/donate. Please enter “Legal Services Covid-19 Undocumented Youth Relief Fund”  in the comment box. Thank you!