Everyone knows that food is more than just fuel for the body. It is culture, memory and connection.
ANU—Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv has organized a weeklong celebration of the cuisines of “hidden” Jewish communities now living in Israel. The food of each group—including the Bnei Menashe from India, the Kaifeng Jews from China and the Subbotnikim from Russia—will be showcased at restaurants around the country, accompanied by the stories behind each dish.
“Recently we’ve been starting to explore the issue of community, and we realized we have a lot of communities abroad that are reaching out to the Jewish world and rediscovering their Judaism,” Hagar Doron, director of the Databases Department at ANU, told JNS.
“For us as Israelis, I found that our audiences are interested in these different variations of the Jewish world, such as communities like the Subbotnikim of Russia. We are only now discovering that the Jewish world is much bigger than we thought.”
The Subbotnikim—a group of Russian and Ukrainian peasants who converted to Judaism more than 200 years ago under the czarist regime—have immigrated to Israel from Voronezh and surrounding areas in several waves, from the early Zionist pioneering period through recent decades. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 now live in Israel.
Their cuisine is being featured at Keton, a Tel Aviv restaurant that has served Ashkenazi Jewish food since 1945. Chef Orna Raskin, the restaurant’s third-generation owner, said she developed the special menu with the museum’s assistance.
“When we were preparing the dishes for the photo shoot, Daria, one of my waitresses, smelled the sweet lokshen soup and said, ‘This is exactly like what they served us in kindergarten in Russia,’” Raskin said. “At that moment I realized that even though I didn’t know the story of the Voronezh Jews, the flavors are what connect us and open a window to a fascinating story of community.”
The menu includes pickled watermelon, pickled red onion and smoked cheese; olnik, slow-baked overnight with short ribs and egg, served with applesauce; piroshki stuffed with stewed cabbage and blueberries; and hot milk-and-noodle soup with cinnamon butter.
In Israel, the Subbotnikim are recognized as Jewish and do not need to undergo conversion. The other communities featured in the festival, however, have faced questions about their Jewish status and generally underwent conversion after arriving in Israel.
Bnei Menashe and Abayudaya
The largest group is the Bnei Menashe, who believe they are descendants of one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. In 2005, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate recognized them as descendants of Israel, but they are still required to undergo Orthodox conversion before being fully recognized as Jewish or receiving Israeli citizenship.
Today, about 5,000 Bnei Menashe live in Israel, and a government initiative aims to bring the remaining 5,800 members of the community from northeastern India by 2030.
Originating in the border region between India and Myanmar, the Bnei Menashe have a cuisine distinct from the Indian food familiar to most Israelis. Tel Aviv’s Bollywood Cafe, working with community member Jessica Thangzom, has created a special menu showcasing Bnei Menashe cuisine.
The dishes include mepoh, a traditional rice dish with greens; gotoi stew made with bamboo shoots and peas; and mai kikang, stir-fried pumpkin served with cabbage salad and black sesame butter.
Another little-known community is the Abayudaya, numbering about 2,000 to 3,000 Jews in eastern Uganda. Israel’s Interior Ministry generally classifies them as an “emerging” Jewish community, and they have historically struggled to obtain recognition under Israel’s Law of Return.
Their cuisine is vegetarian and centered on root vegetables. Balinjera, a kosher Ethiopian restaurant in Tel Aviv, has created a menu dedicated to the ingredients and flavors of the Ugandan Jewish community.
Chef and owner Fanta Prada said the dishes reflect a meeting between her Ethiopian culinary heritage and Abayudaya traditions.
The menu includes Shiro Abayudaya—Balinjera’s signature shiro served alongside a tomato, carrot, green pepper and ginger stew prepared in the Abayudaya style; an African Harvest Bowl with rice, beans, dinch alicha, gomen and chopped tomato salad; and teff mini-pancakes served with Abayudaya charoset made from bananas, apples, roasted peanuts, wine and spices.
“When I read about the cuisine of the Abayudaya community, I felt right at home—the simplicity and connection to the land reminded me of my own culinary heritage, that of the Beta Israel community,” Prada said.
“Yet, alongside that sense of familiarity, I was filled with wonder and curiosity about ingredients I hadn’t encountered before. I spent time in African markets and spoke with people from Uganda to better understand this cuisine, and the dishes I created represent a dialogue between this new culinary world and my own.”
Other communities featured at local restaurants include San Nicandro from Italy, Bnei Moshe from Peru, the Amazonos community from Brazil and the Kaifeng Jews from China.
The special menus will be available from July 26 through July 31. The festival will conclude on July 31 with a panel discussion featuring members of the participating communities.
The project grew out of an earlier series of lectures on the foods of emerging Jewish communities.
“This is part two,” Li Gill, director of FOODISH Israel, ANU’s culinary wing, told JNS. “We spoke to community members about the dishes they remember, especially those they ate on Shabbat. What symbolic foods did they eat? We were able to collect both precise recipes and others preserved mainly through memory.”
