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(Baltimore, MD) For Jews, as for other Americans, food is never just about consumption: food is a means to observe and to celebrate, to maintain tradition and to mark transition, to preserve memory and to produce new meaning. American Jewish foodways, in short, open up a host of conversations about the history and experience of being Jewish and American in the 21^st century. The Jewish Museum of Maryland explores Jewish-American foodways in a new exhibition, Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture, and American Jewish Identity, which opened at the Baltimore museum on October 23, 2011 and runs through September 30, 2012.

“What we’ve learned while researching this exhibition is that the Jewish community pitches a big tent,” says Karen Falk, curator of the exhibition. “That means that your Jewish food may not be the same as my Jewish food. And our Jewish food includes Thanksgiving turkeys, Chanukah gingerbread houses, and Oreos-themed birthday parties right along with the matzah balls in chicken soup and falafel in pita bread.”

Through recorded conversations, historical and contemporary documents, and the rich material culture of foodways, the exhibition demonstrates how American Jews use food as an essential mode of cultural communication. In addition to the exhibition, the Museum produced a related catalog and website scheduled for completion in winter 2011.

“The Jewish Museum of Maryland began this project,” explains Falk, “when our curators noticed that food was among our most animated topics of conversation, at the office and among our friends. Everyone, it seems, has something to say about Jewish food.” Falk believes that the reasons for this are multi-layered, and complex.

“The choices we make when cooking and eating go deeper than personal preference,” Falk asserts. “They express our deeply held religious, ethical, and cultural values, and reflect changing social mores.”

Exhibition Overview

The exhibition takes on a variety of concerns. In seven areas, Chosen Food explores: the unexpected variety of foods that can be identified as Jewish; the ways American Jews modulate tradition in their kosher and non-kosher kitchens; what happens when a family recipe is brought to America; how identities are forged around the dinner table; the Jewish meanings of eating out, including delis and Chinese food; the important role of the caterer as “translator” of “American” into “Jewish” food; and the issues inherent in “ethical eating.”

Exhibition Themes

“You are what you eat!” “The taste of home. “The staff of life.” “Breaking bread together.” These and a hundred other catch phrases suggest the cultural import of human foodways. Eating is a basic human need, but how, what, where, and with whom we eat transcends mere nutrition: food embodies values, symbols, and concepts around which we organize our lives. Our foodways represent where we are from, declare to whom or what we belong, and reveal what we believe. As historian Hasia Diner, one of the scholars advising the JMM on the exhibition development, argues, “a group’s way with food goes far beyond an exploration of cooking and consumption. It amounts to a journey to the heart of its collective world.”

Together with Dr. Diner of New York University, the scholars who have contributed their expertise to the exhibition include: Dr. Warren Belasco (University of Maryland Baltimore County), editor of the journal Food, Culture and Society; Dr. Carole Counihan (Millersville University), editor of the journal Food and Foodways; Dr. Ted Merwin, Dickinson College; Dr. Juliana Ochs Dweck of the Princeton Univesrity Art Museum; Dr. Stephen Whitfield, Professor for American Studies at Brandeis University, and Dr. Vanessa Ochs, University of Virginia.

After display at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, Chosen Food will travel to the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, in Atlanta in fall 2012. Additional venues will be announced. This exhibition is made possible by The National Endowment for the Humanities; The Herbert Bearman Foundation, Inc.; and Anonymous. Special thanks to our media sponsors, Urbanite, Baltimore Jewish Times, Style Magazine, WYPR, and Great Kosher Restaurants Magazine.

The Jewish Museum of Maryland is dedicated to the interpretation of the Jewish experience in America with special attention to the collection, preservation and study of Jewish life in Maryland. The Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums and is an agency of THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. Visit the Museum’s website at www.jewishmuseummd.org

General Information

Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday, noon to 4:00 p.m.; and Sunday noon – 4:00 pm. Museum admission is $8.00 for adults, $4.00 for students, $3 for children under 12. Admission is free for Jewish Museum of Maryland members. Free parking is available. For general information on The Jewish Museum of Maryland, the public may visit the Museum’s Web site at www.jewishmuseummd.org or call (410) 732-6400.