by Miriam Aroner (El Cerrito, CA)
My bubbe never tasted hummus or shakshuka.
Gelfilte fish, pickled herring, matzo ball soup:
these were her inheritance
from the old country, the cold country,
the country unfriendly to Jews.
She did not know Jews who spoke Arabic or Spanish
or were, chas v’ chalila, Black.
If they did not speak Yiddish and disliked gefilte fish,
Not Real Jews.
She had escaped the Tsar,
the arranged marriage, the sheitel,
the orthodox rituals from birth to death.
But every Friday she lit candles and made matzo ball soup.
She kept a kosher home, but not glatt.
Her daughter, my mother, born in Chicago,
had no interest in the old country.
She wanted to be a “real American.”
She disliked bubbe’s home-made yogurt,
her heavy stews, her kugel concoctions.
A few times a year she made matzo ball soup
with Swanson’s chicken broth.
Borscht came from Maneshevitz,
gefilte fish from Rokeach.
No pork or shellfish, all the rest was commentary.
Uncomfortable in restaurants other than Jewish delis
she would never order pizza
and was suspicious of Chinese food.
But she liked McDonald’s Fish Filets.
Now I live far from my roots, such as they are,
from Ukraine to Chicago to San Francisco.
Some of us are intermarried,
some are Jews of color,
We collect money for Ukraine, and admire its Jewish President.
We mix nature worship, a bissel of Buddhism,
our High Holidays a tsimmes of shehecheyanus and Leonard Cohen.
All gods are welcome at our feasts,
although most of us are agnostics or atheists.
We eat pho, won ton soup, avgolemono, albondigas,
clam chowder.
We still eat matzo ball soup: with a felafel or samosa.
A native of Chicago, Miriam Aroner has lived in the SF Bay Area most of her adult life. She has worked as a librarian in private and university libraries, including Tel Aviv University. She has published several children’s books, and poems in print, and enjoys traveling “because she always wants to see what’s around the corner or over the hill.” She is a member of a humanistic Jewish congregation.
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