ssm@cmu-ri-leg.ARPA (Sesh Murthy) (03/28/85)
There is a certain comfort in the familiar, as in the
Passover feast many American Jews will serve next week to mark the
Exodus of their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. Every table will
offer the ritualistic foods: symbols of spring and rebirth, of the
bitterness of slavery and the sweetness of freedom, of the bread
baked in such haste it did not rise. If there is an overriding rule
of Passover, it is that no leavened foods may be eaten.
Such rituals, however, are only a framework for the Passover meal,
in Hebrew ''seder'' or order of service. It is a framework within
which great culinary variety has developed, inspired by the cuisines
of the far-flung countries where Jews settled. From some of these
countries have come Passover foods that, because of varying
historical developments, are unfamiliar to most Jews in the United
States.
From the Sephardim who left Spain in the 15th century and made their
homes in Turkey, Syria and North Africa and from the Oriental Jews of
India and Egypt have come vegetable soups, lamb and veal stews, chewy
flatbreads, cherry preserves and dates and exotic spices such as
cardomom and turmeric. Such preparations are a marked contrast to the
gefilte fish, chicken soup with matzoh balls, roast chicken,
vegetables and sponge cake generally served by Ashkenazic Jews who
came from Central and Eastern Europe and now constitute more than 90
percent of the Jews in the United States.
Last week a group of Sephardic, Oriental and Ashkenazic women
gathered at the Manhattan home of Helene Simon, a sculptor from Iraq,
to compare Passover traditions and sample one another's recipes. Many
of the women had fled their homelands for political reasons, leaving
behind their possessions but taking with them cherished customs.
They had few Passover foods in common. To the Ashkenazim, for
example, many Sephardic and Oriental foods contain ingredients, such
as rice, that according to their interpretation of Jewish law are
forbidden during Passover. However, all the women could recall the
excitement with which, as children, they greeted the holiday. They
spoke, for example, of the hunt to clean leavened products from their
homes and of how they were given something to nibble during the seder
service: In one Sephardic household it was lettuce leaves, in an
Ashkenazic home it was potato pancakes.
As members of the ethnography committee of the American Friends of
the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the women said they share a
responsibility for preserving their heritage. So it is that each
observes Passover in this country as she did in her native land.
Lavina Abraham comes from a community of Jewsin
Bombay who trace their lineage in India back 2,000 years. She came to
the United States in 1962 with her husband, George, who directs Coney
Island Hospital's laboratory.
Now a resident of the Riverdale section of the Bronx, Mrs. Abraham,
a laboratory technician at New York Medical College, sets a seder
table redolent with Indian spices - ginger, coriander, chilis and
turmeric. The meal, for 30 to 40 people, will include fragrant Indian
specialties such as fried lamb patties coated with mashed potatoes,
spiced basmati rice and chapati, the Indian bread that puffs as it
cooks.
Like many Oriental Jews, she will make haroseth - the fruit
confection symbolizing the mortar with which slaves fashioned bricks
in Egypt - with dates and water; in most Ashkenazic homes, haroseth
is made with chopped apples, nuts and wine. Instead of salt water,
representing the tears the slaves shed, there will be lemon juice.
The wine, symbol of redemption, will be made from black raisins
instead of grapes.
''It is very important to raise the family the way I was taught,''
Mrs. Abraham said. ''By maintaining our tradition, we have survived
more than 2,000 years.''
For Vicky Nahmad, whose ancestors left France for Egypt in 1790,
seder begins with vegetable soup, followed by veal stew seasoned with
cardamom, turmeric, lemon and garlic and served over rice that has
been cooked until it forms a crust. Her recipe for fried matzoh
served in a sweetened syrup is an elaborate version of the Ashkenazic
matzoh brei, a savory often served for breakfast. The matzoh balls on
the seder table are a comparatively recent addition; Mrs. Nahmad said
she added them because her family, which arrived in New York in 1959,
has come to love them.
''In Egypt, the Passover celebration was absolutely fantastic,'' she
recalled. ''We were all large families and there were always 24 to 28
at the seder. The cooking was done by my mother and all her
sisters.'' The haroseth, she continued, was like a jam: ''Mother
would take a week to make it.''
In Cairo Mrs. Nahmad had a choice of different kinds of unleavened
breads or matzohs - the majority of which are unavailable in the
United States. One was so thin that, as she described it, when damp
it can be filled with meats or cheese and rolled up like phyllo
dough. There were also enormous round matzohs.
Many other Passover traditions are represented in the New York area.
Irma Cardozo, whose husband is the Rev. Abraham Cardozo of
Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue at
Central Park West and West 70th Street, makes haroseth using
cinnamon, dried fruits, coconut and cherry preserves - foods common
in Suriname, where members of her family have been living since 1492.
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nyt-03-27-85 0233est
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