This article appeared in the Sept. 30, 2005 Jewish Advocate.

A shopper with a sense of the past:

Dietician launches series on Jewish Food trends

BY SUSIE DAVIDSON

In 2004, dietitian and nutritionist Susan Mason attended “Are We What We Eat?,” a conference on Jewish foods sponsored by the Judaic Studies Department at George Washington University. She soon found herself taking literal note while out on household errands.

Last winter, Mason, who has lived in Quincy since 1996, wrote an article, an education program and panel discussion on Jewish food traditions for Temple B'nai Shalom of Braintree, where she is a board member (she is also on the board at Hadassah’s South Suburban Chapter).

Following an invitation from the Sisterhood of Temple Sha’aray, she presented “Food Traditions: A Jewish Perspective” this past Tuesday at the Hingham synagogue. The program, offered at a very low cost, will continue on Nov. 10 at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. “This year marks the 350th anniversary of the Jewish community in America,” Mason remarked. “During that time, many Jewish foods have been adapted by mainstream America, and conversely, many American foods have been incorporated into the Jewish palate.

“Today across the US,” she continued, “you can find challah, bagels and rugelah in most supermarkets and bakeries. This was not so 20 years ago.” But Mason also notes that most Americans were not aware of the Jewish origins of these foods. Widespread change has also occurred for Jews, she says. “Could our ancestors have imagined that in every small town across America, you could find a bagel with sausage, egg and cheese?” she asks. “Could they have envisioned Kosher Chinese restaurants?”

A lifelong interest in food fostered the Maspeth, New York native’s 20 year-career as a public health nutritionist. Following a bachelor's degree in biology from The City College of New York, she worked as a research technician at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Later in Philadelphia, she was a Special Education teacher, before moving to Lexington, Kentucky with her husband and two daughters.

During their 24 years there, she obtained a Master's degree in Food Science and Nutrition from the University of Kentucky and became a registered dietitian. “My children usually were the only Jews in their class,” she recalled, “and the school had only one other Jewish family.” She found herself conducting many presentations about the holidays. “I made a lot of latkes in Kentucky,” she said.

One Passover, the director of the Bourbon County Department of Health, where she worked for 11 years as the county’s sole Public Health Nutritionist, asked how she could eat “the awful food served at the seder” for eight days. “I discovered that at his church, they only served the ritual foods from the seder plate, and no meal followed,” she explained. “For him, that was Jewish food.” She quickly filled him in about the terrific foods served at the festival meal.

In Kentucky, there were no traditional Jewish foods in the stores. For holidays and life cycle events, women would get together at the synagogues for advance cooking. “The Jewish community in Lexington included Jews from all regions of the US,” she says, “as well as from foreign countries.” They made traditional baked foods like challah, mandel bread and rugelah, and each person contributed their own speciality items such as chopped liver, kugels, and stuffed cabbage. “Each cook,” she says, “observed the other, and we learned from each other.” Any Kosher items that were needed, as well as bagels, were imported from Cincinnati.

In the 1980's, Mason chaired a cookbook committee for Temple Adath Israel. “Included in that book are recipes for beer cheese, and bourbon balls,” she notes. “Like most Jewish organization's fundraising cookbooks it included local specialties that then became part of the ‘Jewish Foods’ unique to that area,” she explains. She was a member of Temple Adath Israel, Ohavay Zion and Lexington Havurah, a past president of The Lexington Chapter of Hadassah, and served on The Central States Region of Hadassah board. She also spent a year in Holland, one in Germany and one in Boston.

Following arrival in Boston, she worked for five years at the Harvard Street Health Center in Dorchester. Mason will return to Lexington to present the program and panel discussion in the spring. The talk at Cambridge Ed will not have a panel; rather, she plans to include a short historic discussion on cookbooks. (“When I was 12 years old,” she recalled, “my uncle read to me from ‘Love and Knishes’. Since then, I have always enjoyed reading cookbooks.”) One, the “Settlement Cookbook,” was not kosher, she says, and included many traif recipes, “but also, many of the old standards.”

Mason also uses a Manischewitz book from the 1930's, which included health and nutrition information, as did many early American Jewish cookbooks. Given Mason’s propensity for great anecdotes, her public speaking is certain to be delightful. “A new bakery open in Quincy last month,” she told the Advocate. “I noticed they made Challah, and last Friday, I ordered one.” When she arrived to pick it up, she was told that unfortunately, a new employee had sold it. “They were very apologetic, and offered me a Scali bread for free,” she said. She found herself disclosing the ritual nature of Challah on Friday evening. “I explained that for him, it would be like eating pasta or lasagna with Challah, instead of Italian bread.”

Food Traditions: A Jewish Perspective, with Susan Mason, will be held Nov. 10 at 10:30 a.m. at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 56 Brattle St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. Cost: $2 ($1 for seniors) For information, please call 617-547-6789 or visit http://www.ccae.org.