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Podcast / The history of…
Podcast / The history of…

Passover – telling stories with food

Millions of Jewish families around the world are celebrating Passover with storytelling, wine, and food.

If you do not know, Passover is a religious festival that commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt.

The celebrations are filled with deep meaning and powerful symbolism.

The Seder Meal takes centre stage. It has many elements, with each item having its own symbolic meaning.

And like the story behind Passover, these foods have been passed down for generations and hold significance for lots of people.

So, in this episode of the Food Matters Live podcast, we explore this delicious tradition, unpack the symbolism within, and look at how people are celebrating in the modern world.

Nora Rubel, Chair of the Department of Religion and Classics, University of Rochester

Nora Rubel is the Jane and Alan Batkin Professor in Jewish Studies and Chair of the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester.

She teaches and writes on a wide variety of topics related to gender, race and ethnicity in American religion, particularly in relation to food and popular culture.

She is the author of “Doubting the Devout: The Ultra-Orthodox in the Jewish American Imagination”, co-editor of Religion, Food and Eating in North America”  and the in-progress “Transparent: Queering the Jewish Family on TV”.

She is currently completing a monograph entitled “Recipes for the Melting Pot: The Lives of The Settlemet Cook Book”. 

Helene Sinnreich, Director of the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies, University of Tennessee

Helene Sinnreich is director of the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and is currently serving as a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study at Central European University in Budapest. 

Dr Sinnreich has written on food spaces and hunger during the Holocaust. Her recently published book “The Atrocity of Hunger” focuses on food and hunger during the Holocaust. 

Helene Sinnreich serves as co-editor-in-chief of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s academic journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies and was the founding editor-in-chief of Journal of Jewish Identities.

Dr Sinnreich has previously served as a fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. and at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. 

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