CHANUKAH 5786 Sec. A, P2
Remember 2019 when things were going so swimmingly for us Jews, when we were so assimilated into Americana that it was thought provoking-satirical-irreverent (choose your adjective) to classify bacon as a Jewish food?
No, neither do I. But Tablet magazine thought so.
It included bacon in a list of 100 Jewish Foods. I recall finding it distasteful at the time. Because some Jews eat bacon doesn’t make it a quintessential “Jewish” food, just as the reality that some Muslims eat bacon make it a “Muslim” food. I’d love to see the list of 100 Muslim Foods that includes alcohol! As a lifelong vegetarian, I’d find it equally cringy to include bacon on a list of “100 Vegetarian Foods,” even if it is one of the main food items that many vegetarians crave the most or is their gateway back to meat-eating (similar argumentation presented by Tablet).
Perhaps my beef (pardon the pun) seems inconsequential, but when some Jews (or any ethnic group) proudly cede a core tenant of their culture, we need to sit up and take notice. Integration shouldn’t mean the rejection of our unique characteristics.
What people do or do not do in their personal lives is immaterial here. But when something fundamentally un-Jewish is publicly proclaimed as quintessentially “Jewish,” we’ve taken a wrong turn. To use today’s parlance, “What are we doing here?”
Fast forward six years and I wouldn’t be surprised if the person who included bacon would now find it cringeworthy — especially at a publication like Tablet which typically treats Jewish identity with deep respect.
Many American Jews have had a wake up call since Oct. 7. Regardless of any Jewish person’s religious practice, I think we can all agree we’re no longer in the days of bacon being a Jewish food — unless, of course, we’re talking about turkey bacon.
Much like in the Chanukah story, we’ve been forced to grapple with what being Jewish really means to us. A lot of us have found that we don’t want the Hellenists (e.g., Mamdani, Nick Fuentes) to decide that for us. We get to decide.
There is a fun spin to this. My colleague Larry Hankin loaned me the puzzle Tablet produced with its list. I’d never done a circular puzzle before and it slowly fits together in very surprising ways.
While there are many quintessential Jewish foods included that I love, the puzzle’s depicition of various meat-based dishes did not leave me salivating. (Unidentifiable puzzle pieces of meat stews are not appetizing!) But this is a great family activity for Chanukah — just make sure to leave off the Hellenist bacon!
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com.
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