AiVt/t - Lilith Magazine

R O M
THE
E D I T O R
j
he inscription in the cookbook given to me as a Bat
Mitzvah gift by my very
well-educated next-door
neighbor reads: "This,
more than anything, will
BJHLSI
bring pleasure to those you
ove!' After more than 30 years, the assumptions
in that declaration still sting: that at thirteen I'm
going to be ready to cook for anybody; that-a
cookbook couldn't possibly be for my own
pleasure, but for some mysterious persons I
might serve in the future; that it's food and not,
for example, sex that is the preferred pathway
to joy.
in the kitchen, who is permitted to see the
"staging area" for the dinner party, what topics
get discussed at the late-night kitchen table. I've
fed and been fed (literal and figurative nourishment) in the kitchens of most of the women I
care about.
All this is by way of announcing a first. In this
issue we feature an article on the Bukharian food
Ruth Mason's mother prepares, and some of the
assumptions about family life that the cooking
brings forth. (Indicating some of our nervousness, still, about the correct feminist political stance toward cooking, the working title of
this piece in the LILITH office was "Taking
Kitchens Back from the Right Wing!')
Food — its purchase, preparation and consumption — has been a potent issue for feminists.
From who washes the dishes to who diets to
please whom, food has provided the very terms
for many ongoing debates about roles, gender
and more.
An indication of our ambivalence about food
is the fact that this is the first time in LILITH's
thirteen years we've run a food-related article.
We had the strong feeling that putting recipes —
recipes! — in a feminist magazine would signal
the instant when the women's movement stopped
moving. Cooking had come to represent the
emblem of women's oppression.
Especially in an era of fascination with the
lives of "ethnic" women (i.e., anybody who is
not oneself) and with renewed respect for
women's cross-cultural difference, food and its
preparation provide a quick take, a clear and
accessible window onto the experience of Jewish
women in divergent cultures.
B'tovovon.
I
I
I
J
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Susan Weidman Schneider
FEATURES EDITOR
Susan Schnur
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Diana Blettcr
FICTION EDITOR
Julia Wolf Mazow
POETRY EDITOR
Myra Sklarew
ART DIRECTOR
Sheila Shapira-Cortez
PHOTOGRAPHY
Marilynne Herbert
PUBLISHER
Paula Gantz
ADMINISTRATOR
Naomi Danis
And yet, and yet . . . the other side of the
omelette is this: We all know that what goes on in
a kitchen — especially a woman's kitchen — tells
us a lot about the way people live and love.
Kitchen behaviors (aside from food itself) are an
index to intimacy. Which guests feel comfortable
AiVt/t^-
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Lynda Marshak
FOUNDING CO-EDITOR
Aviva Cantor
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Arlene Agus, Esther Broner,
Nina Cardin, Elaine Cohen,
Sue Elwell, Reena Sigman
Friedman, Blu Greenberg,
Judith Hauptman, Anne
Lapidus Lerner, Sharon
Lieberman, Audrey Friedman Marcus, Rela Geffen
Monson, Judith Plaskow,
Nessa Rapaport, Sandy E.
Sasso, Mary Cahn Schwartz, Amy Stone
2
LILITH
Winter 1990
LILITH thanks the following for their generous financial support: Mona
Riklis Ackerman, Bernyce Adler, Jo Amer, Anita Bakal, Sue H. Barnett,
Gail A. Bendheim, Michael Berkowitz, Anaruth Bernard, Wendy
Biderman, Geraldine Bieber, Annette C. Blank, Edith M. Bloch, Debra Lee
Blumberg, Rabbi Balfour Brickner, Ellen Cahn-Nadler, Rabbi Nina Beth
Cardin, Steven & Sharon Burns Carter, Joan Chasan, Mary Cohart, Julie
Colish, Naomi Cooper, N. Cortell, Rabbi Laurie Coskey, Irene Dash, Joan
E Dattner, Sarah DeRis, Ruth Dickstein, Robyne Diller, Barbara Dobkin,
Pearl Elias, Lillian Engel, Nancy R. Engerman, Rachel Esserman, Janet
Zerlin Fagan, Mickey Fernandez, Mary Fish, Marilyn Fox, Betty Friedan,
Rabbi Dayle Friedman, Marcia Friedman, Wilma Friedman, Mary
Gendler, Myrna Goldenberg, Sara Goodman, Rabbi Joel Gordon, Diane F
Gottlieb, Shirley Gould, Yvette Gralla, Anita Gray, Rabbi Irving & Blu
Greenberg, Deborah Greene, Meryl Greenwald, Susan Haas, Phyllis
Harte, Walter Jacob, Judith Jacobson, Aviva Kadosh, Buth & Nat
Kameny, Geraldine Karasik, Feme Katleman, Judith Zuckerman Kaufman, Kay Kaufman, Samuel & Francine Klagsbrun, Celia R. Klein, Lynn
Sacks Klein, Lisa Kohen, Lee Kurzer, Sherrill Kushner, Joette Labinger,
Mildred Lackow, Bob Lamm, Alma Lasher, Joan Seif Levi, Joan D. Levin,
Mildred Levin, Sophie L. Lovinger, Julia F Mack, Annette Mauer, Lynda
G. Mayman, Merit Gasoline Foundation, Jill Meyer, Harriet Meyers,
Jane S. Miller, Susan Miller, Ms. Foundation, Helen Muhlbauer, Shelley
Mulberg, Sondra Nathan, Dianne Newman, Gertrude Ogushwitz, Jo Ann
Mayer Orlinsky, Daisy M. Osborn, Laurel Paley, Harriet L, Parmet, Myra
Patner, Michael & Natalie Pelavin, Judith Plaskow, Susan Pollock, Vicki
Raab, Sonya Rapee, Evelyn Redlich, Angela Reinhard, Lilly Rivlin,
Mallory Robinson, Norma Rolnick, Ellen S. Saltman, Ann Baldridge
Scheuer, Clara G Schiffler, Toby & Mort Schneider, Rabbi Judy Shanks,
Sandra E Shifrin, Gail Shiner, Carol B. Shore, Rabbi Marion Shulevitz,
Charles E. Silberman, Cantor Paul Silbersher, Henriette Simon, Minna
Slater, Sarah Small, Lynn Somerstein, Mildred Spevack, Sheila & Melvin
Stanger, Buth Steinberg, Sandy Tamni, Sheila Tanenbaum, Temple
Emanu-EI Library of Providence Bl, Peggy Tishman, Helen Weisberg,
Henny Wenkart, Mauri J. Willis, Alexandra Wright, Sharon D. Young,
Marjone Yudkin, Vivian Zamel, Cindy Zelkowitz.
LILITH thanks the following for their advice and assistance: Pauline
Bart, Ivan Berkowitz, Marvin Cohn, Barbara & Eric Dobkin, Deborah E
Hahn, Doreen Hermelin, Nat Kameny, Linda Lee, Letty Cottin Pogrebin,
Rachel & Seth Salpeter, Yael Schneider.