PAUSE to Savor
Sometimes, a meal is just about the food. But isn’t it better when it’s about so much more?
Food can drop us right into an experience – a warm hug, a fond memory, a portal in time. Sometimes, the foods we share tell our stories for us, beyond words. They reveal feelings of comfort, joy, sorrow, and resilience.
During Shabbat, OneTable invites you to celebrate the foods that make you you. Explore the journeys of the bites that nourish you and deepen your relationship with the foods that tell your (hi)stories.
Ready to host your own OneTable Shabbat?
PAUSE Episode 11 | Shabbat Breads from Around the World from the Jewish Food Society Archive
There is immense power and potential when we gather with delicious food and inspiring community at the Shabbat dinner table✨. Together with Jewish Food Society, this month we’re sharing Shabbat 🥖 breads 🥖 from around the world from their digital recipe archive. We’re highlighting dabo, kubaneh, and challah, and we invite you to explore the journeys of the bites that tell your (hi)stories.
From Generation to Generation - for Intergenerational Shabbat Dinners
May this intergenerational experience be an opportunity to welcome the wisdom of our elders, inspire the energy of our youth, and learn from one another with joy and openness as we celebrate Shabbat.
The Memory Dinner
The Shabbat table has always been a place where Jewish people have experimented and codified “Jewish food” — food that tells the story of what it means to be a part of this community. Now, we turn to our own Shabbat table as a place to elevate our own stories, prompted and inspired by dishes we feel connected to.
Slice of Conversation
Today, the breads on our tables can serve as a reminder that not everyone has the means or the time to put food on the table, and that we are grateful to be able to do both as we celebrate Shabbat. We invite you to use this resource to inspire conversation at your Shabbat table.
Jewish Food Society - PAUSE Recipes
Inspired by the breads featured in our PAUSE episode and want to try your hand at dabo, kubaneh, or challah? Visit the Jewish Food Society’s PAUSE page for all of the recipes, and more!
How Cooking Becomes My Therapy, Opening Me Up For Powerful Change by Jordan Daniels
“When I cook, I forget about my circumstances. It’s just me, the stove, and the ingredients. It’s a moment of stasis- all is right in my world because the focus is singular: create something.”
Jewish Food Society
The Jewish Food Society’s mission is to honor and revitalize Jewish culinary traditions, but you don’t have to be Jewish to take part. They want to get people curious about the rich scope of this truly diverse cuisine. It’s not all bagels, pastrami and babka. There’s Iraqi sabich, Persian gondi and Yemenite kubaneh. Soul foods that you will want to know, and to taste.
*Photo from the Jewish Food Society Archive
Preserve + Present with The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide
Use this resource, presented by The Smithsonian, to learn how to preserve oral history. “This booklet presents some guidelines Smithsonian folklorists have developed over the years for collecting folklife and oral history from family and community members. It features a general guide to conducting an interview, as well as a sample list of questions that may be adapted to your own needs and circumstances.”
Contribute to Tlaim, The Patchwork Cookbook
“A project supported by Be’chol Lashon, Tlaim: The Patchwork Cookbook aims to celebrate the racial and ethnic diversity within the Jewish community. We want to celebrate the myriad unique experiences that each of us has as a product of our identities. We will pair recipes with poems, stories, essays, and photographs from submitters so that it becomes more than just a cookbook but also a mosaic of experiences from a plethora of backgrounds.”
The Study: Vayikra - Animal Sacrifice & Veganism feat. Asa Keisar
Asa Keisar, initiator and founder of the Vegan Kosher Certification, talks to Fannie and Raviv about the textual basis in Torah for a vegan kosher movement, the necessity of setting boundaries to keep society in line, and his theory concerning animal sacrifice, kashrut, and the Israelites’ journey from idolatry to monotheism.
The Queer Afro-Jew’s Guide to Culinary Liberation
“As a Queer, Black and Jewish person, it’s clear that my identities carry trauma. It’s also clear that these identities hold gatherings as a means to process and heal trauma, as well as find freedom and joy in community. How did we move from pain into freedom?”
*Image credit: colorbloq.org
The Jewish American Bakery Renaissance
Read about the newest players bringing Jewish food back in a bold way!
Who Said Jews Need to Eat Braided Challah on Shabbat?
“God commanded us to make bread. Not specifically eggy, braided and puffy bread with raisins, but just bread.”
On Shabbat, Go Vegan
When looking for beautiful vegan Shabbat options, might we suggest Chef Beejhy Barhany’s Ethiopian goman, or hamli, made of softened collard greens or Carmit Delman, a descendant of Bene Israel’s Indian cabbage.
On Instagram, Shabbat is #self-care
“On the Jewish corners of social media, people are trying to translate ancient Jewish rituals— among them, the weekly practice of baking challah—into an accessible, modern vernacular that appeals to a broad constituency of young(ish) Jews like me. And they’re taking their aesthetic and linguistic cues from a phenomenon with which I’ve been long acquainted: self-care.”
Flavors of the Past | Diana in Denver
Diana Lizmi is a Texas native who loves all things food — you can find her cooking and baking for friends and winning hearts through full bellies. She grew up in a Morrocan and Lebanese household where food was always a form of love and connection. Jewish cuisine is a collaboration of many different cultures, and the Lizmis fully embrace this concept.
Food as a Vessel of Culture, Memory, History at Shabbat Dinner
An Arabic proverb teaches that the key to one’s heart is through the stomach. For many of us, our cultural foods act as a vessel linking us to our cultural memory, as a daily ritual passed on from one generation to the next, preserving and shaping identity and narratives of home.