Between Cholent and Feijoada: Food-ways of the Jewish Mother in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Ayalon-Brustein, Karen
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Arquivo Maaravi: Revista Digital de Estudos Judaicos da UFMG
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/maaravi/article/view/46468
• topic: Imigração judaica; Alimentos-formas; Comida judaica; Jewish immigration; Food-ways; Jewish food

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Jewish people immigrated enmasse from Eastern Europe to the 'New World'. Jews left the traditional 'Shtetl' in anattempt to improve their and their family’s lives. Brazil was one of the immigrationdestinations. The nature of Jewish immigration, according to which the fatherimmigrated first and then was followed by the wife and children, changed thestructure of the Jewish family beyond recognition, positioning the Jewish mother asthe pillar of the family. When Jewish mothers arrived in Brazil, they continued toface poverty similar to what they had endured back in Europe. As they were used tofeeding their families in conditions of poverty, they began to cook Brazilian 'poorpeople's food' just as they had done in their countries of origin, such as stews withpotatoes and beets. But they also had to give up certain ingredients due toobservance of kosher laws, and to adopt new ingredients that are not common inEastern Europe, such as cassava flour. The figure of the 'YiddisheMame' alsosymbolizes the economic establishment and the socio-cultural transformation thatthe Jews went through in Brazil, where the Jewish mother gave her place in thekitchen to the housekeeper and went to study and work. Jewish food’s place becamespecial and festive, food that is cooked in the mother's or grandmother's kitchen as asignificant expression of Judaism for the Jewish-Brazilian diaspora. This articlepresents the food-ways of the Jewish mother in Brazil over the years, and through itoutlines the formation of the Jewish-Brazilian Diaspora.