Genie Milgrom on Food And Judaism

There’s an old Jewish joke with a kernel of truth that’s supposed to sum up the Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat.” It’s an oversimplification of the very real connection between Jewish history, culture and tradition, and food.

Genie Milgrom of Miami had a life that was changed and shaped by that connection – even before she was aware of it. Her family escaped from Fidel Castro’s Cuba to Miami in 1960, and she was raised a devout Catholic. But as she recounts in her memoir “My 15 Grandmothers,” she always felt a mysterious pull toward Judaism.  After much study and searching, her genealogical research led her back hundreds of years to her Jewish ancestors from a village in western Spain. She learned that although the terror of the Inquisition forced her family to practice Catholicism in the open, they carried their Judaism with them in secret, including their dietary customs.