Episode 6 of Recognizably Jewish is all about the best-known and best-loved of Jewish foods - the humble but mighty bagel. You’ll learn when and how the bagel developed as a Jewish food in medieval Poland, as well as about the bagel’s arrival in, and impact on, America in the 20th century. And we’ll talk about the current bagel renaissance.

This episode includes excerpts of a phenomenal conversation I had with Joshua Pollack, the founder of Bridge and Tunnel Restaurant Group and the “Bagel Man” at Rosenberg’s Bagels (https://rosenbergsbagels.com/), my personal favorite bagel shop in Denver.

You can find the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.

The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread, by Maria Balinska (https://a.co/d/7fsWyBS)

This is the Eater video I mention in the episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSuAcDiwkk4&t=276s

Here are some other videos worth watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_sPSrSwP40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO6AUtpquVM&t=28s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WuOZM9shZ0&t=10s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQowwnvWzos

The region of the Catskills that became known as the Borscht Belt was the social epicenter of American Jewish life in the middle part of the 20th century. At its peak, it had more than 500 hotels and over 50,000 bungalows, and catered to hundreds of thousands of Jewish visitors each year. The biggest resorts like Grossinger’s, Kutsher’s, the Concord, and the Nevele set the bar for dining and entertainment. While the resorts are now long gone, the cultural impact of the Borscht Belt remains. From cruise ships to Vegas hotels. From Dirty Dancing to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to the very existence of stand-up comedy as we know it today.

How did it happen that a particular slice of upstate New York came to be the premier Jewish vacation destination for most of the 20th century, one with an outsized impact on Jewish culture and American culture writ large?

Listen to this episode of Recognizably Jewish to find out.

Check out Apeloig Collection at apeloigcollection.com.

Sources and sites:

https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Kutshers-Last-Catskills-Resort/dp/B00WYWWJPQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFUa340mdPw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Qngt5FrbY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PWFttncdZg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne63LEGGYWw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht_Belt

https://a.co/d/2mlenkY

https://borschtbelthistoricalmarkerproject.org/

https://hvmag.com/life-style/borscht-belt-hotels-catskills/

https://alexprizgintas.com/borscht-belt-tourism-history/

https://www.borschtbeltmuseum.org/donate

https://catskillsinstitute.northeastern.edu/

http://www.livingstonmanor.net/LMhistory/TanningIndustry.htm

https://footnote.wordpress.ncsu.edu/2020/06/11/the-jewish-agricultural-society-06-12-2020/

Some representative symbols are uniquely Jewish. The menorah is the classic example. That’s not true for the Star of David, which is not mentioned in the Torah, in other parts of the Hebrew bible, or in the Talmud. Because it’s such a simple geometric figure, the Star of David has been used as a design motif by religions and cultures all over the world for thousands of years. So if the Star of David isn’t uniquely Jewish, how did it end up as probably the best-known visual symbolic representation of Judaism today?

Listen to today’s episode of Recognizably Jewish to find out.

Check out our website at www.recognizablyjewish.com.

Check out HaYom Art at hayom.art.

Sources and sites:

https://www.commentary.org/articles/gershom-scholem/the-curious-history-of-the-six-pointed-starhow-the-magen-david-became-the-jewish-symbol/

https://outorah.org/p/60349/

https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Israelat50/Pages/The%20Flag%20and%20the%20Emblem.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_David

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_Solomon

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Magen-David-Avraham-Trugman/dp/9659171617

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tGNWdYLUaY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_2JUp90fPA

https://zeevgoldmann.blogspot.com/2008/08/special-star-of-david-artifacts.html

https://www.mayimachronim.com/secrets-of-the-star-of-david/

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10257-magen-dawid

https://catalog.archives.gov.il/en/chapter/flag/