“HOLY CARP: Gefilte Fish, Judaism And Me”

Bar Mitzvah Student Researches The History of Gefilte Fish

When Jasper Heinsohn Cohen—known as Jack—celebrates his bar mitzvah on Saturday, October 2, 2010, he won’t be reading from the Torah.  Instead he’ll be giving a PowerPoint presentation about The History of Gefilte Fish.  That’s because Jack and his family are members of The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism that takes an innovative progressive-education approach to this age-old rite of passage.

Students at The City Congregation participate in a unique journey of self-discovery that individualizes the experience for them.  They may choose any major project for research that they want that will make a connection to Jewish heritage or culture.  Their topics, more often than not, evolve naturally out of their own interests and family history. This makes these projects particularly significant personally.

For Jack, an enthusiastic cook, who developed his own recipe for gefilte fish as part of his research, it was natural for him to study the history of this iconic Jewish food.  Along the way, a world of Jewish culture, history and identity opened up to him.  He discovered the role that food plays in transmitting traditions from one generation to the next and how, at the same time, recipes have evolved and adapted just like the Jewish people themselves.     

“Coming from no particular Jewish food tradition,” Jack wrote, “where would my gefilte fish journey end?”  That’s when it occurred to him that he was participating himself “in equally ancient Jewish traditions - questioning the status quo and adapting to my circumstances. Isn’t it more traditional to change gefilte fish than it is to keep preparing it the same way? Couldn’t I devise a recipe that used more easily accessible and cheaper fish and was above all delicious?” 

The City Congregation’s two-year bar/bat mitzvah program is ambitious and demanding. The students start out by exploring their own family history and values.  In cases of intercultural families like Jack’s - his father, Andy is Jewish, with roots in Russia and Ukraine; his mother, Beth, was raised Episcopalian and is a descendant of Connecticut WASPS - the students examine both sides of the family and identify shared values and ideals.  This list, for Jack, includes a commitment to education, saving money, kindness, charity, hard work, politeness, courtesy and civility. 

Out of this investigation, the students figure out their own beliefs and values. This process then helps them think about criteria for choosing a hero or role model and what the difference is between these two figures.  As students assess their own values, they look for a role model or hero who exemplifies those same commitments.  Jack had an obvious choice.  It was Thayer Raines who, with his wife, Candace, are the directors of Roaring Brook Camp, a hardcore survival-skills and sports camp located deep in the woods of east-central Vermont. 

“Thayer is my role model,” Jack wrote, “because he challenges my thinking and other peoples thinking. Also, he is selfless, he never brags about himself, he is adventurous and he wants to help other people to become more adventurous.  These qualities resonate with me because he personifies some of my most cherished values — respect, open-mindedness and independence. By putting campers in problem-solving situations and letting them discover whether their approach works or not he inspires kids to step out of themselves and learn from each other.” 

The students also put their values into action by undertaking community service.  Jack volunteered at Grace Church’s Breakfast program in Jersey City where he helped serve food and wash up the dishes.  Afterwards he wrote that it was a “very humbling experience, and it is very eye opening at least for me it was. It gives you a rough idea of hunger in today’s world.”

Then comes the major project and finally, each student leads a joyful Shabbat service that is filled with readings, songs, and presentations of their wonderful essays and projects. Family members and friends participate as readers.  The sense of accomplishment and deepening connection to our heritage will last long afterwards. 

The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, in New York City, is an affiliate of The Society for Humanistic Judaism, a nation-wide movement of congregations for secular and cultural Jews and their families.  The congregation considers the whole city its neighborhood with members coming from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester, Long Island, and, in the case of Jack’s family, New Jersey.  His family is from Jersey City and, like others who travel to the congregation, exemplify the slogan “that it’s worth the shlep.” Fifty per cent of American Jews identify as secular or cultural and the City Congregation, like other Humanistic congregations, offers them a way to celebrate and preserve their Jewish heritage in a way that is consistent with their secular principles. 

ATTACHMENTS

Text for Gefilte Fish Paper (descriptions of illustration are included)  

PowerPoint Images for Gefilte Fish Paper - Available on request (large file) 

Jack’s Family History Paper 

Jack’s Original Gefilte Fish Recipe

DETAILS

When and Where it will be held: Saturday, October 2, 2010; 10:15am Sheraton Lincoln Harbor, 500 Harbor Boulevard, Weehawken, NJ

How to contact Jack, Andy, Beth for more information: 

Andrew Cohen                        inadvisable@gmail.com

Elizabeth Heinsohn                 elizabethheinsohn@gmail.com

(201) 795-3830 

 More information on the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program: 

The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism (www.citycongregation.org)

Learning - Bar/Bat Mitzvah / Description of the programResources – Bar/Bat Mitzvah Papers / Papers of the students 

Release submitted by Rabbi Peter Schweitzer: rabbipeter@earthlink.net 212-873-7849