A Many-Flavored Family Tapestry
I enjoyed the responses to the recent Word Prompt about “gefilte fish” (Nov. 28). Here is my story.
I’ll open by saying that both my parents are American-born, and their parents all came from Hungary in the late 19th century. Gefilte fish from a jar was our Shabbat morning snack before the long walk to shul, so it has warm memories for me for that reason.
Fast forward a few decades and I was living in Tzfat for a year. I had been invited to friends for Shabbat dinner and when I asked what I could bring, my hostess asked if I could pick up the fish from the local market and bring it to her to make gefilte fish. I saw how the fishmonger (is that still a word?) killed the fish and didn’t touch any fish for at least a year.
Fast forward some more: I got married, and I would buy that partly cooked gefilte fish in the frozen section, add carrots and onions as instructed, and the family loved it. Especially my sons. (Something hormonal?) One son claims he stopped being a vegetarian because of it. (What my pineapple chicken and supposedly delicious meatballs didn’t accomplish, gefilte fish did.)
Fast forward again and our daughter Adina brings home Itay, a swarthy, quiet young man with a Moroccan mother and a Tunisian father. That daughter is the lightest-skinned in our family. They had just started dating, and I involuntarily blurted out, “Wow, will you have gorgeous children!” (BTW, bli ayin hara they do. But I digress.)
The first time Itay was over after they were married, when I made gefilte fish, he… well, grimaced. I was surprised, since he is one of the most genteel, polite people I’ve ever met. It was so out of character. He apologized and said that thanks, but he just couldn’t eat it. (He also sips chicken soup only when he’s sick.)
Moroccan Fish
There were other culinary surprises. We have dairy Friday night and sometimes add lasagna or chalavi quiche to the fish menu. The first time he asked for another plate, I thought he was being unnecessarily fussy. My bad. Sephardim don’t have fish and dairy together. (Yes, forget about lox and cream cheese.)
So, the next time they came, he volunteered to cook Moroccan fish. He was concerned that it might be too spicy for me. I set his mind at ease. “I grew up with Hungarian cooking. Spice away.”
I never looked back.
I still buy that frozen cook-it-yourself gefilte fish for Pesach and Rosh Hashanah, but I have converted. I’m a believer.
My husband and I live in Efrat, and our children and grandchildren live throughout the land of Israel. Adina and Itay live in Retamim, a community in the deep Negev, and Adina has joined Momentum tours several times as a native Israeli. Our family, through our children’s marriages, became a Jewish mosaic. We now – if we include parents and grandparents – represent Jews from Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Djerba, Morocco, England, America, Tunisia, Germany, Iraq, as well as Ashkenazim going back 10 generations in Jerusalem.
But our go-to fish, when Itay and Adina and family come for Shabbat, is Moroccan. (See accompanying photo of said fish, made by Itay.)
We also love shouting out “Shamayim!” that appears in those extra few lines when he is leading the bentching.
Am Yisrael Chai. Shabbat Shalom.
Toby Klein GreenwaldEfrat, Israel
The writer is an award-winning journalist, theater director, and editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com. How Gefilte Fish Was Born
Funny that only one person alludes to the truth that gefilte fish is one of the very few authentically Jewish dishes (cholent would be another) we have. Most of what we think of as “Jewish” are actually borrowed Eastern European foods. But gefilte fish and cholent evolved to solve a problem in halacha. With gefilte fish it was a problem of borer [sorting one thing from another] on Shabbos. They solved it by doing the borer prior to Shabbos – removing all the bones from the fish. It wasn’t just serendipity – they could also add eggs, carrots, onions, and matzah meal to extend the meat in the fish.
W.H. BernsteinWilliamsburg County, S.C.
The Muslim Takeover
Once again, Mr. Braun hit the nail on the head, this time regarding Islamic treachery and unintended consequences.
I will stay out of the weeds regarding all the details cited by him and reflect on this topic in general.
Islamist and jihadi activity can be traced all the way back to the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael from Avraham Avinu’s household. The malach that encountered them in the desert, while Ishmael was dying of thirst, foretold the unfortunate events that are unfolding in these times.
He said the offspring of Ishmael would be wild men whose hands would be on the neck of the world, and the global community will be at war with them.
How true this rings! They have all but conquered Europe, not by firing even a single shot, but by infiltration and propagation.
This is a strategy being employed here in the United States and throughout the world, coupled with well-funded terrorism and renegade military actions by various Islamist groups.
Sadly, just as in Europe, we are marching to our downfall by permitting the unfettered, widespread immigration of seditious Muslims here and abroad. They do not migrate to countries to join thriving and accepting societies as productive citizens, but to usurp and convert the recipient nations to Islam and create caliphates.
New York City is just the latest example of a major metropolis that is falling victim to this insidious Islamic creep and takeover with the election of Zohran Mamdani.
Qatar, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other bad actors have been funding this frightening phenomenon, and we have been acting like lemmings blindly marching off a cliff.
It is way past time for the global community to wake up and fight back against these horrific developments.
May Hashem protect us all and bring the Geulahbimherabiyameinu.
George WeissBrooklyn, N.Y.
Antisemitism in U.S.And Around the World
It seems to me that most of our leading Jewish organizations in America are ignoring specific instances of antisemitism and are not responding to hostile voices and hostile incidents. It’s a mistake to say everyone hates the Jews without giving specific examples.
For example, the protests that were held at the Park Avenue Synagogue were certainly antisemitic because they were protesting the Nefesh B’Nefesh meeting by calling for a global intifada. Likewise, Mayor-elect Mamdani was antisemitic in implying that the protests were okay because the Jews were breaking an international law.
Unfortunately, Trump who says he is the greatest supporter of Israel, has not stood up for Jews. Also, outrageously, he has approved a deal to sell advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. I know that The Jewish Press wrote about the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia but cannot point to any other newspaper or Jewish organization that made mention of Trump’s deal making with the Saudis. And why aren’t Jewish newspapers or organizations speaking out about an outspoken like antisemite Tucker Carlson?
The war in Gaza has resulted in the alarming rise in antisemitism all over the world. In addition to this are Israel’s many ongoing battles the protests by Israeli civilians as well as some soldiers against the Gaza war. Whatever happened to shalom which we say in our prayers every day? What image is Israel now projecting to its neighbors? And the world?
Israelis are suffering as the war has negatively affected all aspects of daily life there.
July 10, 2026 
