Gil Marks Quotes
Throughout history, particularly in the last 2,000 years, Jews have been key in adapting local foods to Jewish sensibilities and dietary laws and then spreading them.
Marks, Gil. Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
Ford’s publication had printed a variety of virulent lies about Jews in general and Aaron Sapiro, a prominent Jew in particular. Shapiro sued for libel. Ford who had strong anti-Semitic views (See {586985}) tried to avoid testifying but could not. His attorneys then won a mistrial but Shapiro went to trial again. This time Ford wanted to settle and issued an apology as part of the settlement. In it he claimed that although the his publication had printed the Anti Semitic and libelous material, he knew nothing about the publications day-to-day operations and professed no animosity towards Jews. Most American Jews believed the apology sincere and knew very little of all of Ford’s anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi and fascist history. To this day it is unclear whether Ford knew the details about the virulent publications, or was a part of the writing and editorial policy and selection process, but his entire history indicates that the apology was more out of a desire to settle the lawsuit than to right a wrong.
The Shas Party is an ultra-orthodox religious minor political party in Israel. Although the Israeli Supreme Court always voted to uphold the rights of the Orthodox Jews, it also protected the rights of Jews who were not orthodox and of non-Jews. This infuriated the Shas party who wanted their interpretation of traditional Jewish religious law to be imposed on all citizens of Israel. Reform Conversion is the right of a reformed Jewish Rabbi to perform a conversion to Judaism. Shas wanted only their orthodox rabbis to have that prerogative. Only a minority of Israeli citizens follow the Jewish Dietary Laws, and many Jews want to buy and eat pork. The Supreme Court upheld the right of a private store to sell pork products if it wished to, despite the distress of Shas and other fundamentalist Jews.
The Shereth Israel congregation was the first organized Jewish congregation in America. Traditionally, in Europe the congregation would appoint a butcher to ritually slaughter animals and sell them to the congregation members at controlled prices. However, a New York butcher of the time decided that since America was a free country, he would sell directly to Jews and not go through the congregation, thus avoiding the price fixing which he thought unfairly low. The congregation responded as they traditionally had in Europe and asked the civil authorities to enforce their right to control religious activities in the community. The City Council then passed this law. The butcher appealed to the courts which ruled that he had the right to sell his meat regardless of the congregation—that the American law may not be used to enforce any religious tradition. The case set important precedents regarding the relationship between church and state, monopolies, and individual commercial rights.
This was true in 1936 for almost all Jewish immigrants. Reform Judaism was actually started and developed in the United States to blend the Jewish assimilation to modern America with the philosophy and values of Judaism. Most American Jews gravitated to the Reform communities and synagogues. However starting in the 1950’s there were some ultra-orthodox Jewish groups who began to preach against assimilation. To them, the greatness of America was that they did not have to Assimilate. Like the Amish and a few other religious groups they could maintain their oldest traditions and be protected and tolerated by America. These were and are a minority of Jewish Americans. However in the late 20th century many orthodox and the “Conservative Branch” of Judaism in America began to be concerned that the result of Jewish assail;ration and the reduction of anti-Semitism was an increase in religious intermarriage of American Jews. They worried that the Jewish community will diminish over time to a much smaller minority. So they have instituted programs to limit Jewish assimilation to diminish intern,marriage. The majority of Jews however continue as Goldie Corash Michelson descriptor in 1936.
Gilbert Stanley Marks was an American food writer and historian noted for his reference and cookbooks on the subject of Jewish food. He was the founding editor of Kosher Gourmet magazine. He moved to Israel and became a citizen in 2012 and died of lung cancer on December 5, 2014, at the hospice at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
