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Jewish World Review Aug. 30, 1999 / 18 Elul, 5759
Gefilte tastes aren't just fish tales:
They tell the story of Jewish ancestry
You've heard of the Mason-Dixon Line? The 49th parallel?
Well, there's also the "gefilte fish line" separating the Eastern European
regions where Jewish palates once favored the sweet from those that
preferred the peppery varieties of the tasty traditional dish.
Michael Steinlauf, who teaches Jewish studies at Gratz College in
Philadelphia, told this to an audience at the 19th annual International
Conference on Jewish Genealogy in New York earlier this month.
With some 1,200 participants, this year's conference was by far the largest
held to date, indicating the continued mushrooming of interest in genealogy
among Jews.
The "gefilte fish line" ran though eastern Poland. Jews living to the west --
most of Poland, as well as Germany and the rest of Western Europe -- ate
the sweet gefilte fish. Those to the east -- Lithuania, Latvia and Russia -- ate
the peppery treat.
But Steinlauf's tale is not just a fish story. It's also about language.
He said the "gefilte fish line" roughly overlaps another important line: a
linguistic divide between two major variants of Yiddish.
Like Henry Higgins, the professor from "My Fair Lady" who could place
Londoners by their accents, Yiddish linguists can determine a person's native
region by his pronunciation of certain words. It should come as no surprise,
therefore, that Jews' taste buds carry significant clues about their origins.
Steinlauf wasn't the only speaker at the New York gathering to urge family
tree researchers to look for clues about the past around their own dinner
tables and elsewhere in their own homes. Rafael Guber, an American
genealogist, artist and curatorial designer, spoke about "Using Documents
and Ephemera to Retrace Your Ancestors' Footsteps."
Old prayer books, marriage contracts, ritual washing cups and phylacteries
are among the items that may help us understand how and where our
ancestors lived, Guber said. Prayer books, for instance, may indicate
whether our ancestors were Ashkenazim or Sephardim, and if Ashkenazim,
whether they were Chasidim or their opponents, the Mitnagdim.
Displaying photographs of various types of head coverings worn in the Old
World, Guber indicated when and where each regional variant of the fashion
could be found. Even a tombstone in an old photograph can offer a
geographical clue, he explained, since only in central and western Galicia did
tombstone carvers place clearly visible inset stones within larger tombstones.
Guber ended his talk with a Jewish version of the popular British TV
program "Antiques Roadshow,'' inviting audience members to come
forward with documents, photographs and other ephemera for instant and
public evaluation.
The boom in Jewish genealogy began in 1977, with the establishment in
New York of the first postwar Jewish genealogical society. Today there are
more than 80 such societies around the world, including groups in Belarus,
Sweden, Jamaica and Brazil.
One of the most successful innovations within the genealogical community
has been JewishGen.com, an Internet information service that started in 1986 as a
bulletin board for 150 people and now sends out 30,000 pieces of mail each
day and receives some 3 million hits on its Web site every day -- an increase
of more than 600 percent over last year.
Next year's conference is scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City in the
summer of
By Bill Gladstone
(JTA) ---- How do you like your gefilte fish: sweet or
peppery? The answer may reveal more about yourself and your family
history than you might think.
