Food
The Jewish cuisine has been
formed both by the dietary laws of kashrut ("keeping kosher") and the
many cultures in which Jews have traveled.
Thus the Jewish cuisine has influences from the cuisines of the Balkans,
Galicia, Russia, Spain, Portugal and the Middle East. For example, there
are a number of cold starters which originate in the Middle East and
which were brought by the Turks to the Balkans.
The roots of Jewish cooking, however, are in the Middle East, where the
Jews came from, and it was heavily influenced by the cuisine of Ancient
Egypt and the Byzantine Empire. It has been suggested, for example, that
the major role played by garlic, leek and onions in Jewish cooking is
due to these influences. Arabic and Moorish cooking had an equal
influence on the Jewish cuisine.
At the same time, aspects of Jewish cooking were often adopted by the
cultures in which they lived. The rose jam which is typical of Russian
and Galician cookery, for example, may have originally been imported by
Jews during the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain.
As other Semitic peoples, the Jews have dietary laws; the basic laws of
kashrut are in the Biblical book of Leviticus. Food not in accord with
Jewish law is termed treifah or treif (טרפה) ("torn"); according to
Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, Jews are only allowed to eat kosher
foods.
Jewish Reference Home
|
|
