This postcard has an illustration by the French-Jewish artist Alphonse Lévy depicting an elderly couple delighting over a pot of kugel. Steam is rising from the pot, indicating that it has just been cooked. The man is wearing a kippah (yarmulkeh) and a jacket over a suit. The woman is wearing some kind of headscarf and an apron is tied around her waist. Her sleeves are rolled up, suggesting that she has been busy cooking. The shelf with kitchen utensils in the background of the picture indicates that this scene is taking place in the kitchen. In the top-right corner hanging from the roof is a traditional Shabbat lamp or Judenstern. The lamp would be filled with oil and lit before Shabbat, thus providing light throughout the Friday night meal. Beneath the illustration there is a caption in Hebrew and French: The Good Kugel.” The illustrator's name is also featured.
Kugel is a traditional Ashkenazi dish commonly made from noodles or potatoes. The name of the dish originates from the German word kugel meaning ball or sphere, referring to the round shape of the dish. Kugel is an example of Ashkenazi foods that were created from cheap, simple but filling ingredients.
This illustration was published in France in 1886 along with other illustrations by Lévy in a book by Léon Cahun titled La Vie Juive (The Jewish Life). The postcard was most probably printed by the Etienne Neurdein publishing company in the early twentieth century. The reverse side of the postcard is blank, indicating that it was probably not used.
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Jewish Food – Jews from around the world created traditional dishes that are now recognised as “Jewish food.” However, Jewish food is very diverse and reflects the origins of the Jewish communities around the world. Therefore, Jewish food may be Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Persian, Yemenite, Italian, Ethiopian, American, Israeli, and many more styles. A common feature is that all dishes adhere to the Jewish dietary laws (kashrut), and the food served on Shabbat and the festivals can be made in such a way that they may be heated in advance due to traditional prohibitions against cooking on these holy days. Each community developed its specific cuisine based on the available ingredients and the economic situation of the Jews in the different countries. The Ashkenazi cuisine, for example, was based on cheap and simple ingredients that were available to the poor Jewish community. For this reason, many of the dishes, such as kugel and cholent, are based on beans, potatoes, and noodles. Sephardi communities had access to richer ingredients, and this is reflected in their cuisine.
Jewish Community in Alsace - Alsace is situated in the East of France on the German border. The Jewish community in the area is one of the oldest in Europe. The first mention of a Jewish community in Alsace is from the twelfth century, but Jews are thought to have lived in the region from around 1000 CE. Despite pogroms and hardship, Jews have lived continuously in Alsace, peaking at the end of the nineteenth century when it numbered more than 35,000 people. The Alsatian Jewish community had its own unique traditions but was also greatly influenced by the German-Jewish community. One of the features of this community was their language, Judeo-Alsatian (Yédisch-Daïtsch), which was a mixture of Middle High German, Old Alsatian, Medieval Hebrew, and Aramaic.
German Jews in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries – After many centuries of oppression, segregation from the general population, and poverty, the German Jewish community went through major changes. Germany, together with other European countries, began to adopt liberal ideas about religious equality and civil emancipation. This was also the time of Enlightenment, and many German Jews received a secular education and began to integrate into general German society. The late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries mark the transition of the Jews to modernity and the integration of many into Germany’s cultural, scientific, and financial elite. Moses Mendelssohn is an example of an Enlightenment thinker who aspired to bringing secular culture into Jewish life. These social changes also brought about a transformation in the identity and practices of the German Jews, as exemplified in a famous saying of the time: “Be a man abroad and a Jew in your tent.” Due to these changes, this period saw both the foundation of Orthodox Judaism and the birth of the Reform Movement in Germany, a movement that aimed to adapt traditional Judaism to modern times. This period did not, however, see an end to the discrimination or riots against the Jews, as can be seen by the 1819 Hep Hep riots, tax legislation against Jews, severe limitations on marriages, dismissals from public office, anti-Semitic literature and preaching, more. This discrimination led to many Jews emigrating, in particular to the United States.
Alphonse Lévy - Alphonse Lévy (1843-1918) was a Jewish artist from Alsace (a region in eastern France) who drew many pictures of Alsatian and Algerian Jews performing various rituals and customs. This was at a time when many European Jews were abandoning religion for the sake of integrating into modern society. Some of his drawings were included in Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's late nineteenth-century book about the Jews.
