Jewish food is more than kosher, though it can be that. This class explores the many ways Jews (and often their non-Jewish eating companions) express and perform Jewish identities through their food choices and practices. Jewish food might be foods connected with specific Jewish holidays, Kosher, from specific geographic regions (e.g., Ashkenazic, Sefardic, or Mizrahi), Israeli Food, Jewish Deli and immigrant food, Jewish ethical food (e.g., sustainably raised animal meats, vegetarianism, and veganism), Jewish “historical” food (e.g., from recipes from the Spanish Inquisition or the Holocaust), and food that is "midrashized” , that is, talked about at the table.

Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus is Professor of Religion and Henrietta Jennings Faculty Chair for Outstanding Teaching at Wheaton College (MA). He is the author of Gastronomic Judaism as Culinary Midrash (Lexington Press, Dec., 2018) and has published numerous articles on food rituals and Jewish food in the Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, Studies in Jewish Civilization, and other journals, and has translated Rabbenu Bahya ben Asher’s fourteenth-century Hebrew mystical manual on food, Shulhan Shel Arba (Table of Four) into English which is available online on Sefaria. He’s currently working on a book on the myths and meal rituals of American Thanksgiving. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Vanderbilt, and is ordained as a Reconstructionist Rabbi. He lives, cooks, eats, and gardens with his wife Maia in Providence, RI.