I recently stumbled across an amazing organization called Jewish Food Society. The organization describes itself this way: “Jewish Food Society is a non-profit organization that works to preserve and celebrate Jewish culinary heritage from around the world in order to increase awareness and deepen connections to Jewish life.” It is a simple mission statement, but behind it is an extraordinary project that connects food, memory, culture and survival.
JFS has built a remarkable archive of Jewish family recipes and stories — some of them stretching back hundreds of years. The recipes come from Jewish communities scattered across the globe, reflecting the worldwide community of Jewish life. On their website, you’ll find dishes from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and the Americas. Some recipes are humble weeknight staples, while others are reserved for holidays and celebrations that bring families together year after year.
But the organization is about far more than just recipes. In fact, if you have friends in the New York City area (or if you will be out that way), tell them to check out what is billed as “New York’s hottest summer picnic party,” “The Great Nosh,” scheduled for June 21, 2026. It is described as “a day filled with the city’s best restaurants, exclusive chef collabs, immersive art, picnic-ready treats, and plenty more.” Jewish Food Society also hosts dinners, cooking demonstrations and cultural programs that celebrate the role food plays in Jewish identity and community. From 2020 to 2023, they even produced a podcast called “Schmaltzy.” The podcast’s tagline was, “Personal stories about food and the people behind them,” which really captures the spirit of the organization itself. Episodes are still available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Recently, I listened to an episode featuring James Beard Award-nominated chef Molly Yeh. Yeh spoke about growing up with Chinese and Jewish heritage and how food became a way of connecting both sides of her family history. In the episode, she also described moving into what she called her “dream home.” For her, the moment it truly felt like home was when the smells of cooking began to fill the kitchen. The familiar aromas transformed the house into something deeper: a place rooted in family, memory and belonging.
The idea that food can make a place feel like home runs throughout the work of JFS. The organization has also published a cookbook that contains 135 holiday recipes, each paired with stories about the families who make them. The recipes reflect the remarkable diversity of Jewish communities around the world. In one section, you might find a Ukrainian-Mexican Seder menu. In another, recipes for a Moroccan Sukkot gathering. The dishes themselves are interesting, but the real treasure lies in the stories that accompany them.
Many of those stories speak of survival, migration and resilience. Others describe the simple joy of gathering around a table with family and friends. Taken together, they remind us that food is never just food. It carries memories, traditions and the experiences of generations who came before us.
Perhaps the most powerful part of Jewish Food Society’s work is its effort to preserve recipes connected to Holocaust survivors and their families. These stories reveal how food — sometimes only imagined — became a source of hope during one of the darkest periods in human history. This section of their website is a little tricky to find from the main menu, but you can get there by searching for “Recipes From the Kitchen of Holocaust Survivors.”
One particularly remarkable story involves a woman named Ica Kellner. Kellner was imprisoned at Auschwitz and later at Buchenwald. While imprisoned, Kellner worked in a munitions factory as a translator and messenger. One day while cleaning the factory floor, she discovered a stack of discarded papers in the trash. One side of the papers was blank. Quietly and carefully, she took them. With a small pencil she also managed to find, Kellner began writing down the recipes the women shared in the barracks at night. As each recipe was described, she carefully recorded the ingredients and instructions. Often, she also wrote down the name of the woman who shared it.
Prisoners were given barely enough food to survive. But in the evenings, when the women returned to their barracks, they would gather together and talk about the meals they once cooked or hoped to cook again. “Talking about food and remembering beloved family dishes gave them hope and a will to live,” Kellner’s daughter, Eva Moreimi, later explained. “It was essential for their survival.” Those conversations became a kind of lifeline. By describing the details of cherished dishes, the women could briefly return to the lives they had before imprisonment. In their minds, they were back in kitchens with their families, preparing meals for holidays or ordinary evenings at home.
From August 1944 through the spring of 1945, Kellner documented more than 600 recipes. To protect them from the guards, she hid the pages in a small pouch she made and tied to the inside of her coat. The risk was enormous. If the papers had been discovered, the consequences could have been severe. But Kellner continued to protect them, carrying the pouch with her even during a death march in the final days before liberation. When the war finally ended, the recipes survived along with her.
It is astonishing to think about what those pages represented. They were not merely instructions for preparing food. They were memories of family kitchens, reminders of communities that had been torn apart and symbols of a future the women hoped they might still live to see.
Equally powerful is the fact that Kellner wrote down the names of the women who shared many of the recipes. In doing so, she preserved something of their identities and their stories. Even if some of them did not survive the camps, their names — and their cherished dishes — would continue to live on. In this spirit, this month I’ll share with you recipes from Jewish Food Society’s collection from Ica Kellner and other Holocaust survivors. I can’t think of a more meaningful thing than to help keep alive the memories of women who endured the unimaginable.
Organizations like Jewish Food Society help ensure that stories like these are not forgotten. Their website contains hundreds of family histories connected to the foods people prepare to celebrate holidays, mark important life events or remember loved ones who have passed away.
Food has always been one of the most powerful ways cultures preserve their identity. Recipes are passed down not just as instructions, but as memories. A certain smell or flavor can instantly transport us back to childhood kitchens or family gatherings long ago. That’s why archives like the one created by JFS are so valuable. They capture not only the ingredients and techniques of cooking, but also the human stories behind them.
If you explore the site, you might find a recipe that intrigues you enough to try in your own kitchen. And if you do, you may find that by cooking someone else’s traditional dish, you become part of the long chain of people who keep that tradition alive.
Jewish Food Society’s website even invites visitors to submit their own family recipes to the archive. In doing so, people can help preserve their own culinary heritage for future generations. Think of all the recipes you’ve collected over the years — on stained and splattered index cards or scraps of paper that have yellowed with time. These recipes carry the stories of your family and friends across decades or even centuries.
Sometimes history is preserved in museums and archives. Sometimes it’s written in books. And sometimes, it’s simmering in a pot on the stove.
As you read these recipes, remember the history behind them. Each one was preserved through courage, care and hope. When we prepare these dishes today, we do more than cook a meal — we help carry forward the lives, traditions and resilience of the women who first shared them, ensuring that their memories are blessings that continue to nourish future generations. Enjoy — from my kitchen to yours.
Sweet Cabbage Noodles
Photo Credit: Jewish Food Society (www.jewishfoodsociety.org)
Ingredients
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
1 – 12 oz package wide egg noodles
1 head green cabbage, core removed and thinly sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
– Heat a large, 12” frying pan over medium high heat. Add the oil and onions and stir to combine. Reduce heat to low, sprinkle with sugar and sauté onions for 20 minutes.
– Meanwhile, prepare the noodles as directed on the package.
– When onions are done, increase heat to medium-high and add the cabbage into the pan. Cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper.
– Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for an additional 30-45 minutes until cabbage is cooked down, stirring several times. Add the noodles and mix. Salt and pepper to taste.
Chicken Paprikash
Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive or avocado oil
8 chicken legs, bone-in and skin-on
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 green or red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
5-6 parsley stalks with leaves
– Heat oil into a large pot over medium high heat, about 3-4 minutes.
– Gently place the chicken pieces into the pot and sear on both sides until golden brown, about 5 minutes on each side. Transfer the seared chicken onto a plate.
– Reduce the heat to medium, add the onions into the same pot and sauté, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8-10 minutes. Add the pepper into the pot and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until the peppers soften.
– Add the chicken back into the pot with the onions and peppers.
– Add the paprika, salt, pepper and parsley and mix to coat the chicken.
– Add 3 cups of water to the pot, or enough to cover the chicken ¾ the way up.
– Bring the pot to a simmer over medium heat and cover with a lid. Continue cooking over a gentle simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and reduce the heat to medium-low, cooking the chicken for another 20-30 minutes, or until the liquid reduces in half and the chicken is cooked and tender.
– Serve the chicken paprikash hot with spaetzle. The chicken can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
Concia (Zucchini Salad)
Ingredients
3 zucchinis, sliced lengthwise into ¼ inch thick pieces
Olive oil for frying
Salt and pepper
4 to 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
– Lay the zucchini slices flat onto a paper towel lined tray and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt on all the zucchini slices, both sides. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes. Pat the zucchini dry from any excess liquid.
– Place ¼ cup olive oil in a large saucepan, or enough oil to be ½ inch deep in the pan. Place over medium heat.
– Gently place about 6 pieces of zucchini into the pan, making sure that the pieces all lay flat and do not overlap. Fry the zucchini on each side for about 5 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a baking rack or a paper towel lined tray to drain any excess oil. Continue frying the rest of the zucchini in batches.
– Place the fried zucchini into a mixing bowl. Add salt, pepper, garlic, basil and vinegar. Gently mix until each piece of zucchini is evenly coated. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 5 hours and up to 24 hours.
– Serve the concia at room temperature.
Hungarian Wasp Nest (Darázsfészek)
Photo Credit: Jewish Food Society (www.jewishfoodsociety.org)
You can certainly see from the image why this is called a wasp nest! It’s similar to a cinnamon roll, filled with butter and walnuts and baked until caramelized on top. If you prefer a dessert without nuts, swap them out for a teaspoon of vanilla
Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted butter (6 ounces, 1 1/2 sticks), softened, divided
1 (1/4-ounce) envelope dry active yeast
1 1/2 cups whole milk, lukewarm, divided
3 1/2 cups plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, divided, plus more for rolling out
3/4 cup plus ½ tsp granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups (12 ounces) ground walnuts or walnut meal
1/2 tsp cinnamon
-Grease a 10-inch round Bundt or springform pan with 2 tablespoons butter.
– Make the yeast mixture: Whisk together the yeast and ¾ cup milk in a small bowl until dissolved. Stir in 1 teaspoon flour and ½ teaspoon sugar. Cover the bowl and let the yeast activate for 5 to 10 minutes, until foamy air bubbles appear on the surface.
– Make the dough: Mix the remaining 3 ½ cups flour, egg yolks, vanilla, remaining ¾ cup milk and the rested yeast mixture in a large bowl until it forms a very soft, light dough. Cover and let it proof for 30 to 45 minutes, until the dough has risen slightly (it will not double in size.)
– Mix the remaining 10 tablespoons softened butter and ¾ cup sugar together in a medium bowl until smooth. In a small bowl, mix together the walnuts and cinnamon. Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface (it will be very sticky). Roll the dough into approximately a 12- by 18-inch, 1/4-inch-thick rectangle. Spread the butter mixture over the surface of the dough with a spatula, then sprinkle over the walnut mixture.
– Working from the longer edge, tightly roll the dough into a spiral. Cut into 1½-inch-thick slices. Place each roll into the cake pan, spiral-side up. Repeat with remaining slices of dough in a single layer in the cake pan. If necessary, start a second layer on top of the first. Cover and let rise for 1 to 2 hours, or until the rolls have doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
– Bake until golden brown, 40 to 50 minutes (rolls will bake longer in a Bundt than a springform pan). Remove from the oven and immediately flip the pan over onto a serving plate. Serve immediately, cutting or breaking apart while the rolls are still warm.
