When Christmas Eve 2010 fell on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath, Temple Beth Jacob of Concord, NH, noted the coincidence with a community supper before their weekly Sabbath service. The menu was Chinese take-out, a traditional Christmas meal for Jewish people.
Temple members, and many non-Jews who heard about the event, wondered what Chinese food had to do with the Jewish religion. In the December 2010 Temple Beth Jacob Bulletin, Rabbi Robin Nafshi wrote that the connection is historical and sociological, not religious at all.
During the great wave of immigration, 1880-1920, Jewish, Italian, and Chinese immigrants lived in the same poor urban neighborhoods. When they became a little more prosperous, they moved up and out to better neighborhoods, and took their restaurants with them, the rabbi wrote.
Most Jewish immigrants, and their children, still observed their dietary laws at home, but were far more permissive with themselves outside the home. The thinking was that keeping a Kosher home allowed any Jew, including parents, close family, and friends, to eat there. But eating non-Kosher food in restaurants was a way of fitting in, feeling more American, Nafshi continued.
Chinese and Italian restaurants were nearby and inexpensive, and their food contained a lot of shellfish and pork (traif, in Yiddish). Most Jews preferred Chinese traif to Italian for several reasons, the rabbi said:
- The Chinese cut the shellfish and pork into small pieces and bury it in sauce.
- Italians served dairy and meat at the same meal, on the same dishes, in the same recipes, a violation of Jewish law and habit. (As American Jews in later generations got farther from the immigrant experience, they became more American.) The Chinese did not mix milk and meat, or use any dairy at all.
- Italian restaurants often displayed images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Jews, who had fresh memories of persecution by European Christians, were often uncomfortable with those images. The smiling Buddha in the Chinese restaurant had far less emotional baggage for Jews.
- As late as the 1940s, you could buy a plate of chow mein, fried rice, and an egg roll for 25 cents, the rabbi said. Her parents courted over those cheap meals. It was all they could afford.
- The Chinese kept their restaurants open on Christmas because most of them were not Christian. Often, they were the only restaurants in town that were open on Christmas. So Chinese food became the traditional Jewish meal on Christmas, the rabbi said.
When Great Barrington, Mass. got its first Chinese restaurant in 1973, the owner, who was not Chinese, told people in town that he studied the number of Jews in the rural community before he decided to specialize in Chinese food.
“I’ll be a success if there are enough Jews,” he said.
Christmas and Jesus don’t exist in the Jewish religion, a fact many Christians have trouble grasping, because Jesus is so important to them. His name appears in no sacred Jewish texts or folklore, even the Talmud, parts of which were assembled while Jesus was alive.
But there is a mountain of history and recent memory of Christians persecuting Jews in Jesus’ name. For Jews, Jesus is not even a prophet or great teacher, as many Christians believe.
To paraphrase an old routine by Jewish comedian and satirist Lenny Bruce, Jesus is goyish (gentile), but Chinese food is Jewish.
SOURCES
Nafshi, Rabbi Robin, "Jews, Chinese Food, and Christmas Eve" Temple Beth Jacob Concord NH Bulletin, December 2010
Interview with Rabbi Robin Nafshi
Ken Braiterman - Ken Braiterman writes columns for the Concord (NH) Monitor print and online editions. He also writes and lectures on recovery from ...
