Sublime

Ashkénazes

Harbin’s mayor welcomed participants by citing esteemed Jews such as J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller (neither of whom was Jewish). He then announced that “the world’s money is in the pockets of the Americans, and the Americans’ money is in the pockets of the Jews. This is the highest acclaim and praise to Jewish wisdom.”

Judaism defies definition as a religion pure and simple. Unlike other religions, Judaism also refers to a civilization and a culture. The Jews have been called a nation, a tribe, a race, a folk, an ethnic group, and the “people of the book.”

Although today’s food gurus are more likely to be Instagram-friendly young women than craggy priests, the phenomenon remains the same. As traditional food cultures have continued to fragment, opportunities have opened up for anyone with a dietary message to sell it to a credulous public.