Contents 1. According to the Customer's Desire: The First Delicatessens in Eastern Europe and the United States 000 2. From a Sandwich to a National Institution: Delicatessens in the Jazz Age and the Interwar Era 000 3. Send a Salami: Delicatessens during the Second World War and the Postwar Exodus from New York 000 4. Miss Hebrew National Salami: The Movement to the Suburbs and the Decline of the Deli 000 Conclusion: The Contemporary Jewish Deli-Whistling Past the Graveyard 000 Preface AlwAys left wAnting More z xi z Acknowledgments z xv z Introduction the PlAce where everyone Knows your nAMe z 1 z 3 9 1 0 4 According to the Customer's Desire the first DelicAtessens in eAstern euroPe AnD the uniteD stAtes z 17 z 3 9 2 0 4 From a Sandwich to a National Institution DelicAtessens in the JAzz Age AnD the interwAr erA z 53 z 3 9 3 0 4Send a SalamiDelicatessens During the seconD WorlD War anD the PostWar exoDus from neW Yorkz 91
Ted Merwin is Associate Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies at Dickinson College (PA), where he is Founding Director of the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life. He writes about Jewish theater, dance, and food for the New York Jewish Week and other major newspapers and magazines.
"Ted Merwin... delivers a scholarly paean--like an ample but lean
corned beef sandwich--to a vanishing New York ethnic icon."
*New York Times "Metropolitan"*
"Try reading Ted Merwins new book,Pastrami on Ryewithout having
your mouth water.Merwin offers plenty of delicious descriptions as
he traces how delis rose up first as take-out services for Jewish
immigrants, to gathering places for Jewish communities, to symbols
of integration as pastrami piled high became popular
nationwide."
*New York Post*
"The writing is so lively and entertaining readers will forget
theyre being educated. The work is also an excellent example of a
multidisciplinary approach combining food studies, Judaic studies,
history and sociology."
*Long Island Jewish World*
"A pleasing exercise in culinary and cultural history, evoking some
favorite New York-centric comfort foods... [Merwin] does a solid
job of locating the delicatessen... as a cultural and culinary
center of New York Jewish life."
*Kirkus Reviews*
"[V]ery well researched and enjoyable."
*JWeekly.com*
"Merwins tasty exploration of deli cuisine and culture also tracks
larger shifts in the American Jewish experience, particularly in
the post-World War II period when delis upstaged shuls as Jewish
gathering places."
*JTA*
"Merwin has written a spectacularly funny, engaging and sharply
analytical book."
*Forward*
"[A]cultural history of American Judaism told through a
particularly revealing culinary lens."
*Haaretz*
"Avital addition to the academic literature in cultural history,
American studies, American Jewish studies, food studies, and
popular culture studies."
*Journal of American Culture*
"Thorough and thoughtful, scholarly and readable, Ted Merwin's
Pastrami on Rye provides a vital addition to the academic
literature in cultural history, American studies, American Jewish
studies, food studies, and popular culture studies."
*Journal of American Culture*
"Pastrami on Rye proves entertaining, provocative,
and--appropriately--food for thought."
*JewishBookCouncil.org*
"Combining a flair for anecdote with exhaustive research, Merwin
has produced an exuberantly readable history of delis, and he
reveals how their prepared foods helped free early
twentieth-century women from daily kitchen drudgery. The very
success of ethnic Jewish delicatessens led inevitably to cultural
assimilation for Jews and to appreciative acceptance by Gentiles,
and the delicatessen became indisputably an American
institution."
*Booklist*
"In Pastrami on Rye, author Ted Merwin captures the essence of the
New York deli experience...Merwin offers a thoughtful,
'overstuffed' look at all aspects of the Jewish deli by examining
the role of its food in America through, as he puts it, the
'greasy...gluttonous lens of the pastrami sandwich.' [A] delightful
exploration of one of America's favorite culinary
institutions."
*Chicago Tribune*
"[Merwin's] writing is so lively and entertaining readers will
forget they're being educated. The workis also an excellent example
of a multidisciplinary approach--combining food studies, Judaic
studies, history and sociology."
*Reporter*
"[Pastrami on Rye] is an entertaining work of merit, written in a
fluent style that recalls Calvin Trillin at his foodie best and
Ludwig Bemelmans at his most observant."
*Santa Fe New Mexican*
"Professor and journalist Ted Merwin uses interviews, archives and
popular representation to tell the history of the Jewish deli in
America. Calling on food studies and an eclectic mix of
sociological theory, he builds a narrative from a space of civic
engagement and mutual support, it grows into a site bound up with
nostalgic and un-nuanced readings of the past."
*Religion & Culture*
"The fruit of more than ten years of research and writing, Mr.
Merwin's account shows that delis have been a rich part of the
story of Jewish assimilation in America."
*The Economist*
"Merwin has set out to trace the rise and fall of the delicatessen
in American Jewish culture, using this analysis to help us
understand the American-immigrant experience. He has been more than
successful. By meticulous and thorough research, Merwin has shown
that in the postwar migration to the suburbs, city neighborhoods
fragmented and delis closed."
*St. Louis Jewish Light*
"Pastrami on Rye is both a celebration of the deli and an elegy for
it. This lively book traces the delis evolution from dynamic
gathering place to kitschy tourist site, peppered with hefty doses
of popular culture. Merwin tells a fascinating story of cultural
and culinary assimilation as he explores what it means to be modern
and American. This book left me longing for the lost delis of my
youth!"
*Darra Goldstein,Founding Editor, Gastronomica: The Journal of Food
and Culture*
"Brings together a vast range of scholarship and anecdote to
produce the first comprehensive history of the Jewish delicatessen.
Both culinary and cultural history, this book will be of interest
to scholars and common readers alike, the former for its incisive
interpretations of modern Jewish foodways and the latter for its
ability to recreate a time and place that was 'home' for so many
20th century Jews in America. Its evocation of deli menus alone
will get your mouth watering."
*David Kraemer,author of Jewish Eating and Jewish Identity Through
the Ages*
"In Pastrami on Rye, Merwin finally addresses the pressing question
overlooked in his first book on New York Jews (In Their Own Image):
but where did they eat? This fun and informative examination of the
New York Jewish deli is half history and half love story; batampte
und geshmacht, with a heaping helping of sakhelyoull kvell before
you plotz!"
*Eric Michael Mazur,co-editor of God in the Details: American
Religion in Popular Culture*
"Merwins extraordinarily exhaustive research and his skill in
selecting just the right fact, telling detail, quote, and anecdote
makes this one of the most enjoyable, enlightening, fluid and
fascinating food histories I've ever read. And it is my history,
too, being one of those many Jews for whom the delicatessen and
love of delicatessen foods is as much a part of my identity as the
ethics and humanity my religion has taught me."
*Arthur Schwartz,author of Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking:
Yiddish Recipes Revisited*
"A comprehensive history of the New York deli from its European
antecedent beginnings to what Ted Merwin calls the
'postgastronomic' deli we have today. After doing exhaustive
research into the subject, Dr. Merwin has put his scholarly pen and
thoughtful gaze to work to create this marvelous book. I got really
hungry for pastrami reading this comprehensive story of the
American deli. Now that is a sign of a great read."
*Joan Nathan,author of Quiches, Kugels and Couscous: My Search for
Jewish Cooking in France*
"Merwin's long awaited history of the deli delivers like the best
deli fress: this is a book that nails the mustard-slicked soulful
flavor of this cultural gem, with a heft of academic substance that
leaves the mind thoroughly satisfied (and the body starved for
chopped liver)."
*David Sax,author of The Tastemakers: Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes
but Fed Up with Fondue*
"In Pastrami on Rye, Ted Merwin gamely sets out to show how
American Jews evolved from the clannish immigrants of the late
1800s into well-heeled secularists who atone for their parents'
assimilation through (mostly culinary) nostalgia."
*The Times Literary Supplement,Samuel Ashworth*
"This delightful book just about guarantees that its readers will
want to head to the nearest deli for a hot pastrami sandwich, or
maybe corned beef, naturally on fresh rye bread."
*Western States Jewish History*
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