‘[Semite] Sweet’ Chocolate Exhibit Is Perfect Valentine’s Day Excursion
The last time I was in a gallery that smelled distinctly and deliciously of chocolate I was in Barcelona visiting Museu de la Xocolata. That is, until this week, when I entered the Herbert and Eileen Bernard Museum of Judaica at Temple Emanu-El on New York’s Upper East Side (where my grandparents were members), to check out the exhibit “[Semite] Sweet: On Jews And Chocolate.” Co-curated by frequent Forward contributor Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz, the exhibit offers a fascinating, immersive account of the Jewish history of chocolate making and merchandising, and the significant role Jews of the Diaspora played in bringing chocolate to France, America, and other places around the globe.
I couldn’t help thinking that this exhibit would make for a fun — and Jewish — way to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a loved one. A fascinating combination of objects, artifacts — Albert Einstein’s chocolate cup from childhood! — and documents bring the history of Jews and chocolate to life.
Prinz, who is the author of the book “On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao” (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2017), offers more information about the exhibit here.
The gallery is open Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Closed to the public on Jewish holidays. Admission is free.
Liza Schoenfein is food editor of the Forward. Contact her at schoenfein@forward.com or on Twitter, @LifeDeathDinner
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO