From Sukkot to Thanksgiving:

Appreciating the Relationship Between Jews, Food, and the World We Live In

For Jews the fall season is bookended by two holidays focused on gratitude and food: Sukkot and Thanksgiving. This fall we will increase our understanding and appreciation of how Jewish life and Contemporary American life intersect through the prism of food. Through this four-part series we will examine how Judaism’s relationship with food is so much more than challah and kugel. Looking at a “food product” by its constituent nutrients, or at Jewish tradition solely through a traditionally Jewish prism, fails to address the entirety of who we are, and how we create meaningful lives.

Through this course we will use traditional Jewish texts, modern texts, and the texts of our own lives to gain both a deeper understanding of our relationship to the food we eat from its original source to our actual consumption. We will spend time gaining insights into blessings and gratitude, kashrut and its possible relationship to the environment, and how it all affects us and the way each one of us relates to the food that sustains us each and every day.