On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao

Front Cover
Jewish Lights Publishing, 2013 - Cooking - 237 pages
The next time you pick up a piece of chocolate, consider that you are partaking in an aspect of Jewish history. Explore the surprising Jewish connections to chocolate in this historical and gastronomic adventure through cultures, countries, centuries and religions. Rabbi Deborah Prinz draws from her world travels on the trail of chocolate to enchant chocolate lovers of all backgrounds as she unwraps tales of Jews in the early chocolate trade to how Jewish values infuse chocolate today. She shows the intersections of Jews, pre-Columbians, Catholics and Protestants along the chocolate trail and the lasting rituals involving chocolate that the world¿s faith traditions still share. Tasty tidbits include: ¿ Chocolate making in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, home to the largest and wealthiest Jewish community of its time, was known as a special Jewish industry. ¿ Bayonne chocolate makers today advertise that Jews brought chocolate making to France. ¿ Chocolate Hanukkah gelt may have developed from St. Nicholas customs. ¿ Jews pioneered chocolate in North America as successful and well-known American colonial Jewish merchants such as Abraham Lopez and Nathan Simson traded cacao and manufactured chocolate. ¿ A born-again Christian businessman in the Midwest marketed his caramel chocolate bar as a ¿Noshy,¿ after the Yiddish word for ¿snack.¿ ¿ Jewish values of caring for the needy, pursuing economic justice, protecting the environment and promoting sustainability feed into the organic and fair trade chocolate businesses of today.
 

Contents

Chocolate Outed Jews
17
Jews Dip into Chocolate in
37
Chanukah and Christmas Chocolate
59
Chocolate Revives Refugees Survivors
67
Meshuga for Chocolate
85
Other Religious Chocolate Revelations
97
Faith Diffused Chocolate
113
Afterword
163
Timeline of Chocolate and Religion
173
Chocolate Museums and Tours around the World
189
Notes
197
Glossary
223
Index
229
Index of Recipes
237
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