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Our Southern kitchens are where Black and Jewish traditions come together
(JTA) — We grew up in South Carolina in the late 1960s and ’70s, one of us from the capital city, Columbia, and the other from the small town of Summerton. The foods served on our respective tables were a blend of Southern and Jewish, menus long ago established by our immigrant grandmothers and the African-American women who cooked for their families. Kashrut was observed in our grandmothers’ kitchens, and Southern recipes recrafted for a kosher table mingled quite comfortably with the stuffed cabbage and tzimmes. Favorite family recipes were handed down from generation to generation — l’dor v’dor.
Our Southern Jewish table — where crispy fried chicken sat next to a sweet and sour brisket, where chopped liver was served during the cocktail hour, and where bowls of steaming hot rice and fresh vegetables graced our table — is a part of our collective lived experience.
As women pulled by the force of both our region and our religion, we recognize the expressive power of food. In researching and writing our new book “Kugels & Collards,” we have grown far more aware of nuances in Southern Jewish foods and connections spanning cultures, races, pantries and people.
And we have discovered the presence of boundaries — cultural, dietary and physical — that have existed historically and, in some instances, remain today. As Marcie Cohen Ferris writes in the book’s foreword, “Southern Jews revealed who they were and what they believed through the foods they ate — and did not eat — in a region where treyfe (nonkosher) pork, shellfish and wild game were at the center of local cuisine.”
In one of the stories in our book, Aaron and Eli Hyman, owners of the acclaimed seafood restaurant Hyman’s in Charleston, share their memory of catching blue crabs on Sullivan’s Island as young children with their grandfather. Aaron recalls, “We were not allowed to bring the crabs in the beach house, which had a kosher kitchen, but we steamed them and ate them outside on newspaper out of respect for our great grandmother.”
The diversity of ingredients found in our favorite meals reflects the contributions of individuals underrepresented in or absent from earlier accounts of Southern Jewish cuisine. What we consider “typical Southern fare” reveals the culinary legacy of Africans brought against their will to the American South centuries ago. On many Southern Jewish tables, it is not unusual to have African-American staples such as collard greens, black-eyed peas and rice alongside European Jewish dishes like brisket, tzimmes and kugel. The aromas, textures and tastes of these meals made their way into the homes of our immigrant grandparents through generations of Black South Carolinians working in traditional Jewish kitchens.
One of these women is Charlestonian Annie Gailliard, whose recipe for okra gumbo we share in “Kugels & Collards.” Like many great cooks, Annie cooked by taste and passed her recipe verbally down to her employers, the Firetags, Lyssa’s grandparents. Annie and her husband, Walter Gailliard, and their children shared a backyard in Charleston with the Firetags, for whom she began working in 1933. Aside from the requirement that she cook kosher, Annie controlled the kitchen, cooking three meals a day.
For the Firetag family, she made the okra dish kosher, which meant no bacon or bacon grease. Although traditional gumbos have a roux base, Annie’s recipe is more like a succotash. Lyssa in turn has given the recipe a Jewish touch, with a dollop of shmaltz and olive oil, served with the Jewish grain dish called kasha varnishkes rather than white rice.
Annie died in 2003 at the age of 99, and Lyssa attended her funeral with her mother and other family members. Annie’s is one of many beloved “family” recipes created by — and appropriated from — skilled Black cooks.
On the Southern Jewish table many cultures are savored. Food is a vital part of the South’s Jewish geography and foodways stretching across state lines to shape Southern culture.
In our own Southern homes, and certainly through the process of writing “Kugels & Collards,” we have come to appreciate how food marks time and place, season and generation, tragedy and trauma, milestones and memory.
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Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the terrorist group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
The post Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two.
Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two.”
Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?”
“There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could get an not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear program totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said.
Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday he would discuss Iran with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location.
Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, adding that Iran did want to meet with him.
Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.
The post Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – As Israeli leaders weigh the contours of a possible partial ceasefire deal with Hamas, the families of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza issued an impassioned public statement this weekend, condemning any agreement that would return only some of the abductees.
In a powerful message released Saturday, the Families Forum for the Return of Hostages denounced what they call the “beating system” and “cruel selection process,” which, they say, has left families trapped in unbearable uncertainty for 638 days—not knowing whether to hope for reunion or prepare for mourning.
The group warned that a phased or selective deal—rumored to be under discussion—would deepen their suffering and perpetuate injustice. Among the 50 hostages, 22 are believed to be alive, and 28 are presumed dead.
“Every family deserves answers and closure,” the Forum said. “Whether it is a return to embrace or a grave to mourn over—each is sacred.”
They accused the Israeli government of allowing political considerations to prevent a full agreement that could have brought all hostages—living and fallen—home long ago. “It is forbidden to conform to the dictates of Schindler-style lists,” the statement read, invoking a painful historical parallel.
“All of the abductees could have returned for rehabilitation or burial months ago, had the government chosen to act with courage.”
The call for a comprehensive deal comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for high-stakes talks in Washington and as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Doha within the next 24 hours, according to regional media reports.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement Friday confirming its readiness to begin immediate negotiations on the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release framework.
The Forum emphasized that every day in captivity poses a mortal risk to the living hostages, and for the deceased, a danger of being lost forever. “The horror of selection does not spare any of us,” the statement said. “Enough with the separation and categories that deepen the pain of the families.”
In a planned public address near Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, families are gathering Saturday evening to demand that the Israeli government accept a full-release deal—what they describe as the only “moral and Zionist” path forward.
“We will return. We will avenge,” the Forum concluded. “This is the time to complete the mission.”
As of now, the Israeli government has not formally responded to Hamas’s latest statement.
The post Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.