Vegetable and Fruit Kugel Cupcakes

During our Tuesday and Wednesday weekday sessions, the 5th and 6th graders in the Edot, Shira and Y'tzira tracks participated in our monthly Hebrew cooking session. This month, we prepared Vegetable and Fruit Kugel cupcakes. Since we are between holidays now, it's the perfect time to fit in a Shabbat recipe. Kugels have been part of a traditional Ashkenazi Shabbat meal for centuries. They were originally round in shape, so by preparing them in the form of cupcakes, we are being a bit truer to the definition of the word, "kugel" (ball-shaped) than when we prepare them in our square baking dishes.

L'hareem tapoocheem (Hold up apples) - I begin the sessions by making sure the students know the Hebrew names for the ingredients.

L'hareem g'zareem (Hold up carrots)

L'gared gezer (Grate carrot)...

...v'l'gared od gezer (...and grate another carrot) - hmm - which side of the grate should I use?

L'gared batata (Grate sweet potato)

L'gared tapoo'ach... (Grate apple...)

...v'l'gared od tapoo'ach (...and grate another apple)

L'hach'zeek ba'meegreret! (hold onto the grater!)

L'hoseef kemach matza l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola (Add matzo meal into the big bowl)

V'az l'hoseef chem'a nam'es l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola (And then add melted butter into the big bowl)

L'arbev et ha'kol b'yachad (Stir everything together)

L'maleh et ha'nee'yarot ba'tavneet (Fill the papers in the baking pan)

V'achshav, zeh moochan la'seem ba'tanoor l'chatzee sha'a (And now, it's ready to put in the oven for half an hour)

Following hafsaka (recess) and our weekday t'feela (prayer service) session, our Edot students went back into Room 202. There, I had prepared two plates on each table filled with the 1-2-3-4 cakes which we had prepared the week before our Gold Rush field trip, so that those students who weren't able to join us on the trip could taste the results. The students all helped themselves to two or more pieces, and some asked to bring home pieces to share with their families. I also handed out the Gold Rush pouches we had made the previous weekday sessions, with a piece of hardtack in each, to those students who didn't receive them on the trip.  

While the students ate their cakes and gnawed on their pieces of hardtack, I reviewed what we had learned about the reasons for Jewish emigration from Germany, France and Prussia during the 1820's to 1870's and the reasons so many Jews immigrated to the U.S. I then introduced the history of eastern European Jewish immigration to America between the years 1880 to 1924. Again, I used video segments and multi-media presentations in the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program (minutes 24:56 to 36:08) to bring to life the history. First, I shared how a unique form of Judaism began to take shape in the United States during the 1860's and 1870's, with the growth of the Reform Movement among German Jewish immigrants. Later, with the arrival of their eastern European cousins, the Conservative and Modern Orthodox movements arose. I also shared the horrors of pogroms and the lack of economic opportunities and religious freedoms experienced by eastern European Jews, eventually forcing nearly 2 million of them to immigrate to the U.S. - "Der Goldne Medine" (The Golden Land). We listened to a lullabye sung in Yiddish by mothers in the shtetls (lyrics written by the famous author Sholom Aleichem), describing how life would be so sweet and good in America that mothers could serve challah and chicken broth in the middle of the week! We listened to an excerpt from a diary written by a recent immigrant in 1897, describing this "crazy game of baseball" where even adults play. In Russia, he writes, they would be put in an insane asylum if they played such games after childhood! We learned of the crowded conditions in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and how children taught their parents their ABC's instead of parents teaching their children their ALEPH-BET's. 

Beginning this coming Sunday, I'll be introducing our new unit of study - Shabbat and the Jews of Poland and Russia (Ashkenazeem), which will culminate on Friday evening, January 23rd, with our Family Shabbat Seder. At the "seder," the students will get a chance to share what we learn about the history and culture of Ashkenazi Jewry as we celebrate a typical Ashkenazi "Kabbalat Shabbat" (Welcoming Shabbat ceremony) and meal together. Put that date on your calendars now!