Classic Italian Jewish Cooking by Edda Servi Machlin

Machlin recalls that her parents hosted one such family and two unmarried brothers who had become outspoken anti-fascists. “But when she heard the shofar, she knew to set the table and heat the foods that Mamma had prepared the previous day.” During the High Holidays, people who had moved away from Pitigliano returned to participate in the temple’s familiar services. “When we were young a neighbor cared for us because our housekeeper, though Christian, wasn’t allowed to work or cook that day,” says Machlin. “When the competition for being closest to her became too rough, she got dressed and went to temple.” She remained there until the last blasts of the shofar were sounded. “On Yom Kippur, my father left home early and we children climbed into bed with Mamma, because it was the only day when she didn’t have to start her work at daybreak,” says Machlin.

During the Kol Nidre service, the names of the departed were mentioned in Hebrew and the person’s relationship to members of the congregation was noted. A shelf on the western wall was crowded with the memorial lamps.

“There was one oil lamp flickering for each member of the community who had passed to a better life in recent decades,” she says. Machlin recalls that the temple, which was open every day, was specially decorated all in white for Yom Kippur. “My father, like his father and grandfather before him, acted as the rabbi.” During the High Holidays an ordained rabbi arrived, but his role was inevitably that of helper, since Machlin’s father better understood the local congregation’s traditions. “When they are included in collections, usually no mention is made of their Jewish origin.” Known as Little Jerusalem, Pitigliano was once home to a thriving Italian Jewish community that accounted for 10 percent to 25 percent of the town’s several thousand people.ěorn in 1926, Machlin has vivid memories of Jewish life in Pitigliano, where the community coexisted peacefully with its Christian neighbors. “But sadly many dishes that are traditionally and uniquely Italian Jewish are seldom, if ever, found in Italian cookbooks,” says Machlin, explaining that this is what inspired her to publish these recipes. After the Spanish Inquisition, Sephardic seasonings added new dimensions. It began as the intermingling of ancient fare with pasta, local produce and herbs. Italian Jewish cooking has existed for more than 2,000 years-or for as long as Jews have lived in Italy. 12 (JTA) - “Jews settled in Pitigliano, the medieval Tuscan village where I was born, in the 14th century, and perhaps as early as 1100,” says Edda Servi Machlin, the author of “Classic Italian Jewish Cooking,” a recipe collection culled from her three previous books on the subject.

Classic Italian Jewish Cooking by Edda Servi Machlin