Food, Funny and Jewish Bluegrass
The Jewish Food Festival finds a home at Nay Aug Park
The Jewish Food Festival will be held outdoors for the first time, on Sunday, July 13. The air in Nay Aug Park, Scranton will tease your nose with the savory aromas of corned beef on rye, stuffed cabbage, knishes, kreplach and kugel mingling with sweet tooth-tickling chocolate babka, rogelach, apple strudel and sugar kichel.
Laible Blu, described as “Jewish bluegrass,” will provide the soundtrack for the afternoon.
MODI, a New-York-via-Israel comedian, will end the festival with laughter.
But the headlining act is the food.
The Jewish Food Festival features Jewish food, Israeli food and kosher grill items. Rabbi Benny Rapoport, co-director of the Jewish Community Center in Clarks Summit, said part of the fun of Jewish food is the diversity.
“Jewish food is enjoyed by people of all walks of life, particularly the Israeli food,” Rapoport said. “That’s part of the beauty of Jewish food is how it’s drawn on different cultures. And that’s why we have American barbeque, after all, we are Americans and who doesn’t love a good, delicious hot dog with toppings and onions and sauerkraut? It’s all good stuff.”
Rapoport explained that Jewish cuisine is diverse due to immigration patterns.
“The Jewish people have been around so many different places and have wandered from place to place always looking for opportunities to have freedom of religious practice and for many centuries Jews were in the Middle East,” said Rapoport. “And then they went to Europe. And then the bulk of the Jewish world came to the Lower East Side, so that’s when all the smoked meats, pickled meats, salted meats became very popular.”
Rapoport said even the popular knish is a product of past socio-economic reality, explaining that a knish — a piece of dough usually filled with potatoes or buckwheat kasha — was a way to make a meal out of something simple.
“So you’re leaving the house, you’re going on a journey, you’re a peddler, you don’t have time to start cutting and prepping, so you just take this knish,” he said. “It’s a fast, filling, simple snack, which has become cliché or an icon. It’s a symbol of Jewish food.”
The food at the festival will be kosher, which is difficult to find in our area, according to Rapoport. “It is quite complex and for the truth of the matter, this is a rarity when (those who keep kosher) can go to a festival where everything is top-level kosher and top-level delicious.”
Comedian MODI, born Mordechai Rosenfeld, moved to the United States at age 7. He worked as an investment banker until his coworkers encouraged him to try stand-up comedy. According to the comedian’s website, The Hollywood Reporter named him “one of the top 10 comedians in New York City,” while the New York Times called him “the next Jackie Mason.”
“The more opportunities we have to build bridges, unite communities, to express our commonalities and to experience other people’s cultures, I think this is the way we not only bring people together, but that’s how we reach out community, when people come and say ‘wow, look what Scranton has in the summer! It’s amazing. It’s a great place to come visit. It’s a great place to live,’” said Rapoport.
“We have a lot of plans for this property to create a wonderful space for the community at large. We want to put trails, bike rentals, a snow sled park. There is so much we want to do over time. We have to do it in small stages, to really raise up our whole community — Jew and non-Jew alike.”
The center hosts various events during the year, which are meant to provoke thought and create community discussions. Rapoport encourages education and said the center will house 2,000 books for adults and children. Last year, it sponsored a lecture on Islam. Admission was free and Rapoport said about 180 people attended. “In a way, we’re all different, but we’re all the same-different,” explained Rapoport.
“In other words, we all have the same similarities, but we call it something else. The Italian community, Irish-Catholic community, Jewish community, the African-American community — we all have our differences, but we’re all the same in that we all are different than the ‘lily white.’ … E Pluribus Unum is on the coin and it means ‘out of many one.’ It’s not that equality — and people think equality is important because it means we’re all the same — no, equality means within our diversity, we can truly become one. An orchestra, not everyone is playing the violin. Someone is playing the violin, someone is playing the oboe, the clarinet and in their own unique way, together make a beautiful symphony.”
To Rapoport, food is the great unifier.
— kimberly m. aquilina
You can go for the food, you can go for the music, you can go for the jokes — or go for the whole festival. Concessions open at 3 p.m. and will close at about 6 p.m., Rabbi Rapoport said. Attendees will need to purchase concession tickets because the food stands won’t accept cash. The comedy show will take place under the tent across from the Everhart Museum from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the comedy show cost $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Call (570) 587-3300 or visit jewishfoodfest.com or facebook.com/#jewishfoodfest for more information.