Reading KOSHERSOUL reminds me of why books are a never-ending joy. The James Beard award-winning author of THE COOKING GENE, Michael W. Twitty describes his acclaimed first book as planting the seeds for him to talk about being Black, Jewish, of Southern heritage and gay. It allowed him to focus on how food has shaped his family tree and how the food produced, prepared and consumed along the way defines people, soul by soul. I was drawn to his latest effort, KOSHERSOUL, thinking that it would be an opportunity for me to learn more about Black Jews and what I share with them. I was not disappointed.

"Although this is a book that I wouldn’t normally gravitate towards, it was a joy to read and fascinating to consider what Twitty offers in his comments about cultural identity experienced at the dinner table."

When Twitty speaks of the ingredients that Blacks and Jews bring to the table, he reminds me of our commonality. We both talk about food we had before and the food we are going to have next while eating the meal at hand. The food we eat is often supplemented with conversation containing sarcasm and irony. KOSHERSOUL is the second in a trilogy about the intersection between food and identity. Twitty hopes to tell a story of two cultures that may not always speak the same language but have experienced a great deal of history together.

KOSHERSOUL is a tribute to food and so much more. It is not just a question of where the food comes from or how it became part of the culture. It is an observation of how the food makes the people and how two cultures that shared oppression and marginalization across the world continue to validate their identity. After the publication of THE COOKING GENE, Twitty observed in an interview, “People will say, ‘I don’t understand you --- you’re black and you’re Jewish, I don’t get it.’ And then, when you feed them, they get you immediately. They understand you.”

There is a uniqueness to Twitty that drives his passion to unite and share the multi-cultures of his life. After college, he worked as an intern at the Smithsonian developing a Jewish foodways program. One day he traveled to the Magen David Synagogue in Maryland searching for a recipe. The first person he met there was a young African American man, which he thought was a sign. Two years later, he completed an Orthodox conversion to Judaism. But he is quick to observe that many Black Jews are not converts to Judaism or “Jews by choice.” They are Jewish by birth and proudly so. From around the world and from synagogues in Harlem and the south side of Chicago, many Black Jews have deep roots spanning generations.

While KOSHERSOUL remains far more than a cookbook, it concludes with an epilogue titled “If I Were a Cookbook.” The recipes here provide readers with a full measure of what this book truly means. They include Koshersoul Collards, Swahili Roast Chicken (prepared for the Sabbath meal), various versions of the Jewish staple noodle kugel, and yam latkes for Hanukkah. Hopefully some of these delicacies will appear at a holiday meal with my family.

Although this is a book that I wouldn’t normally gravitate towards, it was a joy to read and fascinating to consider what Twitty offers in his comments about cultural identity experienced at the dinner table. Even if you can’t boil water, KOSHERSOUL should remind you of your own past and the joy of family celebrations. As Harry Golden, another famous Jewish writer, once observed, “ENJOY, ENJOY!”