Professor Gross Speaks at Jewish Feast That Keeps it Real, if Not Kosher

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, THE SALT -- According to Rachel Gross, a kosher-keeping professor of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University who attended Trefa Banquet 2.0, the lack of pork suggests that the menu was a snapshot of what most American Jews ate in the late 19th century, practicing selective kashrut because there was no standardized oversight of kosher meat at that time.

“Today, American Jews remember the meal as a statement about the values of the reform movement,” said Gross at the dinner. “Ideas about what is and is not acceptable to eat are important ways in which humans have organized their societies and the way [Jewish] people have thought about themselves as Jews and as Americans.”

Photo by Lydia Daniller