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Acknowledgments When we began this project, we never expected to meet so many people who were so willing to help us gather the data we needed. They invited us into their homes, businesses, and archives; they freely shared stories and treasured recipes. Our lives, and this book, have certainly been greatly enriched because of them. We are hugely indebted to our longtime friend Jane Polan for sending us a copy of the film, Gefilte Fish, which helped us understand how this quintessential Jewish dish has been prepared through three generations of one family . Diane Everman, archivist of the St. Louis Jewish Archives, enthusiastically helped us identify the author of one of our manuscript cookbooks, Ruth Ginsburg Dunie. She also went beyond every reasonable expectation to secure corroborating materials; we truly appreciate those efforts. Heartfelt thanks also go to Carol Christian, Ruth’s granddaughter, without whom we never would have “known” Ruth, a woman whose recipes form such a huge part of this book. Thanks are also due to Susan Hoffman, archivist of the Upper Midwest Jewish Archives, for allowing us to rummage through the rich data sets housed in Minneapolis and for facilitating contact with Linda Schloff, director of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest, Eltheldoris Grais, and Herbert Schechter. Linda pulled boxes of material germane to our research, thereby saving us untold hours of work. Etheldoris, probably one of the most charming women we have ever met, spent hour upon hour talking about her life in the Iron Range and her culinary expeditions around the world, and sharing her special recipes with us. We cannot adequately express our appreciation of and to this marvelous woman. Thanks are also due to Herbert Schechter, who shared such vivid stories about his grandmother, Esther, that we felt as if we had known her personally, and wished we had. x . Acknowledgments Bakeries and delicatessens are so central to Jewish foodways in the Midwest, it is hard to imagine life before them, or without them, yet finding owneroperated ones can be challenging. Many thanks, therefore, are owed to Brian Miller of Jake’s Deli in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and to Bette and Judy Dworkin of Kaufman’s Bakery and Delicatessen in Skokie, Illinois, for still “being there.” Brian enthusiastically provided us what he calls a “360 degree experience”: hand-carved corned beef, pastrami and matzo-ball soup served up in a real 1950s atmosphere, while Judy and Bette eagerly shared information about their business history and recipes, along with family stories, as we munched our way through fabulous samples of their specialties. Ronnie and Elaine Pratzel of St. Louis are also owed sincere thanks for carving out time from running their busy bakery business to relate the history of the St. Louis Jewish community, of Pratzel’s Bakery, and of their famous Tzizel cornmeal-covered bread and bagels, which we devoured with great gusto. Thanks are due, also, to Marc Schulman, president of Eli’s Cheesecake Company , and to Debbie Littmann Marchok, vice president of Marketing for that firm, for archival photos of the founder, Eli Schulman, and for providing us with his famous Chopped Liver recipe, along with ones that are “almost-butnot -quite” the ones for Eli’s famous cheesecakes, plus permission to publish them; to Stacey Schwartz of “Cooking for Fun” who spoke with us at length about why and how she conducts culinary classes for children; and to Aharon Morgan of the Good Morgan Fish Market, who spent quite a while discussing the “trends” he sees in Jewish foodways, and for teaching us how to recognize really fresh fish. One reads so many admonitions these days cautioning people to be wary of “unsolicited” Internet contacts. We are very happy that Joseph Israel decided to ignore that advice and respond to our e-mailed pleas for assistance in finding a Sephardic Jew who would be willing to talk “food.” He and his wife, Matilde Cohen Israel, corresponded with us at length about the Sephardim, in general, as well as about traditional recipes that they have adapted using locally available and Midwestern-grown ingredients. When we finally met, it was as if we were old friends. Thanks are also due to Simone Munson at the Wisconsin State Historical Society for pulling material we needed for this project, then having it shipped from Milwaukee to Madison so we could study it all in one place; to Aimee Ergas, director of the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan, for permission to reproduce Annabel Cohen...

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