Everybody knows Phil Rosenthal loves to eat. Star of the Netflix hit series, Somebody Feed Phil, and co-creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, Phil circles the globe to taste the best local cuisine. So what will we feed Phil when he visits the Center for Jewish History for the next CJHTalks? With hundreds of vintage Jewish cookbooks to choose from in the collections of the Center's five partner organizations, we'll serve up a few historic concoctions (Crisco Recipes for the Jewish Housewife, anyone?). Tablet Magazine's Marjorie Ingall joins Phil on November 4 at 7 pm for a tantalizing taste test, along with a mouthwatering conversation about Phil's fabulous food forays, his favorite Jewish meals, and the two key ingredients of his phenomenal show-biz success.
"Food and humor," he said recently, "are the ways to connect with other people."
Born in Queens, New York, Phil is the son of Holocaust survivors who met in Washington Heights after the war. His audience-pleasing parents appear via Skype in every episode of Somebody Feed Phil, and also provided Phil with the comedic inspiration for nine award-winning seasons of the hit sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond. Somebody Feed Phil will soon start its third season on Netflix. But before he sets off for another whirlwind tour of cultures and cuisines, Phil will take a different kind of culinary journey at the Center for Jewish History: sampling the nibbles, noshes, and stories that archival cookbooks like Shalom Y'all, A Russian Jew Cooks in Peru, and From Noodles to Strudels have to offer.
"For better and worse, food is intricately connected to individual memory, family history, and cultural heritage,"
Marjorie Ingall wrote about the cookbook collection in 2016. "Waves of Jewish immigration and emigration are reflected in our cookbooks; they show how we cling to selfhood and place through recipes, using food to acclimate to new settings and mourn the ones we've had to leave."
The cookbooks are part of the extraordinary and world-renowned archival collections of the five partner organizations housed at the Center for Jewish History: the American Jewish Historical Society, the Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, the American Sephardi Federation, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Their combined collections span 5,000 years and include millions of documents, hundreds of thousands of books, countless photographs, artworks, recordings, films, ritual objects, and personal stories. Within this vast collection, the cookbooks reveal recipes both favorite and forgotten, and open a window onto Jewish communities, customs, families, and experiences, from around the world and across the decades. And as Phil will find out, they also remind us of the importance of a good jello mold.
"Wouldn't the world be a little bit better if we could all experience some of someone else's experience?" Phil said in a recent interview. "Food is the great connector for me. Laughs are the cement."
The Center's CJHTalks series features personal stories that illuminate broader themes in Jewish history and culture. Previous programs have featured
Pete Hamill, Matti Friedman, Jamie Bernstein, Margalit Fox, Joseph Berger, and Tova Mirvis.
When: Monday, November 4 at 7:00 pm
Where: Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues | Directions
Tickets: $25 general; $30 at the door at rosenthal.bpt.me
