Vol. 88 No. 3 • March 2023
www.jewishobservernashville.org
8 Adar - 9 Nisan 5783
Cookbook Author and Chef Michael Twitty Bridges Cultures with Koshersoul at This Year’s JCRC Social Justice Seder By BARBARA DAB
P 2023 Campaign Update By CAROLYN HYATT
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new name, a new logo, and a new campaign timeline, the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville is excited to announce the beginning of the 2023 Annual Campaign with the theme “Now We Move Forward.” With the future of Nashville’s growing Jewish community top of mind, our focus will be to combat and shine a light on antisemitism, ensure our agencies and our congregations’ community programming are supported, and continue to support the work of more than 70 beneficiary agencies around the world whose success is vital for our own community’s safety, well-being, and growth. And now we move forward, to begin the process of engaging our community of donors and volunteers. It’s a back-to-basics approach with face-to-face conversations, and meaningful phone conversations. We want to hear from you about your needs, concerns, and questions about Jewish Nashville; and we want to grow our campaign and do even more. The campaign will run from February 2023- December 31st, 2023, and we would love your help. If are interested in volunteering to make calls or help us to engage new community members, please reach out to Carolyn Hyatt at Carolynh@jewishnashville.org. Let’s Move! •
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assover is said to be the most celebrated of Jewish holidays. Of course, that notion may vary depending on whom you ask. Nevertheless, Passover is significant in that it provides an opportunity to bring together people from varying walks of life, different religions, and different cultures, and to delve into the concepts of slavery, freedom, and redemption. For cookbook author and chef Michael Twitty, this blending of tradition, culture, and identity is what he terms “koshersoul.” “It’s a catchall term. But it’s also ethnic. It is a way to describe the amalgamation of Black and Jewish cultures and the venn diagram space between them,” he said in an interview for the Jewish Observer podcast. And it is the title of his latest book, “Koshersoul.” Twitty will be sharing Koshersoul as leader of this year’s Jewish Community Relations Committee’s Social Justice Seder. Rachel Whitney, co-Chair of
Author and chef Michael Twitty will lead this year’s JCRC Social Justice Seder on March 30.
the JCRC’s Social Justice Seder, said, “We are so excited to welcome Michael Twitty to Nashville. His books are rich with lessons in our shared culture and
great food, and I’m looking forward to celebrating Passover with him leading our Social Justice Seder.” In describing the various identities that make up koshersoul, Twitty describes a diverse array of backgrounds. “There is the koshersoul of white Jewish Southerners in the deep South, there’s the koshersoul of Black Jews everywhere in the United States and Canada and the Caribbean, there’s the koshersoul of Africans who are also Jews…and then there’s the koshersoul of people who are deliberately fusing the different foods and cultures who get a different ‘midrash,’ a different interpretation of American Jewish and Black life.” Twitty’s first book, “The Cooking Gene,” won him two James Beard awards, for Best Food Writing and Book of the Year. Both books read like memoirs, rather than traditional cookbooks and take readers deep into his own personal story, and the story of the politics of food. Continued on page 6
Affordable Housing is Becoming Scarce in Nashville: What does this mean for the Jewish Community? By BARBARA DAB
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ashville’s popularity as an “it” city continues to rise, and companies like Amazon and Oracle are bringing an influx of jobs. Despite this growth, finding affordable housing is fast becoming an insurmountable obstacle for most workers. A recent affordable housing forum sponsored by West End Synagogue’s Social Action Committee, and attended by people from throughout Nashville, brought the statistics into sharp focus. Kay Bowers, affordable housing chair of Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH), who was a panelist at the forum, began by explaining what constitutes affordable housing. “For housing to be considered affordable, a person should be spending about one-third Continued on page 6 Tennessee’s Jewish Federation Join Together for a Day on the Hill, page 2
Rabbi Joshua Kullock of West End Synagogue welcomes attendees to the Affordable Housing Forum. PHOTO CREDIT: RICK MALKIN Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Makes His First Visit to Nashville, page 4
I’d Like to Introduce Myself, page 9
Big Night 2023: Broadway Comes to Nashville was a Hit! page 19