Blurb:

Much, if not most, of the scholarship written at the intersection of food studies and Holocaust studies tends to focus almost exclusively on trauma and pathology. That venerable research tells a crucial story that must never be forgotten. Alone, however, it does not tell the whole story. This paper explores how and why my maternal grandparents developed a consistent and perhaps subconscious code of exuberant, excessive, occasionally exhausting alimentary practice that shaped every meal we shared together. It examines how trauma, yes, but also joy, triumph, and love shaped the ritualistic zeal with which my grandparents, my Bubbe and Zayda, fed their grandchildren.