Gil Marks

To know a community is to know its food. ”

In the New York metropolitan area, you can find Jews from just about every Jewish cultural community in the world. ”

My family is notorious for its sweet tooth. ”

Most of the traditional foods we eat on Jewish holidays start out with a seasonal reason as to why we eat them, and later a religious significance is tacked on. ”

The key to Judaism's survival is the emotional attachment to the religion. ”

There is a biblical injunction to tell your children, but the sages who created the Seder several thousand years ago understood that it had to be more than just speaking: that in order for something to connect so emotionally in human beings, it had to be relived. ”

A Jewish food is one that is almost sanctified, either by its repeated use or use within the holidays or rituals. So food that may have not been Jewish at one point can become Jewish within the cultural context. ”

Each Passover, I prepare all sorts of fancy desserts for my family and friends, often experimenting with adaptations of sophisticated modern fare. ”