My mother was passionately active on behalf of the Israeli Pioneer Women, a group aligned with the Labor Party whose main function it was to raise funds for hospitals, ambulances and various good works in Israel. My maternal grandmother would never allow me to join the Boy Scouts, because they wore uniforms and carried knives--for her, a sure sign of creeping fascism. These were women who brought a great deal of the outside world into our home, often in subtle ways. Their cooking was one example. Recipes in our house originated from Russia, Poland, Germany, Hungary, and Roumania. As I grew older, I came to recognize which dishes came from where. A small thing, perhaps, but nonetheless a way of maintaining traditions, keeping the heritage alive, and of being conscious of a huge world beyond our windows.
"My family was vocal. Everyone talked at once, read a great deal, and held to their opinions with great passion. Discussions were volatile, emotional, intellectual--all those energies rolled into one. In order to hold status within the family, you had to speak loudly and articulately on such burning topics as economics, socialism, the Soviet Union, and how to be assimilated into the larger society without losing one's Jewishness.
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