City Lights and Stanford University Press present
John M. Efron in conversation with Steven J. Zipperstein
discussing the newly published book
All Consuming: Germans, Jews, and the Meaning of Meat
By John M. Efron
Published by Stanford University Press
In Judaism, meat is of paramount importance as it constitutes the very focal point of the dietary laws. With an intricate set of codified regulations concerning forbidden and permissible meats, highly prescribed methods of killing, and elaborate rules governing consumption, meat is one of the most visible, and gustatory, markers of Jewish distinctness and social separation. It is an object of tangible, touchable, and tastable difference like no other.
In All Consuming, historian John M. Efron focuses on the contested culture of meat and its role in the formation of ethnic identities in Germany. To an extent not seen elsewhere in Europe, Germans have identified, thought about, studied, decried, and gladly eaten meat understood to be “Jewish.” Expressions of this engagement are found across the cultural landscape—in literature, sculpture, and visual arts—and evident in legal codes and commercial enterprises. Likewise, Jews in Germany have vigorously defended their meats and the culture and rituals surrounding them by educating Germans and Jews alike about their meaning and relevance.
Exploring a cultural history that extends some seven hundred years, from the Middle Ages to today, Efron goes beyond a discussion of dietary laws and ritual slaughter to take a broad view of what meat can tell us about German-Jewish identity and culinary culture, Jewish and Christian religious sensibilities, and religious freedom for minorities in Germany. In so doing, he provides a singular window into the rich, fraught, and ultimately tragic history of German Jewry.
John M. Efron is Koret Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic and The Jews: A History, now in its third edition, among other books.
Steven J. Zipperstein is the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford. He is the author and editor of ten books, including Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt in History. His biography of Philip Roth will appear this fall. Zipperstein is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
What has been said about All Consuming :
“All Consuming goes beyond sauerbraten and sausage to detail how Germany’s historic Jewish communities turned beef, rather than pork, into delicious dishes that traveled throughout Europe. John Efron makes meat a fascinating lens through which to view culture, history, and gastronomy. Bravo.”
—Joan Nathan, author of King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World
“In this masterfully written book, readers will find a new key to the modern Jewish experience. More than a food history, All Consuming reveals the everyday lives of German Jews, what kept them apart from their Christian neighbors—and what bound them together. Eminent historian John Efron tells the story of German Jews from an entirely new perspective.”
—Michael Brenner, author of In Hitler’s Munich: Jews, the Revolution, and the Rise of Nazism
“Anyone interested in food and identity will learn much from All Consuming. John Efron offers an absorbing, finely researched book, charting the unexpected twists and turns in understanding of Jewishness and meat in Germany over the past half millennium.”
—Rachel Laudan, author of Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History
“John Efron’s erudite and beautifully written All Consuming offers a startlingly original way to convey the entangled relations between Christians and Jews in modern Germany. An important read for anyone interested in Jewish, German, or food history.”
—Derek Penslar, author of Zionism: An Emotional State
This event is made possible by the support of the City Lights Foundation