Forshpeis is Yiddish for "appetizer," and the exhibition does whet the appetite by touching on food-related aspects of Jewish daily life from Grandma's pantry and family recipes to food ads and delicatessen signs, from kosher meat preparation to an aged receipt for brisket sold, in 1906, at 10 cents a pound.
Linked to broader themes of identity and cultural expression, such seeming minutiae provide a glimpse of immigrant life and how newcomers became Americans.
About two million Eastern European Jews immigrated to America between 1881 and 1914 and faced the conflicting challenge of retaining their ethnic identity while adapting to American life. The rich food heritage Jews shared at America's table helped resolve the dichotomy.
Some began new lives here as pushcart peddlers. Some opened butcher shops or delis. In true American entrepreneurial spirit, some went on to produce foods under now national brands such as Manischewitz, Hebrew National and Empire Kosher.
Humble delis founded in Jewish communities became staples of American life. With that came ads such as Levy's 1961 campaign featuring an Italian cook, an Afro-American child, an Asian man and others with the slogan "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's real Jewish Rye."
This select sampling of food-related artifacts illustrates how Jewish foods - and the immigrants who introduced, ate, manufactured and marketed them - moved into the American mainstream.
Schweitzer, a New York social worker and rabbi, gathered nearly 10,000 items - posters, advertisements, photos, souvenirs and tchotchkes (Yiddish for bric-a-brac) that most might ignore.
