‘The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook’ series has now added a second volume.Editor Joanne Caras hopes to sell 6 million copies to honor Shoah victims and raise money for Jewish charities.
By ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMANJoanne Caras(photo credit: Hank Shrier)
Joanne Caras, editor of The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook, was recently in Jerusalem to unveil Miracles and Meals, the second volume of stories and recipes gathered from survivors across the globe – and to present another $9,000 in profits from the book to Carmei Ha’ir soup kitchen. Since the first volume came out in 2007, the project has netted more than three quarters of a million dollars for Jewish organizations and charities, including $160,000 for Carmei Ha’ir.“And that’s from a book that’s sold only by word of mouth,” Caras points out.Mostly, it’s the word of her own mouth. The Florida grandmother has made some 250 presentations about the book in North and Central America, Europe and Israel, always accompanied by samplings from the recipes.“Every time I mention how some of the recipes call for ‘a little of this and a bissel of that,’ the women in the audience smile and tell me how their mother or grandmother used to cook the same way,” says Caras, whose stop in Israel was part of a 33-day multi-country speaking tour promoting what she calls her “World Mitzva Project.” Indeed, the $36 books have drawn participation from every continent but Antarctica. The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook is the best-selling hardback in the gift shop of the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. It is recommended by Yad Vashem to Holocaust educators everywhere, and it’s being used in public schools and colleges to teach tolerance and Holocaust studies.The book’s roots go back to 2005, when Caras visited her newlywed son, Yonatan, and his wife, Sarah, in Jerusalem. Sarah Caras took her mother-in-law and her mother, Dr. Gisela Zerykier, along when she volunteered at Carmei Ha’ir, which feeds about 500 Israelis every day – many of them Holocaust survivors.“They both were really impressed because it looks like a restaurant and people are served with the dignity of paying customers,” Sarah says.That summer, Zerykier lost her mother and sent out an email describing how the Belgian woman had survived the Holocaust.Inspired by the story, Joanne Caras suggested to her son and daughter-in-law that together they edit a cookbook in memory of Sarah’s “Oma” and other survivors, donating all proceeds to Carmei Ha’ir. Eventually, Joanne and Harvey Caras decided to make it into a fund-raiser for any Jewish organization.“Yonatan made a website [www.survivorcookbook.org] where people could submit stories and recipes,” says Sarah. “It was publicized through word of mouth, newspaper articles, and radio and TV interviews with my mother-in-law and me. Everything was for tzedaka [charity], so we had no advertising budget.”About 40,000 copies of the book have been sold through the site.The stories poured in from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, England, South Africa, South America, Sweden and 20 US states. “It took two and a half years to complete,” says Joanne Caras. “Our cookbook contains 129 stories of survival, over 250 kosher family recipes, and photos from the wartime and more recent family photos.”Miracles and Meals contains 137 survivor stories and 250 recipes.“This new one is 50 pages longer, but we still wanted it to cost two times hai.[‘Hai,’ the Hebrew word for ‘life,’ has the numerical value of 18] so you’d understand that this is a world mitzva project honoring survivors,” says Caras. She is hoping to have the books translated into Hebrew.“We weren’t going to do a second book,” she relates, “but every place I went people would say, ‘Would you please honor my family by including them in this project?’ My husband and I were in Canada two years ago, and after my speech a girl came up with her bubbie [grandma] and said she’d never told her story to anyone. So I sat down with her and she told me her story.“On our way back to the hotel, Harvey and I said to each other, ‘How can we not do a second book?’ And without any advertising or publicity, we got stories from all over: Cuba, Venezuela, Iceland, Scotland, Cape Town. The second volume, I believe, is even more powerful because it takes you to new places. Everybody wanted to tell the story of their miracle.They found me one way or another.”A host of dignitaries came to the soup kitchen on Jerusalem’s Agrippas Street on May 6 to welcome the Caras family. There was MK Yossi Peled, a Holocaust survivor from Belgium; Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, the rabbi of the Western Wall; US Ambassador Dan Shapiro; Jerusalem Councilman Shlomo Atias; and others. Carmei Ha’ir founder Rabbi Yehuda Azrad told the crowd that the book project helped keep the organization’s doors open and allowed it to expand its services.Part of the event was videotaped for the opening segment of Miracles & Meals with Joanne Caras, a Jewish Life cable TV show to air beginning in August. “Each show will feature me preparing a recipe from one of our cookbooks and telling the story of the survivor to the audience,” says Caras. “JLTV is available in over 34 million households in the US, and in 115 countries through the Internet.”The following Friday, she returned to the soup kitchen for more filming. This time, she prepared a cholent (traditional Jewish stew) recipe from the book and told the story of its contributor, Cecilia Gradis Boruchowitz of Johannesburg (see recipe). Boruchowitz, born in Latvia in 1924, owes her life to her skilled violinplaying.Also in attendance at Carmei Ha’ir were eight eighth-graders and their principal from the Epstein School in Atlanta, Georgia.Several Epstein students had sold the cookbook to benefit local organizations and interviewed survivors for the second volume. Caras said the book has become a popular vehicle for bat mitzva fund-raising.“The whole project is about sharing the stories and recipes at our tables, to keep them going through the generations,” she says.Miracles and Meals gave her an opportunity to write about ways in which The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook has been used as an educational tool.For example, a teacher at North Naples Middle School in Florida introduced the book to her students after a 2009 incident in which children were encouraged by peers to assault Jewish classmates on “Kick a Jew Day.”“She’d heard me speak at the local Holocaust museum,” says Caras. “The school got a grant from a grocery store that allowed them to purchase 120 books and all the food to make the recipes. Each student picked a survivor and presented the recipe as if they were that survivor.”Caras hopes that 6 million of the cookbooks will be sold, one for each victim murdered by the Nazis. Echoing Rabinovich’s assertion that the project seems to have an otherworldly aspect to its success, Caras says, “I do believe it’s from a force beyond me. Our intention was to sell a book and raise money for a soup kitchen. We never dreamed of everything else that came out of it.”She encourages readers to write to her about their experiences with either book.“Just pick a recipe, make it and share it at your table along with the story behind it, and then you’ll see what this book is all about.”CECILIA BORUCHOWITZ’S CHOLENT From Miracles and Meals Chicken pieces, or top rib beef, or lamb knuckle (quantities depending on servings). Lamb and beef may be combined.4 large potatoes 1 small butternut squash 2 small sweet potatoes 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 cup barley and beans (red kidney beans recommended)For barbecue sauce, combine: 3 Tbsp. tomato sauce or ketchup 1 Tbsp. chutney 2 Tbsp. sugar 1⁄2 tsp. garlic salt 1⁄2 tsp. paprika 1 tsp. salt 1⁄2 tsp. pepper 21⁄2 tsp. powdered mushroom or chicken soup mixed with 2 cups boiling waterPlace meat into pot and spice well with barbecue sauce, salt and pepper.Layer chunks of vegetables and meat. Sprinkle in barley and beans.Pour sauce over meat and vegetables.Cover with water to reach almost to the top of the pot. Cook on the stove or in slow cooker on high for 2 hours.Turn down to medium temperature and leave to cook until Shabbat lunch. (After 2 hours on high, may instead be placed in oven in covered casserole dish or roasting pan on lowish heat.) Miracles and Meals Edited by Joanne Caras Caras & Associates 350 pages; $36
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