We honor Rosa (Kaufmann) and Hugo Rossheimer, whose legacy has informed our family in ways both sweet and sad, complex and obvious, for three generations. We mourn their deaths at the hands of the Nazis in 1942.
We thank professor Shulamit Reinharz, founding director of Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, whose wholehearted response to our book proposal led to the existence of this book.
We thank the wonderful team at University Press of New England for their dedication and for improving our manuscript in innumerable ways. Leading the team was editor in chief Phyllis D. Deutsch. Eric Brooks designed a beautiful book. Susan A. Abel, production editor, and Karen Levy, copy editor, worked with us to polish the language. Thanks to Rick Henning, Andrew Butler Lohse, Barbara L. Briggs, Sherri Strickland, and Susan Sylvia for increasing the visibility of our book. We thank everyone else at UPNE and Brandeis University Press who worked on all the elements of editing, producing, and marketing this book, and Joanne Sprott for preparing the index.
As artists, we are especially thankful for the aesthetic contributions made to this book: We thank Megan Piontkowski for her whimsical and informative illustrations; Catrine Kelty for her beautiful work—and good humor while working in a very crowded kitchen—as food stylist for our color photographs; John Dembski, for being ever willing to lend his genius hand with technical wizardry; Siobhan Dunne for brilliantly editing our Kickstarter video.
We thank Kim Witherspoon for taking a chance on us, and for her tireless support, as well as Monika Woods and Lyndsey Blessing at InkWell Management Literary Agency.
We thank Nach Waxman, the first person we spoke to about this project. We are so grateful for the time he has spent talking to us about our book and reading early versions of our work. That initial conversation (while standing in his bookstore, Kitchen Arts & Letters), and the encouragement he gave us, literally sent us on our way.
We thank Jan Bluestein Longone, renowned curator of American culinary history (and our cousin), for her unwavering support and encouragement.
We thank Darra Goldstein, whose early enthusiasm and support for this project humbled us and for which we remain grateful.
We thank Lisa Ekus for being a mentor, and along with Sally Ekus for being supporters and advocates.
We thank writer Laurie Woolever for her generosity.
We thank Wes Eichenwald for the insightful article about German-Jewish cuisine that he wrote for the Jewish Advocate.
We thank the following institutions:
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University: for naming us research associates, and Deborah Olin and Amy Powell for their support.
At the Leo Baeck Institute in New York City, the primary organization devoted to the culture of German-speaking Jewry: we thank Frank Mecklenburg, director of research and chief archivist, for the many conversations, support, and advice he has offered us. Also, David Brown, communications and programs director; Michael Simonson, archivist and registrar; and Tracey Felder, librarian.
At the Center for Jewish History, Lillian Goldman Reading Room: Melanie Meyers, librarian, and other staff librarians.
At the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute: Marylene Altieri and the staff of librarians and archivists.
Sonya thanks Barbara Ketcham Wheaton for her seminar “Reading Historic Cookbooks,” at Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, which provided a wealth of information and inspiration.
We could not have completed this project without the incredible amount of support, both professional and personal, from so many people, in so many different ways. (Some people fall into more than one category below; you know who you are!) For their generosity in sharing information and seasoned advice, reading early versions of our book proposal, lending us books, making referrals and introductions, and answering questions large and small, we express our gratitude to Carolyn Oppenheim, ever vigilant as an advocate for our project; Marion Bloch, Patricia Mulcahy, Joe Lunievicz, Adam Cvijanovic, Yvonne Shafir, Jeffrey Yoskowitz, Jane Ziegelman, Anya von Bremzen, Larisa Frumkin, Matt Sartwell, Olga Massov, Maria Speck, Bonnie Slotnick, Hiroko Shimbo, Louisa Shafia, Andrew Silverstein, Dashka Slater, Lisa DeLange, Tracy Martin, Melanie Perkins McLaughlin, and Pamela Loval.
We thank recipe testers: Linda Ganjian, Kristin Graves and Alicia Canary, Megan Charles and Achim Matthes, Laura Eastment, Sarah Leinbach, Susan Halter and Michael O’Connell, Mary O’Brien Spurrier, Ann Hirsch and Jeremy Angier, Sharon Jones, Marion Bloch, and Rikk Larsen.
We thank recipe tasters (aka eaters): Charlie Berg and Ashley Lieberman, Sara Livermore, Phil Primack and Nancy Steiner, Wilhelm Neusser, Rochelle Desmarais, Julie Graham, and Rikk Larsen.
We thank Otto Laske and Nadine Boughton, Scottie and Robert Brower, Robert and Sarah Leinbach, and Virginia Cazort and (late) Herbert Brown for offering us their homes in idyllic locations for cooking and writing retreats.
In Berlin, we thank: David and Sofia Incorvaia and Sebastian Lande; Sylvie Michel; Dirk Splinter and Ljubjana Wüstehube and Roman; Ulrich Krauss for hosting our Passover seder meal at Zagreus Projekt, with excellent cooking assistance from Tim Goroll; Andreas Klöckner, Thomas Mansengross, Sascha Rimkus, and Helena at Goldhahn & Sampson, for hosting our cooking class; Aubrey Pomerance, head of archives at the Jewish Museum Berlin/LBI Berlin; Rebekka Göpfert, literary agent; Elke-Vera Kotowski, editor of Das Kulturerbe deutschsprachiger Juden: Eine Spurensuche in den Ursprungs-, Transit- und Emigrationsländern; and Ursula Heinzelmann.
In Munich, we thank: Beatrix and Dieter Goebel, for their constant support and generosity and many laughs over good food; and Rachel Salamander.
In Bamberg, we thank: Dr. Regina Hanemann, director of Municipal Museums, an advocate and a friend; (late) Kris Fiebig, our dear friend whose work with the Jewish and Christian communities was full of everlasting energy that changed the community and inspires us still; Ilse Vogel; and Robert Zink, retired archivist of the City of Bamberg.
In Frankfurt, Freiburg, and Strasbourg, we thank: Berndt Fechler, Wilhelm and Ursula Kerntke, Consolata Peyron and Heiko Wegmann, Rabbi Andrew Steiman of the Henry and Emma Budge-Stiftung, Freddy Raphaël, and Hélène Roth.
In New York City and environs, we thank: Andrew Tarlow and chef Sean Rembold for featuring dishes inspired by our recipes on a special menu at the restaurant Reynard in Brooklyn; Jen Kaplan, for inviting us to give a talk and food tasting at Eugene Lang, New School; Ernie Vega and Christina McKay Vega of Table Wine in Jackson Heights, for inviting us to give a food tasting; Maggie Wood and Matthew Kurek of Golden Earthworm Organic Farm, for inviting us to give cooking demos at the farm, and whose beautiful produce has been the basis for many recipe tests.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, we thank: staff members Adam, Colby, and Chris at Savenor’s butcher shop.
We are indebted to the writers whose efforts have contributed to the important body of work on Jewish food, cooking, and culture. Their work has informed us and we are deeply grateful. We thank cookbook writers and historians: (late) Gil Marks, Claudia Roden, Joan Nathan, Monika Richarz, Steven Lowenstein, Marion Kaplan, Atina Grossmann, and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett.
We are grateful to all the people we interviewed, both in the United States and in Germany. Some had but a few memories, others had many; some said their mothers were terrible cooks, others that they were wonderful. All were generous in sharing their food memories with us, which greatly informed this book.
In the United States, we thank: (late) Johanna Zurndorfer, (late) Herta Bloch, sisters Hannah S. Hess and (late) Elizabeth Stern, Werner Loval, Evelyn Weyl, (late) Gretel Suhl, Steven Lowenstein, Dr. Axel Hoffer, Vernon Mosheim, Margot Karp, Lotte Karoline (née Mayer) Hesdorffer, Stanley Mieses, Vivien Goldman, and Sue Mell.
In Germany, we thank: Emmy Zink, Rita Werther, Eveline Külkin, Margot Friedlander, Friedel and Harald Korten, Gerda Rosenthal, Ava Frölich, and Heinz Hesdorffer.
We extend an enormous thanks to the eighty-four people who contributed to our Kickstarter fundraising campaign. The book you are holding in your hands, in particular the visuals, was enhanced as a result of the funds raised. Thank you, all!
To all the people who read and have commented on our blog, www.germanjewishcuisine.com, who follow us on Facebook, and/or follow us on Twitter, we thank you for following, for reading, and for joining the conversation.
During the process of writing this book, our family experienced both great sorrow and great joy. We lost our brother/uncle Andrew Rossmer—potato dumpling and Igel connoisseur—in February 2014. He left us way too soon—we miss him dearly and wish he were here to see the completed book. A couple of months later, we welcomed grandson/nephew Levon Gropman, who is already a connoisseur of strawberries. They represent our family’s past and future.
For their love, support, and generosity, we thank family members Tom Lewinson, Ann Bron, (late) Peter Berend, Carol Rossmer, David Rossmer, Jacob Rossmer, Dorit Lorenz Cohen, (late) Bernice Gropman Bourne, (late) Elisabeth (Lisl) Kaumheimer, and (late) Ruthy Bodden—these last two being de facto family members. We thank son/brother Adam Gropman and daughter-in-law/sister-in-law Robyn Monks Gropman for their continuous enthusiasm and humor and also for Booboo. To husband/dad Don Gropman, for sharing his love, his lifelong knowledge of writing, wisdom of the world, his dishwashing, and for enduring the madness of not one, but two family members writing a book together, and for coming up with not one, but two brilliant titles!
Finally, we thank each other for the willingness to take on this mother-daughter writing project, and the combination of madness, fortitude, patience, humor, love, and persistence that was required in order to see it through to completion.
We apologize to anyone whose name we have inadvertently left off: it is not for lack of our appreciation, but rather due to the forgetfulness brought on by our boggled brains. Thank you!