Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Part I Berachah
1 Family History 3
2 The Numbers Game, or "Where the Kinfolk At?" 12
3 The Bus Ride, or "For the Last Time, This iss Why I'm Jewish!" 20
Mayseh: A Blessing on Strange Creatures 26
4 Yichus: Why I Love Jewish Food-The Honey on the Slate 32
5 Sit at the Welcome Table and Eat and be Satisfied: Black Food 38
Black Food as Jewish Food 38
Mayseh: The Exchange 49
Mayseh: The Bris, or "I Think I Have the Wrong House!" 54
Mayseh: "What Even are Those Things?" 57
Mayseh: "It's Chicken!" 61
Part II The Tablecloth
6 My Heart is in the East 69
Mayseh: "Shalom, Brother!" 73
Mayseh: "You have been Misinformed" 78
7 To Sir, with Ahavah 82
Mayseh: Katie-"I Feel Like Me" 86
Mayseh: Elliott's Tefillin 90
Mayseh: Sweet Potatoes 94
Mayseh; Truth, Reconciliation, and Repair 102
8 Kippa'ed While Black: Being a Black Jewish Man 106
Mayseh: "Get In!" 127
Mayseh: The World's Nicest White Lady 128
Part III Neshamah: A Soul Suite
9 Learning 133
Part IV Eruvim
10 People of the Land 143
Mayseh: Gardens-Landscapes of the Thriving Survivors 149
11 Keshet 158
Mayseh: Purple Velvet 160
Mayseh: Letter I Always Wanted to Write 166
Mayseh: Quadruple Queerness 171
Part V The Prepared Table
Mayseh: Chava's Query 183
Mayseh: My Afro-Ashkefardi Kitchen 190
12 Adon Olam to the Tune of Dixie: Southern Jewish Food 199
Mayseh: Driving Miss Daisy 216
13 The Griot from Blytheville: Dr. Marcie Cohen Ferris 220
Mayseh: The Other (White) Jews-The Koshersoul of Southern White Jews-by-Choice 227
Mayseh: A Southern Guide to Tashlich 234
Mayseh: Halal Soul Chef Shambra 236
14 The Cuisine of the Chocolate Chosen: Cooking Black and Jewish, a Kitchen Table Kibbitz 242
Epilogue: If I Were a Cookbook 258
Recipes 263
Menus and Other Koshersoul Ideas 331
More Koshersoul Ideas 347
Author's Note 351
Acknowledgments 355
Glossary 357
Bibliography 363