Faculty of Art

Criticism and Curatorial Practice

Hailey Kobrin

Schmaltz

Schmaltz is a spiritual-critical cookbook that presents the full traditional recipe, it’s alterations for contemporary Jewish life, but only parts of the entire story. Inspired by Phoebe Gilman’s Something from Nothing, Schmaltz is simply a strand, pulled apart from a larger Jewish cultural blanket that acknowledges ancestral knowledge, community relations, and personal Jewish identity. Schmaltz acts as an access point to reconnect with Jewish spirituality, by bringing unknowable ideas surrounding faith into immediate reality using food. Though Schmaltz presents recipes, these traditional foods are simply a hand-extended in engaging larger conversations surrounding contemporary Jewish identity. Schmaltz continues past the publication’s ending, and seeks to engage readings to find connection to the stories presented, and possibly as an entry point to authoring their own.

“Special thanks to Adel Boubguira for designing this publication.”