It is essential that the Jewish dietary laws be understood by all who attempt medical or social work among orthodox Jews. They are embedded deep in their religion and custom. Among no people is infringement of them so unthinkable and of such grave consequence. A useful paper by Mrs. Mary L. Schapiro, giving the essential laws, should be consulted in this connection. Only a brief summary is

included here.

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The prohibitions on Jewish diet are of three kinds: on the kind of food; on the preparation of food; and on the time different foods may be used. The only meat that can be used is that from clean animals, quadrupeds that chew the cud and also divide the hoof." They must have been healthy and killed in a certain way. Only fish having "fins and scales,” and birds which are "not scavengers or birds of prey," can be eaten. Suet is forbidden, but not fat.

There are many restrictions on the preparation of different foods. The most important is the absolute prohibition against cooking meat and milk together or eating such mixtures. This rule is rigidly adhered to, and in its present application necessitates the use of a complete double equipment of dishes and utensils. Since this rule is regarded as one of the most important, one can understand why butter or milk sauces are refused at meals with meat. It occasions the home-economics teacher a great deal of trouble in planning menus. Meat and fish are another combination that must not be cooked together.

1 Mary L. Schapiro, "Jewish Dietary Problems," The Journal of Home Economics, vol. xi, no. 2, February, 1919. An extract is included in the Appendix.

In prescribing diets for the Jewish people it is helpful to remember that all foods may be classified under three heads: (1) Meat; (2) milk and its products; (3) neutrals. Meat and milk are never mixed. Neutrals may be used with meat or with milk products, but never with both in the same meals.

In addition to the daily food restrictions there are periodic holidays that must be strictly observed in the diet. No food can be cooked on the Sabbath. "During Passover week no leavened bread or its product, or anything which may have touched leavened bread, may be used." This means there is a thorough housecleaning in preparation for this week and a sterilization of all utensils. "A complete new set of dishes is used during the week." In addition there are several fast days and semifast days with special restrictions.

Some indication of the cosmopolitan diet of the Jewish people may be had from the following quotation from Mrs. Schapiro's study:

From Spain and Portugal comes the fondness of the modern Jew for olives and the use of oil as a frying medium. The sour and sweet stewing of meats and vegetables comes from Germany. The love of pickles, cucumbers, and herrings comes from Holland, as also does the fondness for butter cakes and bolas (grain rolls); from Poland the Jewish immigrant has brought the knowledge of the use of lokschen or fremsel soup (cooked with goose drippings), also stuffed and stewed fish of various kinds. From Russia comes kasha, made of barley or grits or cereal of some sort, which is eaten instead of vegetable with meat gravy. Blintzes are turnovers made of a poured batter and filled with preserves or cheese, and used as a dessert. Sholent, sometimes called kugel, are puddings of many kinds, such as magan, lockschen, farfil. Zimes, or compotes of plums,

prunes, carrots, and sweet potatoes, turnips and prunes, parsnips and prunes, and prunes and onions are all puddings, and come from Russia. Zimes of apples, pears, figs, and prunes are southern Rumanian, Galician, and Lithuanian as well.

The Jews have derived certain dietary habits from their religious laws and their long international experience. The dietary restrictions on the use of butter and meat at the same time limit the use of vegetables, so that the Jewish people are not so fond of them as they ought to be for their own physical well-being. The Jewish housewives utilize a small amount of fresh meat in dozens of ways. They have long known how to use honey, molasses, and syrup, in place of sugar. Sugar has been a luxury in many of the countries from which they come. They have also been fond of rye, barley, oats, and buckwheat. These cereals are used in both puddings and soups. They have little knowledge of stewed fruits, but do have many kinds of rich, preserved fruits. All these highly seasoned foods they have in abundance, and it is with difficulty that a taste for the simpler foods is cultivated. Probably no other people have so many kinds of "sours" as the Jews.

In the Jewish sections of our large cities there are storekeepers whose only goods are pickles. They have cabbages pickled whole, shredded, or chopped and rolled in leaves, peppers, string beans, cucumbers, sour, half sour, and salted, beets, and many kinds of meat and fish. This excessive use of pickled foods destroys their taste for milder flavors, causes irritation, and renders assimilation more difficult.

When the Jew arrives in this country some of the

limitations of his diet, if unchanged by instruction, are evident. Many of them pay little attention to their diet during the week, until their Sabbath. Then on Friday night, on Saturday, and on Sunday-which to most of them is a holiday-they have a feast time. On Friday all the cooking is done for the next two days. Chickens are cooked, soup made, and kuchen (cakes) and mehlspeise (flour mixtures) prepared. As a result of these weekly feasts many of the Jews eat too much, or else have not a well-balanced ration. By nature the Jews are an emotional people. A slight physical discomfort often sends them to a doctor when the readjustment of their diet would produce a cure.

The Jewish children suffer from too many pickles, too few vegetables, and too little milk. Enuresis is quite common among these children, induced by the highly spiced foods in their diet and the pickles eaten at and between meals.

For undernourished children among the Jews, it is necessary not only to urge the use of milk, but to plan when it may be taken, as it cannot be taken at the same meal with meat. Therefore midmorning and midafternoon meals of milk must be introduced. This is impossible for the children who eat in school, unless there is a school lunch.

Vegetables are usually needed in greater abundance. These may be eaten in borsch, a favorite soup much like our vegetable soup, but this does not give them in very large portions. Therefore, a menu should be planned to show how they may be combined with other foods. If served with a white sauce or butter, vegetables cannot be eaten with meat, but

they can be eaten at the noon meal or lunch with bread. Creamed vegetable soups also may be given in this way, but never at the same meal with meat.

In the treatment of constipation, which is very frequent, six glasses of water a day are prescribed "to kasher the intestines," cereal pudding, or krupnick, is given, also rye bread or "Jewish black bread," and borsch once a day. The recipes for krupnick and borsch are to be found in the Appendix.1

When prescribing for

Many Jews have diabetes. them, one has not only to give a new dietary, but also to teach new ways of cooking the foods allowed. For example, they are accustomed to cooking vegetables in small quantities, with beef; but for the diabetic this is excluded, and new recipes must be introduced. All five and ten-per-cent carbohydrate vegetables may be served with drawn butter, white sauce, or a hollandaise sauce, or with salt and a small portion of lemon juice or vinegar. Green peppers stuffed with vegetables make a pleasant variety. Liver, which is frequently used, must not be allowed in the diet. The patient must be warned not to eat during Passover mazzah, or unleavened bread made of flour, salt, eggs, and water, in the form of large crackers. Eggs baked in spinach, or scrambled with mushrooms, may be eaten. The Jewish people are fond of the flavor of almond omelet, instructions for making which are in the Appendix.2

In cases of nephritis, the use of all pickled foods and "sour salt" should be discouraged. Almost all their soups are low in protein. Many of their meat

1 See Appendix, recipes 12, 13.

2 Ibid., recipe 14.