Passover in Poland

BEVERLY LEVITT
Special to Jewish News

At sundown on the evening of April 5, families will gather around the Passover table to celebrate a 3,000-year-old miracle.

In a harrowing chase scene from the film "The Ten Commandments," Egyptian soldiers were chasing the escaped Jewish slaves through the desert. When they came to the Red Sea, Moses righteously raised his staff, and the Red Sea parted just long enough for the Jews to cross. To mercerize the miracle, the bloodthirsty soldiers were drowned when the raging waters resumed their roar.

Close, but not exactly how it happened in the Hebrew Scriptures, according to Rabbi David Baron of Temple Shalom for the Arts in Los Angeles. "In the Torah, God didn't just give Moses the power to part the sea and save his people. He told his disciple to have the Israelites go forward - the first step of the faithful into the sea would save them," clarified Baron.

"It's the power of taking a leap of faith to stand up against a tyrant and declare your freedom," says the rabbi, who wrote "Moses on Management" (Simon & Schuster, 1999). "It was the belief of the people - not divine intervention alone - that freed the Jews from slavery and led them through the dry seabed to emerge free men."

California entrepreneur Severyn Ashkenazy understands such a leap of faith. Four years ago, Ashkenazy gathered in Warsaw, Poland with a small group of American and Polish Jews - all of whom had fled their native land during the Holocaust - and hosted the first Passover seder in that city since 1945.

Passover, which celebrates the exodus from slavery to freedom, actualized a rebirth of the Jewish community to Poland.

But Ashkenazy, whose brainchild the Warsaw celebration was, had a formidable time pulling it together. In fact, it was several years in the making.

Although there were 450 thriving synagogues and some three million Jews in the country-of-the-shifting borders before World War II, when the vibrant 64-year-old survivor went back to Poland in 1994, for the first time since he was a child, he found only a handful of ultra-Orthodox Jews.

It was springtime, Passover was coming, and the city was ablaze with lilacs and cherry blossoms. Not only couldn't Ashkenazy find a place to celebrate the holiday, he encountered a beleaguered, practically nonexistent Jewish population. Even those who knew of their Jewish heritage denied their faith. Some had converted to Catholicism; others had no religion at all. They wanted nothing to do with something that had caused so much grief. During the Holocaust, 90 percent of the Jews in Poland were killed.

Ashkenazy thought that if there was a supportive, progressive Jewish community in Warsaw, these "quiet Jews" could reclaim their identity and make peace with their past. And so Beit Warshawa, "Congregation of Warsaw," was born.

Ashkenazy's first order of business was to host a Passover seder.

"It wasn't easy convincing anybody to attend," says Ashkenazy. "But we are a people who are constantly saved by miracles, so our group persevered.

"The first seder, which was held in a hotel, in a room near the garden had just 20 people - eight Jews and a smattering of Poles. We were just happy to have anybody participate," he recalls.

The group ate dishes that Ashkenazy remembered his mother making long ago - kugels, kreplach, tsimmes, gefilte fish, chicken soup with kneydlakhs, brisket, macaroons, and compotes: "beloved Passover recipes that had their origins in Poland," Ashkenazy says. "They were so comforting; it reminded me of a more innocent time."

During the seder, "We read from the Haggadah, we sang; we experienced a true feeling of camaraderie. But most importantly, we tried to create a place for people to feel safe being Jewish," Ashkenazy says. "Now we celebrate all the Jewish holidays and more and more people just appear. We're never sure of the numbers but they keep increasing."

Now, in their third year, the congregation boasts more than 600 people, all of whom will be in attendance this Passover.

"The services are primarily in Polish, the Hebrew text transliterated into English and Polish so everyone can understand. Various rabbis from the United States and Israel come to Warsaw to lead the service, always making sure that it's very personal, that there's lots of story telling, and that everyone, especially the children, feel included," says Ashkenazy. "It's as much about feeling comfortable and making it pleasant, so they'll want to return.

"Once we feel an emotional tie to the holiday, the learning begins," he smiles.

Passover Recipes from Poland

Roast Chicken
(meat)

Cookbook author Joan Nathan's grandmother, Martha Kops Gluck, made this traditional chicken dish every Friday night for Shabbat. Nathan suggested it for this Passover menu because it is the perfect foil for the sweet tsimmes and beet eingemachts and the matzo stuffing. Because many Polish Jews were poor, during Passover the mama pulled out all the stops and served two entr‚es instead of one. So families had their choice - chicken or brisket. Most of the guests chose - what else? - both.

2 - 3 1/2 pound broiler chickens, quartered
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Seasoning salt to taste
Paprika to taste
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 dozen pearl onions, left whole with skin intact
2 dozen small white potatoes, left whole with skin intact
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white Passover wine
Vegetable oil as needed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season chicken with salt, pepper, seasoning salt, paprika and garlic. Lay chicken, skin side up, in a roasting pan. Douse onions and potatoes with oil and seasonings; place in pan with chicken. Roast 20 minutes. Add a little water if pan becomes dry. Turn chicken over and roast 20 minutes more. Add wine to pan drippings and baste chicken periodically. Turn chicken over once more and roast 20 minutes with skin side up. If you like skin crisp, place chicken under broiler before serving.
Serves 6 to 8.

From "The Jewish Holiday Kitchen" by Joan Nathan, Schocken Books, 1988.

Matzo Stuffing
(meat or pareve)

Since James Beard pointed out the dangers of stuffing poultry, we recommend this dish be cooked outside the bird.

2 matzot, broken into small pieces
1 large onion, grated, then drained
1 large potato, grated, then drained
2 stalks celery, finely diced
4 mushrooms, quartered
2 Tbsp. chicken fat or pareve magarine
3 Tbsp. matzo meal
1 Tbsp. chopped parsley
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Paprika to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Soak matzot in hot water for 10 minutes, being careful not to let it get soggy. Drain thoroughly and squeeze excess liquid. Combine onion, potato, celery, mushrooms with matzot. Saut‚ mixture in chicken fat or margarine, until golden. Add matzo meal, parsley, salt, pepper and paprika. Place in greased baking dish. If desired, dot with chicken fat or margarine. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and slightly crisp on top.
Makes 4 cups.

From "The Jewish Holiday Kitchen" by Joan Nathan, Schocken Books, 1988.

Ashkenazic Apple-Nut Haroset
(pareve)

4 apples, (about 2 pounds) peeled and coarsely chopped
2/3 cup chopped almonds or walnuts
3 Tbsp. sugar or more to taste
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Grated rind of 1 lemon
4 Tbsp. sweet red kosher wine

Combine all ingredients, mixing together thoroughly. Add a little more wine as needed. In a food processor, combine ingredients; process until you reach the desired consistency. Nathan likes her haroset in large pieces, with a crunch texture, but her husband's Polish family prefer theirs ground to a paste. Chill.
Makes about 3 cups.

From "The Jewish Holiday Kitchen" by Joan Nathan, Schocken Books, 1988.

Apple and Carrot Tsimmes
(pareve)

Tsimmes is not only a beloved Ashkenazic side dish, but in Yiddish the word means "a complicated procedure," "a mixup," or "an affair blown out of all proportion." The word also translates as "trouble." A Jewish husband might have said to his wife or business associate, "Don't make a such a tsimmes out of it." While Jews in Lithuania used sweet potatoes and meat in their tsimmes, in Poland the main ingredient was carrots, occasionally accompanied, at the whim of the cook, by prunes, raisins, or apples.

6 carrots, peeled and sliced in 1/4-inch rounds
1/4 to 1/2 cup hot water
3 tart apples (Granny Smith) peeled, cored and sliced into thick wedges
3/4 cup brown or white onions, peeled, sliced, then sautéed until golden
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup brown sugar or honey, or to taste
Salt to taste
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp. potato starch
1 to 2 Tbsp. margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place carrots in a saucepan, add water and cook, about 5 to 8 minutes, until tender. Add apples for last 5 minutes of cooking time. Drain and turn carrots, apples and onions into a lightly greased 2-1/2 quart casserole. Add raisins, sugar or honey, salt and pepper. In a small bowl, mix orange juice and potato starch until smooth. Pour over carrot-apple mixture. Dot with margarine and bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Serves 8.

From "Jewish Cooking in America" by Joan Nathan, Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

Beet Eingemachts (Beet Preserves)
(pareve)

This is from Eva Lubetkin, who compared cooking for Passover to "preparing for a wedding." Lubetkin's mother prepared gallons of these preserves. The family would gather together, sip tea (in a glass) and eat beet eingemachts by the teaspoon. It's also delicious piled on matzo, as an alternative to syrup on matzo brie (Jewish French toast) or a delicious accompaniment to chicken or brisket.

3/4 cup water
1-1/2 to 2 cups sugar
2 pounds beets, peeled, cut in half, then cut into 1/4-inch julienne by hand or with grating blade of food processor
2 medium lemons, cut in half, then into thin strips
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 cup sliced blanched almonds, toasted

Pour water over sugar. Mix well in a large enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil slowly and let simmer, uncovered, while you prepare beets. Add beets and lemon strips to the sugar mixture. Cover and let simmer slowly about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Do not let stick. Uncover and add ginger. Simmer another 1/2 hour, or until you test it with a spoon to see if it is thick enough. Turn off heat, and let cool overnight. Next day, fold toasted almonds into cold preserves. Seal. Makes about 2 pints.

From "The Jewish Holiday Kitchen" by Joan Nathan, Schocken Books, 1988.

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