Betty, Anna and Mira in Tel Aviv, 1955.
Our Mission
At Jewish Food Society, we believe that family recipes tell the stories of how Jewish people live and love, how we celebrate and mourn; they carry with them the marrow of who we are as individuals, as families, and as a community. Jewish Food Society is dedicated to preserving and celebrating these recipes and the stories they tell in order to provide a deep connection to Jewish life and identity. We showcase the diversity of the Jewish experience and instill pride.
Our Work
Founded in 2017, the heart of Jewish Food Society is a digital archive, which is home to hundreds of tested family recipes and the stories behind them. Read about Stella Hanan Cohen, a cook in Zimbabwe who faithfully maintains 500-year-old Sephardic recipes and Olga Sternberg, who found sustenance in recipes shared orally amongst prisoners in Auschwitz. Find recipes for a chicken and bamboo curry from the Indian-Baghdadi community, Ashkenazi chopped liver prepared with a mezzaluna, and red snapper albondigas from a Moroccan community that built a new life for themselves in Brazil.
Jewish Food Society brings the archive to life through pop-up dinners, cooking classes, and one of a kind events. At our flagship live storytelling and tasting event Schmaltzy, hear the tales behind the recipes, then eat the food they make you crave.
In 2020, during the COVID pandemic, Jewish Food Society launched a podcast by the same name, Schmaltzy, sharing the best stories from these live events told by chefs, cookbook authors, writers, entrepreneurs, and passionate home cooks.
We hope you will join us in the kitchen and tune in for a Schmaltzy story! Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on all things JFS.
Our Team
Naama Shefi, Founder and Executive Director
Yael Raviv, Chief Operating Officer
Amanda Dell, Program Director
Arielle Nir Mamiye, Culinary Director
Devra Ferst, Editorial Director
Renanit Levy, Development Consultant
Core Creative Collaborators
Penny De Los Santos, Photographer
Armando Rafael Moutela, Photographer
Judy Haubert, Food Stylist
Mariana Velasquez, Food and Prop Stylist
Emily Parkinson, Designer
Freetime Media, Podcast Production
Board of Directors
Shari L. Aronson, Trustee, The Jeffrey H. and Shari L. Aronson Family Foundation
Ellie Backer, Jewish Food Society Founding Team Member
Sara Bloom, Chair, Board of Directors Hebrew Public; Chair, Board of Trustees, Hebrew Language Academy Charter Schools (Brooklyn, Harlem)
Halit Coussin, CLO/CCO Pershing Square Capital Management
Deborah Hochberg, Senior advisor, The Paul E. Singer Foundation
Terry Kassel, Head of Strategic HR, Elliott Investment Management, Director, The Paul E. Singer Foundation; Chair, Board of Directors Start-Up Nation Central
Naama Shefi, Founder and ED, Jewish Food Society and Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel
Michael Solomonov, Chef, Restaurateur, Cookbook Author
Adeena Sussman, Cookbook Author
Affiliated Organizations
Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel is a non-profit organization and culinary center in Tel-Aviv dedicated to cultivating and nurturing Israel’s diverse and creative food culture, a joint venture of Jewish Food Society and Start-Up Nation Central.
