Reviews
"Every November, the University of Chicago celebrates the coming holiday season with a take-no-prisoners, academic smackdown. For an entire evening, disciplines are attached and defended, the political becomes personal and a particular issue is argued with a fervor not seen since Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe at the United Nations. . . . The issue: the relative merits of the latke and the hamantash. . . . This is a book that will make your mouth water and your sides shake. Letting down their proverbial hair, professors, Nobel Laureates and university presidents all take a turn at the podium, and the results are hilarious."- Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, TX), As if we didn't have enough on our plates, here's something new to argue about. . . . To have to pick between sweet and savory, round and triangular, latke and hamantash. How to choose? . . . Thank goodness one of our great universities-Chicago, no less-is on the case. For more than 60 years, it has staged an annual latke-hamantash debate. . . . So, is this book funny? Of course it's funny, even laugh-out-loud funny. It's Mickey Katz in academic drag, Borscht Belt with a PhD., As if we didn't have enough on our plates, here's something new to argue about. . . . To have to pick between sweet and savory, round and triangular, latke and hamantash. How to choose? . . . Thank goodness one of our great universities--Chicago, no less--is on the case. For more than 60 years, it has staged an annual latke-hamantash debate. . . . So, is this book funny? Of course it's funny, even laugh-out-loud funny. It's Mickey Katz in academic drag, Borscht Belt with a PhD., "For six decades, some of the finest Jewish minds in America have broken their wits on the ultimate question. Which is superior: the oily potato pancake we consume on Chanucah, or the triangular prune- or poppy-filled Purim pastry?"-Jewish Chronicle(London), Lincoln-Douglas, Kennedy-Nixon, Latke-Hamantash: the great tradition of American public oratory reaches a comic peak with the annual exchanges at the University of Chicago debating the merits of greasy potato pancakes versus heavy, prune-filled triangular pastries. No funnier intellectual tradition exists than these debates; argued by scholars from Allan Bloom to Martha Nussbaum, the debates here chronicled will cause almost as much of a belly ache (from laughter) as eating latkes or hamantashen., Lincoln-Douglas, Kennedy-Nixon, Latke-Hamantash: the great tradition of American public oratory reaches a comic peak with the annual exchanges at the University of Chicago debating the merits of greasy potato pancakes versus heavy, prune-filled triangular pastries. No funnier intellectual tradition exists than these debates; argued by scholars from Allan Bloom to Martha Nussbaum, the debates here chronicled will cause almost as much of a belly ache (from laughter) as eating latkes or hamantashen., "As if we didn''t have enough on our plates, here''s something new to argue about. . . . To have to pick between sweet and savory, round and triangular, latke and hamantash. How to choose? . . . Thank goodness one of our great universities-Chicago, no less-is on the case. For more than 60 years, it has staged an annual latke-hamantash debate. . . . So, is this book funny? Of course it''s funny, even laugh-out-loud funny. It''s Mickey Katz in academic drag, Borscht Belt with a PhD."-David Kaufmann, Forward, For six decades, some of the finest Jewish minds in America have broken their wits on the ultimate question. Which is superior: the oily potato pancake we consume on Chanucah, or the triangular prune- or poppy-filled Purim pastry?, "Every November, the University of Chicago celebrates the coming holiday season with a take-no-prisoners, academic smackdown. For an entire evening, disciplines are attached and defended, the political becomes personal and a particular issue is argued with a fervor not seen since Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe at the United Nations. . . . The issue: the relative merits of the latke and the hamantash. . . . This is a book that will make your mouth water and your sides shake. Letting down their proverbial hair, professors, Nobel Laureates and university presidents all take a turn at the podium, and the results are hilarious."-Jewish Herald-Voice(Houston, TX), "Lincoln-Douglas, Kennedy-Nixon, Latke-Hamantash: the great tradition of American public oratory reaches a comic peak with the annual exchanges at the University of Chicago debating the merits of greasy potato pancakes versus heavy, prune-filled triangular pastries. No funnier intellectual tradition exists than these debates; argued by scholars from Allan Bloom to Martha Nussbaum, the debates here chronicled will cause almost as much of a belly ache (from laughter) as eating latkes or hamantashen."--Sander L. Gilman, author of Jewish Frontiers, "Oy! What can I tell you? You want to revel in a festival of intellectual Jewish humor, even if you're a goy like me? Especially if you're a goy? So why don't you buy this book and curl up in front of a fireplace and laugh yourself sick!"--Father Andrew M. Greeley , "For six decades, some of the finest Jewish minds in America have broken their wits on the ultimate question. Which is superior: the oily potato pancake we consume on Chanucah, or the triangular prune- or poppy-filled Purim pastry?"- Jewish Chronicle (London), Every November, the University of Chicago celebrates the coming holiday season with a take-no-prisoners, academic smackdown. For an entire evening, disciplines are attached and defended, the political becomes personal and a particular issue is argued with a fervor not seen since Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe at the United Nations. . . . The issue: the relative merits of the latke and the hamantash. . . . This is a book that will make your mouth water and your sides shake. Letting down their proverbial hair, professors, Nobel Laureates and university presidents all take a turn at the podium, and the results are hilarious., "Lincoln-Douglas, Kennedy-Nixon, Latke-Hamantash: the great tradition of American public oratory reaches a comic peak with the annual exchanges at the University of Chicago debating the merits of greasy potato pancakes versus heavy, prune-filled triangular pastries. No funnier intellectual tradition exists than these debates; argued by scholars from Allan Bloom to Martha Nussbaum, the debates here chronicled will cause almost as much of a belly ache (from laughter) as eating latkes or hamantashen."-Sander L. Gilman, author of Jewish Frontiers, "As if we didn't have enough on our plates, here's something new to argue about. . . . To have to pick between sweet and savory, round and triangular, latke and hamantash. How to choose? . . . Thank goodness one of our great universities--Chicago, no less--is on the case. For more than 60 years, it has staged an annual latke-hamantash debate. . . . So, is this book funny? Of course it's funny, even laugh-out-loud funny. It's Mickey Katz in academic drag, Borscht Belt with a PhD."-David Kaufmann,Forward, "Oy! What can I tell you? You want to revel in a festival of intellectual Jewish humor, even if you're a goy like me? Especially if you're a goy? So why don't you buy this book and curl up in front of a fireplace and laugh yourself sick!"--Father Andrew M. Greeley, "This work captures the wistful magic of a vehicle that classically symbolizes the blossoming of Jewish wit and wisdom in the intellectual cauldron of the university. The latke-hamantash debate represents how timeless Jewish ideas and ideals can find expression on campus, marrying Western thought with Jewish humor, history, and philosophy in a distinct concoction that reaches us all."--Richard M. Joel, President, Yeshiva University
Table of Content
Foreword, by Ted Cohen Acknowledgments Introduction Food for Academic and Gastric Digestion Round One - Metahamantashen; or, Shooting Off the Can(n)on Freedom, Latkes, and American Letters: An Original Contribution to Knowledge Bernard A. Weisberger Restoring the Jewish Canon Allan Bloom Consolations of the Latke Ted Cohen The Hamantash in Shakespeare Lawrence Sherman Jane Austen''s Love and Latkes Stuart Tave The Latke''s Role in the Renaissance Hanna Holborn Gray The Approach through Bibliography Leon Carnovsky L''éternel retour : The Dichotomy of Latke-Hamantash in Old and New French Peter F. Dembowski The Apotheosis of the Latke: A Philosophical Analysis Alan Gewirth Noshes " David Malament, Marvin Mirsky, Steven Watter, Harold Wechsler Round Two -POTatoes, Rockin'' Latkes, and Another Essence-ial Soul Food The Latke vs. the Hamantash in an Age of (M)oral Crisis Herbert C. Kelman Influences of Latkes, Hamantashen, and Jewish Cooking in General on the Roots of Rock ''n'' Roll William Meadow The Fundamental Jewish Cuisine Paul Root Wolpe Noshes StevenWatter, Godfrey S. Getz, Israel N.Herstein,Murray H. Loew Round Three - Accentuate the Positivists The Voyage on the Bagel: In Honor of the Darwin Centennial Elihu Katz and Jacob J. Feldman The Latke and the Hamantash at the Fifty-Yard Line Milton Friedman Hamantash, Bagel, or Latke: Who Has the Power? Shalom Schwartz The Latke, the Hamantash, the Common Market, and Creativity Jacob Getzels Noshes Stephen Z. Cohen, Elihu Katz, Nancy L. Stein, Jacob Getzels, John Laster Round Four - Luminous, Luscious Latkes; Bewitching, Beguiling Hamantashen Ode to the Latke Edward Stankiewicz The Ineffable Allure of Hamantashen Barbara Maria Stafford Bull''s Homage to a Latke: An Acrostic Simon Hellerstein Noshes Ralph Marcus, Roger Weiss Round Five - Combine and Deconstruct All Ingredients Madeleine, Oh, Madeleine; or, Meditation on Short, Plump Pastries Françoise Meltzer The Hermeneutics of the Hamantash Emilie S. Passow Noshes Marianne H. Whatley, Hasia Diner Round Six - Semiotics and Anti-Semiotics Heartburn as a Cultural System Michael Silverstein Latke vs. Hamantash: A Feminist Critique Judith Shapiro Latke vs. Hamantash: A Materialist-Feminist Analysis; A Reply to Judith Shapiro Robin Leidner Latkes and Hamantashen as Dominant Symbols in Jewish Critical Thought Marvin Mirsky The Hamantash vs. the Latke: An Archetypal Study Eugene Goodheart Noshes Zalman Usiskin, Harry Harootunian, Howard Aronson, Bernard S. Cohn, Ralph W. Nicholas Round Seven - Shrouded in Mystery: Spinning Latkes and Neutrinos From Cain to Quincy: Jewish Foods as Weapons of Violence Robert Kirschner A New Page in the History of Atomic Physics Jerrold M. Sadock The Scientific Method and the Latke-Hamantash Issue Edward W. Kolb Paired Matter, Edible and Inedible Leon M. Lederman Noshes Josef Stern, Morrel H. Cohen, Isaac Abella Round Eight - Appealing to a Higher Authority The Rights and Wrongs of Latkes Geoffrey R. Stone The Bioethical Implications of the Latke-Hamantash Debate; or, Small Fry, Deep Fry, in Your Eye, Northrop Frye John D. Lantos Noshes Harry Kalven, Jr., Philip Gossett Round Nine - Mythdefying Origins Euripides'' The Cooks of Troy : Hecuba''s Lament Martha C. Nussbaum The Secret History of the Hamantash in China Judith Zeitlin The Hamantash and the Foundation of Civilization; or, The Edible Triangle, the Oedipal Triangle, and the Interpretation of History Harold T. Shapiro The Archetypal Hamantash: A Feminist Mythology; An Exercise in the History of Religious Methodology Wendy Doniger Noshes Tom Mitchell, Bernard S. Silberman, Richard Lashof, Sol Tax Try ''em, You''ll Like ''em: Lovely, Luscious Latkes and Hamantashen Fit for an Ex-Queen Glossary List of Contributors
