Gil Productions’ most popular television format Masterchef Israel draws in an audience through emphasizing aesthetically the multiculturalism of the contestants. On the season three finale, two of the finalists added their own distinctive flavors and spices to their final meals, thus separating their creations from the average Israeli dish. Masterchef winner Tom Franz migrated from Germany to Israel, and even while cooking kosher for the show still managed to use his German delicacies. Masterchef Israel seized the opportunity to frame Tom Franz’s merging of cultures on the show as the acceptance and appreciation of diaspora nationalism. Through emphasizing Franz’s cooking style, the judge’s appreciation for the variation in the dishes, and the camera focusing on the types of ingredients used, Masterchef Israel aesthetically reflects Israel’s cultural bonding through diaspora nationalism.
Masterchef frames Franz as a humble chef who is aware of the Israel kosher practices, and yet does not let these cooking limitations hinder his German influences and creativity. Citizens of Israel take great pride in their nation, and when new migrants join, there is a notion of “what Israelis specifically call "social absorption" ("klitah hevratit")”, “a purposeful activity designed to guide the newcomers in a ‘remaking of the self’” (Golden 9). Franz engages in the social absorption of Israeli culture on the show, which allows him to learn how to excel in cooking the cuisine while sticking to his German roots. While interviewing Franz on Masterchef, the camera zooms in on the kosher food while he speaks. At the same time, Franz talks in a voice over and mentions he does not view kosher as a limitation but rather as enrichment that could open u...
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...methods, cultural bonding becomes more acceptable and prevalent in the media as Tom Franz becomes the image of a modern Germany.
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The novel Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska examines the roles and experiences of Jewish immigrants in America roughly after the years of WWI in New York City. The novel follows the journey of Sara, a young Jewish immigrant, and her family who comes to the country from Poland with different beliefs than those in the Smolinsky household and by much of the Jewish community that lived within the housing neighborhoods in the early 1900s. Through Sara’s passion for education, desire for freedom and appreciation for her culture, she embodies a personal meaning of it means to be an “American”.
For thousands of years people have left their home country in search of a land of milk and honey. Immigrants today still equate the country they are immigrating to with the Promised Land or the land of milk and honey. While many times this Promised Land dream comes true, other times the reality is much different than the dream. Immigration is not always a perfect journey. There are many reasons why families immigrate and there are perception differences about immigration and the New World that create difficulties and often separate generations in the immigrating family. Anzia Yezierska creates an immigration story based on a Jewish family that is less than ideal. Yezierska’s text is a powerful example of the turmoil that is created in the family as a result of the conflict between the Old World and the New World.
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The Ghetto’s Fighter House Institution is located outside of Akko, Israel. This institution includes Jewish artworks, photographs, and writin...
For a Jew arriving in America from Europe starting anew marked a defining point. After losing six million Jews in the Holocaust, the United States of America served as one of the most secure havens for reestablishing a strong Jewish presence ...
In Lavanya Ramanathan’s Washington Post article published in 2015 titled “Why everyone should stop calling immigrant food ‘ethnic’”, she discusses about people’s preconceptions on the type of food that should be labelled ethnic. Ashlie Stevens also touched on a similar topic in her Guardian article published in 2015 titled “Stop thinking and just eat: when ‘food adventuring’ trivializes culture”. She talks about how people assume that just by eating food from a certain culture, they are able relate to the culture as a whole. Both authors acknowledge the importance of appreciating authentic cuisines, but takes different approaches to convince the audience. Both authors establish credibility by using a wide range of substantiated evidences. While,
Following the attack from Lavater, Mendelssohn placed all of his efforts into trying to get Jews to explore the German background and make them members of Jewish society. In doing so, he trans...
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The negation of the Diaspora has a mythical character, which functions to legitimize social and political practices and mobilize action and identification with a cause. Gordon establishes this myth of identity through anchoring of the present in the diasporic past and actualization of the diasporic past in the present in the Yishuv.
Knott , Kim, and Seán McLoughlin, eds. Diasporas Concepts, Intersections, Identities. New York : Zed Books, 2010. Print.
Penkower, Monty Noam. The Holocaust and Israel Reborn: From Catastrophe to Sovereignty. IL: University of Illinois Press,
Countless friends and acquaintances have been taken off to a dreadful fate. Night after night, green and gray military vehicles cruise the streets. They knock on every door, asking whether any Jews live there. If so, the whole family is immediately taken away....
There’s this incredible project in Pittsburgh called Conflict Kitchen — they have this space that, every few months, they close down and re-open as a new restaurant, serving the food of a country that the US is in conflict with. Right now, it’s Iranian food, and in the past they’ve had Cuban food, Palestinian food, North Korean food. It’s this beautiful and delicious way of teaching people without proselytising — they’re not lecturing people, they’re just getting to them in the most direct, most fundamental way, which is through something that tastes great.
Joe Sacco’s graphic novel, Palestine, deals with the repercussions of the first intifada in Israel/Palestine/the Holy Land. The story follows the author through the many refugee camps and towns around Palestine as he tries to gather information, stories, and pictures to construct his graphic novel. While the book is enjoyable at a face level, there are many underlying themes conveyed throughout its illustrated pages and written text.