(*What, you thought his name was really ‘Dangerfield?)
Commentary
Rise up, South Florida’s Jewish community – a traveling exhibition celebrating Jewish delicatessens is landing in Houston and Chicago…but not here!
Many years ago, when I first started writing Around the Block, I introduced my stories with a line I shamelessly lifted from Chris Hayes of MSNBC. Chris had a segment on his weekend show called, “Tell me what you know now that you didn’t know last week,” which I turned into the opening of many of my posts this way, “I learned today…”
With that lede…
I learned today that in a display of history and nostalgia, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles is memorializing a fading cuisine: the Jewish delicatessen. The exhibit is called, “I’ll Have What She’s Having.” (If you don’t understand why the show is called “I’ll Have What She’s Having,” you might think about not reading any further.)
After leaving the Skirball, the exhibition will travel the “country” memorializing the Jewish delicatessen, looking back at that vibrant institution that was fueled by immigration and irresistible food.
One note before I continue. I’m writing this story on Saturday, July 23, 2022. As many readers know, for Jews, Saturday is Shabbat (the Sabbath), our day of rest. So you might ask, how can I be writing on the day I should be resting? I’ll address that in two ways: 1) In my mind, writing this story is like resting; it provides an escape from opining about the truly horrific news of the ever escalating deterioration of our democracy and our country; and 2) Similar to some of the delis showcased in the exhibit, Around the Block is a non-kosher blog, not a kosher one, and is open on Saturday.
Now, you might also ask, why did I write travel the “country”?
Because, given the nature of this exhibition, I’m not sure which “country” they’re talking about.
After leaving Los Angeles, “I’ll Have What She’s Having” moves to New York City (New York Historical Society), then to Houston (Holocaust Museum Houston), finishing the tour in Skokie, IL (Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center).
Notice anything wrong with this schedule? Anyone? Anyone? Not only does this exhibition have nothing to do with the Holocaust, if the tour is traveling the “country” and more specifically, the “Jewish country,” how can it not travel to South Florida? Didn’t anyone look at the numbers?
I did. And although I knew it already, I’d bet most people didn’t: South Florida has the third-largest Jewish population in the United States (535,500), after New York (2,109,300) and Los Angeles (622,480). And, based on its Jewish % of total population of 8.3%, it is #2 after New York (11.00%) and far ahead of Los Angeles (4.7%), Chicago (3.1%) or Houston (0.7%).
And, not only that, based on a completely unscientific study done by Around the Block in pre-COVID 2020 (margin of error +/- 30 points), 67.3% of that South Florida Jewish population is from New York, the place where 85.4% of the delis in the exhibition are from. Yet, this exhibit is going to Houston with less than 52,000 Jews, representing 0.7% of the total population?
This is a shanda!* It needs to be rectified before it’s too late. Jews of South Florida unite! Take a few minutes out of your campaign to rid the Sunshine State of the gonifs* Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio. to join another, possibly more important campaign: the campaign to BRING “I’LL HAVE WHAT SHE’S HAVING TO SOUTH FLORIDA!” Write to the Skirball, write to Around the Block, write to our local museums, write to your Congressman (Lois Frankel, are you listening?)…request, nay, DEMAND, that “I’ll Have What She’s Having” comes to South Florida. And then go to 3Gs and indulge on their hand-carved pastrami on hand-sliced rye. Take that, Katz’s!
(*For those of you who knew the “I’ll Have What She’s Having” reference but can’t go further into Jewish knowledge, “shanda” is the Yiddish term for “a shame; a scandal” while “gonif” is a “scoundrel.)
Finally, as a courtesy to readers who do not subscribe to the New York Times where the article about “I’ll Have What She’s Having” originally ran, here’s a PDF version of it. Enjoy…and remember…it’s pastrami, rye, deli mustard, hold the mayonnaise…and a full, not half-sour pickle!
Around the Block 
Maybe it’s DeSantis they are shunning, not the Jews of S. Florida.
He deserves a boycott.
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at least you have delis
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Deli sign:
Hot corned beef or pastrami cannot be served with mayo and or on white bread unless Nebraska I.D. is shown.
-The Management
Sent from my iPhone
>
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Well! I am insulted! As usual, Canada is being ignored. As if no Jewish immigrants came to Canada. In particular, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada!
I do not know if Winnipeg had the most Jewish citizens in Canada, probably that was Montreal. But Winnipeg has a very vibrant Jewish community, and while I myself have no Jewish blood in me that I know of, still, Winnipeg had one of the best Jewish delis in Canada. Oscar’s Delicatessan. Originally founded on North Main, in what was then the centre of our Jewish community, it moved south to downtown Winnipeg when most of the community moved north to Garden City, an upscale suburb.
Anyways, a lot of my friends were Jewish, and one of our favourite eating places was Oscar’s Deli. I have lots of very fond memories eating in the original haven.
I no longer live in Winnipeg, but last time I visited my home town we included a visit to Oscar’s. It wasn’t the same, there was no history in the place. But we had heaping corned beef on rye with dill pickles, and they were delicious. Sadly my memory fails me, I cannot remember the other foods we ate that day, but everything was as good as ever.
“I’ll Have What She’s Having” is failing if it does not include either Montreal or Winnipeg in its list of destinations. If it came to Winnipeg I would go home just to take part in the exhibition.
The exhibitors need to expand their horizons.
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Mea culpa, mea culpa..oops!, does that really apply here? But no slight intended. I’ve had Jewish friends when I lived in the San Francisco Bay area from Canada…Winnipeg, Toronto and, of course Montreal. In fact there is a Montreal Jewish deli in Brooklyn, Mile End, and several branches of a Montreal-style bagel joint, Black Seed Bagel, in Manhattan. I will admit however, that growing up in Brooklyn with corned beef and my go-to sandwich, pastrami (not to mention tongue which my father always said was too expensive), I really never understood the Montreal (Canadian???) style “smoked meat,” a kind of mash-up of corned beef and pastrami. In my book, you’re either a pastrami guy or a corned beef guy, not both. But, of course, that’s my book. And my book is not THE BOOK OF JEWISH DELI!
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Pastrami was okay. I died for good corned beef. Different taste buds, I guess. I now eat very little beef. My digestive system cannot handle it.
I never knew Montreal smoked meat was a combo of the two. Never tried it. Sounds lile an “un-Kosher thing to do!”
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