Jewish Food Festival Coming To New York City On July 27

On Sunday, July 27, Workmen's Circle — a progressive Jewish culture and social justice organization based in New York City — will host the first-ever Taste of Jewish Culture food festival, featuring foods from Jewish shops and restaurants all over New York.

So far, participating restaurants include Kossar's Bialys, Mile End, Breads Bakery, Taim, and The Pickle Guys, among others.

The one-day event focusing on traditional Ashkenazi foods will be held on Madison Avenue between 47^th and 48^th streets, and according to Grub Street, is a deliberate nod to old New York City traditions of "street-side pickle barrels and pushcarts selling smoked fish."

Jewish soul food explorer and author Laura Silver will be on hand to talk about Jewish food, and a group dedicated to the preservation of old-school Jewish recipes, known as Beyond Bubbie, "will roam the crowd with Workmen's crew of grandmas."

If all goes well, the festival is intended to be an annual event and will extend beyond Ashkenazi culinary traditions to those of other Jewish communities around the world.

"We can't do the whole world yet," said Ann Toback, the executive director of the Workmen's Circle, but I'd like to broaden and bring more under the umbrella of Jewish food if this continues: the Bukhari Jews of Queens, Yemeni Jews. All these cultures that you don't think of when you think about Jewish culture, but should."