Armed with years of experience as an editor at Martha Stewart Living, dreaming up holiday brunch tables and crafts, Lowin is a master in the art of the fanciful flourish. Readers of her inaugural cookbook, A Year of Jewish Joy, are the lucky recipients of her exacting whimsy, applied to the Jewish holiday cycle.
If you think of garnishes as secondary to a meal, A Year of Jewish Joy will convince you otherwise.
Reading A Year of Jewish Joy feels somewhat like reading your effortlessly put-together big sister’s guide to all things hosting and entertaining. Lowin’s voice is warm and solicitous, the kind that makes elaborate gatherings feel achievable rather than intimidating. She lets you in on the secrets to making a meal feel memorable.
While the cookbook has tempting recipes to boot — stuffed cabbage with golden raisins and caraway, adapted from her Hungarian-born grandmother; banana pudding hamantaschen (yum!); and lemon posset etrogim — the real thrill of this cookbook comes in its visual innovations. Take, for example, her lemon possets. Lowin lets us in on a nifty secret: yellow melting chocolate poured into cocoa bean candy molds makes a surprisingly effective etrog. This is exactly the sort of touch that epitomizes this book: attainable, thoughtful, even ingenious.
Lowin refuses to reserve creativity for the “big” holidays. Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Hanukkah are all here, of course, but so are holidays that often pass with little fanfare. Tu B’Av becomes an excuse for a grape-themed girls’ night (inspired by the holiday’s roots of women convening in vineyards). Tu B’Shvat is an opportunity for a family hike complete with a seven-species trail mix bar. Even Yom Kippur’s break-fast is elevated by a few low-effort, high-reward cream cheese flavors.
There is a concept in Judaism called hiddur mitzvah—beautifying a mitzvah. Commenting on a verse from Exodus, the rabbis ask how a human being could possibly beautify God. Their answer is that we beautify God through the mitzvot themselves: by making a beautiful sukkah, choosing a beautiful lulav, wearing beautiful tzitzit, and, as Lowin models, by making Torah scrolls of Hershey’s Kisses and Rolos, topping matzo ball soup with edible flowers, and creating lush Rosh Hashanah tablescapes complete with personal honey tasting sets at each place. A Year of Jewish Joy is, in many ways, a handbook for hiddur mitzvah. As Rebekah Lowin reminds us, the finishing touches are not frivolous afterthoughts. They are part of how we honor our traditions and the people around our tables, and how we embrace the joy embedded in the Jewish year.
Hannah Kressel is a current fellow at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. She holds a Masters in Art History from the University of Oxford and a Bachelors in Art History and Studio Art from Brandeis University. Her research examines the intersection of contemporary art, food, and religion. She is an avid baker and cook.
