Brian Nelson
The best way to learn about another culture is to eat its food, says Carla Bluhm, one of the organizers of Sunday’s Jewish Food and Culture Festival in downtown Brunswick.
“This has been shown throughout history when immigrants have shared their cuisine with their towns and cities,” Bluhm said. “This is a great opportunity for us to share through the language of food more about Jewish life and culture.”
The festival is happening from noon to 3 p.m. this Sunday in Brunswick’s Jekyll Square on Newcastle Street.
The band Klezmer Local 42 from Athens will make a trip down to play the event, Bluhm said, and the public is welcome to enjoy a wide variety of traditional Jewish food and learn about the culture. Proceeds will go toward renovations to Temple Beth Tefilloh, which is nearing 135 years of active use.
“We want everyone to try traditional Jewish foods, most of which is made by people in the congregation,” Bluhm said. “One of our members is making a lot of matzah balls and chicken soup. A lot of women in the congregation are making kugel, we have a couple of people making knish.”
That’s only a small selection of the food on offer, which also includes some Mediterranean salads and bagels with lox, or salmon. Temple Beth Tefilloh’s Rabbi Rachael Bregman said she’s bringing something close to rugelach, which she described as “thumbprint cookies meet croissant.”
Ingredient lists will also be available at every table for those with dietary restrictions. Further, Bregman said good safety is a key part of this festival.
“In light of COVID, our consciousness about food safety and germs has been heightened. So you can expect pre-wrapped food items, so the touching of food is reduced,” she said. “We also think this will move our lines more quickly. When you’re plating each serving, it takes a long time, so this helps and keeps us all healthy.”
The event will also feature a traditional wedding ceremony for a couple renewing their vows — Bregman’s parents.
Kids won’t be left out, Bluhm said, as the temple will also show kids some of the fun activities associated with the holiday of Purim. They’ll get to take play some games and win prizes related to Jewish culture, Bluhm said.
“It’s a new piece for us, this part of the food festival, and it’s part of a larger effort in the community to engage children more, because we are seeing an influx of kids,” said Bregman.
The Purim education piece could also be viewed as a preview for another initiative at the temple — a school for non-Jewish children who want to learn about Jewish Hebrew culture, or whose parents want them to learn. She said the school is opening in a matter of months.
This festival also serves a double purpose as a food drive, Bregman said. The temple invites everyone to bring canned goods to donate.
“If we’re going to have a Jewish food and cultural festival, then we felt it was really important to emphasize some of the key elements of Jewish values. Feeding the hungry is a critical beat,” Bregman said. “And there’s a food overlap with Purim. You give gifts to your friends and to the poor on Purim. By bringing canned goods, we’re both of those marks.”
It’s just a really fun, family friendly time, Bluhm said. She’s a professor and not so much an event planner, but the congregation’s conversations around food, childhood memories and family traditions have been fun. She’s also taken charge of making sure every stall and table has some educational information for the public.
“I need people to puppet me through it. It’s been amazing, the congregation coming together for this and making the food,” Bluhm said.
Restoring the old temple is a big job for a small congregation, Bluhm said.
Mason Stewart is a member of the congregation with a deep knowledge of the temple’s history. It’s extremely important to them, he said, to make sure these renovations and upgrades aren’t a detriment to the building’s historic aspects.
A group of 21 Jewish men came together to found the congregation in 1886, Stewart said, with the temple’s completion coming four years later in 1890.
Temple Beth Tefilloh was designed by famed architect Alfred Eichberg, perhaps the most well-known Jewish architect at the time, Stewart said, at least in the South. Eichberg also designed Brunswick’s Old City Hall; Glynn Academy Annex, intended to replace the original wood school building; and Brunswick Manor, a bed and breakfast in the city’s historic residential district.
Once the temple was complete, Stewart said it was dedicated by Isaac Mayer Wise, the father of American Reform Judaism, followed by a massive party at the Oglethorpe Hotel attended by a who’s who of names at the time.
It’s a rich history that the congregation is very concerned with preserving, he added.
“The major thing is we’re going to add an exit up near the front, we did a security study and because of when the temple was constructed, even though there’s a small door at the front, it’s not adequate in the case of an emergency,” Stewart said. “… If there’s a fire in the foyer, it would block the only reasonable exit, especially for older folks.”
Because of the temple’s historic nature, Stewart said the congregation is working with historic architecture experts and preservationists to avoid hurting that value.
Anyone interested in hearing more can stop by the temple during the festival to listen to an informal talk from Stewart.
“I love how this brings together so many people in the congregational community and the Glynn County community,” Bregman said. “We really value creating spaces where people from all over our community can come together. There aren’t a lot of them.”
