An alternative (but plausible) Jewish Thanksgiving Day

[Mosby]

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving more years ago than I care to admit, I was making some purchases in one of Brooklyn’s major Kosher supermarkets. A woman in a bit of a frenzy ran in and made a beeline to the meat and poultry section, where she asked the guy behind the counter if any turkeys were still available for sale. Shaking his head, he apologized and told the customer that not a single turkey was left. I was sure the woman would run out of the store and look elsewhere, but instead, she shrugged and asked the butcher for the largest chicken he had. “My kids,” she said,” won’t know the difference anyway.”

Not a November goes by that I don’t recall that incident and muse over how enthusiastically the American Jewish community – even those in “yeshivisha” conclaves – embraced the holiday of Thanksgiving. Which I’ve always found strange since the root of the holiday lies in the attempt of English colonists to escape Catholic domination and be able to freely practice a new kind of Christianity. Things, of course, have changed in the course of four hundred years. The New Testament spirituality that the Mayflower journeyers brought with them to North America has become increasingly secularized, and Jews, seeing no conflict with their own religion, have become as comfortable as gentiles in enjoying the festivities of the late Autumn celebration.

More than a few tradition-minded families, no doubt, still see the day as a time to bow their heads and express appreciation – in contemporary terms – for a successful harvest and for having survived another year. Over the last century or so, this sense of gratitude has, unfortunately, become increasingly diluted. As the bounty of the land and reasonably good health became more and more taken for granted, the emphasis of the holiday changed to what you might call the three F’s – Family, Football, Feasting. What, then, is the draw for Jews?

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-alternative-but-plausible-jewish-thanksgiving-day/

My family always celebrated Thanksgiving.

[marble falls]

1. What? Why Family, Football, Feasting, of course!

[luvs2sing]

2. Thanksgiving in Cleveland with my Jewish in-laws was epic!

It was all about friends, family, and food.

We arrived mid-day on Wednesday, and my MIL was either making one of her famous soups or preparing her famous apricot chicken for dinner.

Thanksgiving morning started with bagels from Bialy’s, smoked salmon and cream cheese. Then MIL and SIL started preparations for the feast, and FIL, Hubster, and I retreated to the family room. You didn’t want to get in the way of those two when they were cooking or fighting about the cooking.

Dinner was served around 5pm. There was no lunch that day. You didn’t go near the kitchen. We would all be hangry. MIL would put out a relish tray to keep us from gnawing our hands off from starvation about an hour before we sat down for the meal. The guests would also be arriving. Cousins and friends of my in-laws, usually at least a half dozen guests. Most of them were in their late 70s and early 80s, but they were all vibrant, interesting, hilarious people. The most fun I’ve ever had at a holiday dinner.

We ate and ate and talked and talked. After a while..hours..MIL cleared our plates away and put on the coffee. We would all go to the kitchen and help clean up from the meal, then troop back to the table for dessert which was usually pumpkin pie and one of SIL’s famous cheesecakes. By then, it was 8-9pm. We ate pie and cheesecake, drank coffee, and talked and laughed still more. Dinner usually ended between 10 and 11pm. I’m not too ashamed to say I fell asleep at the table more than once.

The next day, we had bagels for breakfast and leftovers for lunch. Hubster and I hung out at the house while MIL and SIL did the Black Friday thing. They would always bring home a couple of pizzas from Geraci’s for dinner.

Saturday was SIL’s turn to shine in the kitchen. She would make a huge pan of lasagna (I swear it was a hotel kitchen sized pan), and we had yet another dinner party for cousins who were not there for the holiday and SIL’s friends. More cheesecake. Another night of falling asleep at the table for me. So. Much. Fun.

We did this every year for fifteen years, until MIL and SIL’s health began to decline. We offered to make dinner, but they decided to spend the rest of their Thanksgiving holidays with friends. We stopped going up for Thanksgiving. The first year, we went to the movies and cried.

Now, Hubster and I co-host dinner for friends. It’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot of good food. But no more cheesecakes, no more six-hour feasts, and no more family. Just memories to cherish.

[MyMission]

3. My alternative Jewish Thanksgiving was on Sunday

My parents usually worked on Thanksgiving.
Mom was a nurse and I remember going to work with her or dad dropping me off, eating with the patients or staff in the nursing home.

Sunday we'd alternate one year at a friend's, one year at our house. My mom would sometimes make turkey, sometimes a capon. At the friends house they served goose.