Accomplished food and travel writer Mimi Sheraton published this book 18 years ago. It is a touching and often fascinating look at a nearly-vanished world. Bialys were made by a multitude of Jewish bakers in Bialystok, Poland before WWII. When nearly all of the Jews of Bialystok were murdered in the Holocaust, most aspects of their culture also died, except for the few survivors who dispersed to places as far-flung as Argentina, Australia, Israel, France and, of course, New York.
While this is the story of a unique food item, it is more the story of the people who baked and ate bialys, and how that food tied them together in the memory of a shared experience.
One of the survivors Sheraton interviewed was Samuel Pisar, who wrote an acclaimed account of his experiences. His book, Of Blood and Hope, is next on my reading list. One book leads to another.
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