R O M T H E E D I T O R

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Susan Weidman Schneider

FEATURES EDITOR

Susan Schnur

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Diana Blettcr

FICTION EDITOR Julia Wolf Mazow

POETRY EDITOR Myra Sklarew

ART DIRECTOR Sheila Shapira-Cortez

PHOTOGRAPHY Marilynne Herbert

PUBLISHER Paula Gantz

ADMINISTRATOR Naomi Danis

ADVERTISING MANAGER Lynda Marshak

FOUNDING CO-EDITOR Aviva Cantor

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Arlene Agus, Esther Broner, Nina Cardin, Elaine Cohen, Sue Elwell, Reena Sigman Friedman, Blu Greenberg, Judith Hauptman, Anne Lapidus Lerner, Sharon Lieberman, Audrey Fried­man Marcus, Rela Geffen Monson, Judith Plaskow, Nessa Rapaport, Sandy E. Sasso, Mary Cahn Sch­wartz, Amy Stone

j he inscription in the cook-I book given to me as a Bat I Mitzvah gift by my very I well-educated next-door J ne ighbor reads : "Th i s ,

more than anything, will B J H L S I bring pleasure to those you

ove!' After more than 30 years, the assumptions in that declaration still sting: that at thirteen I 'm going to be ready to cook for anybody; that-a cookbook couldn't possibly be for my own pleasure, but for some mysterious persons I might serve in the future; that it's food and not, for example, sex that is the preferred pathway to joy.

Food — its purchase, preparation and con­sumption — has been a potent issue for feminists. From who washes the dishes to who diets to please whom, food has provided the very terms for many ongoing debates about roles, gender and more.

An indication of our ambivalence about food is the fact that this is the first time in LILITH's thirteen years we've run a food-related article. We had the strong feeling that putting recipes — recipes! — in a feminist magazine would signal the instant when the women's movement stopped moving. Cooking had come to represent the emblem of women's oppression.

And yet, and yet . . . the other side of the omelette is this: We all know that what goes on in a kitchen — especially a woman's kitchen — tells us a lot about the way people live and love. Kitchen behaviors (aside from food itself) are an index to intimacy. Which guests feel comfortable

in the kitchen, who is permitted to see the "staging area" for the dinner party, what topics get discussed at the late-night kitchen table. I've fed and been fed (literal and figurative nourish­ment) in the kitchens of most of the women I care about.

All this is by way of announcing a first. In this issue we feature an article on the Bukharian food Ruth Mason's mother prepares, and some of the assumptions about family life that the cooking brings forth. (Indicating some of our ner­vousness, still, about the correct feminist politi­cal stance toward cooking, the working title of this piece in the LILITH office was "Taking Kitchens Back from the Right Wing!')

Especially in an era of fascination with the lives of "ethnic" women (i.e., anybody who is not oneself) and with renewed respect for women's cross-cultural difference, food and its preparation provide a quick take, a clear and accessible window onto the experience of Jewish women in divergent cultures.

B'tovovon.

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LILITH thanks the following for their generous financial support: Mona Riklis Ackerman, Bernyce Adler, Jo Amer, Anita Bakal, Sue H. Barnett, Gail A. Bendheim, Michael Berkowitz, Anaruth Bernard, Wendy Biderman, Geraldine Bieber, Annette C. Blank, Edith M. Bloch, Debra Lee Blumberg, Rabbi Balfour Brickner, Ellen Cahn-Nadler, Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, Steven & Sharon Burns Carter, Joan Chasan, Mary Cohart, Julie Colish, Naomi Cooper, N. Cortell, Rabbi Laurie Coskey, Irene Dash, Joan E Dattner, Sarah DeRis, Ruth Dickstein, Robyne Diller, Barbara Dobkin, Pearl Elias, Lillian Engel, Nancy R. Engerman, Rachel Esserman, Janet Zerlin Fagan, Mickey Fernandez, Mary Fish, Marilyn Fox, Betty Friedan, Rabbi Dayle Friedman, Marcia Friedman, Wilma Friedman, Mary Gendler, Myrna Goldenberg, Sara Goodman, Rabbi Joel Gordon, Diane F Gottlieb, Shirley Gould, Yvette Gralla, Anita Gray, Rabbi Irving & Blu Greenberg, Deborah Greene, Meryl Greenwald, Susan Haas, Phyllis Harte, Walter Jacob, Judith Jacobson, Aviva Kadosh, Buth & Nat Kameny, Geraldine Karasik, Feme Katleman, Judith Zuckerman Kauf­man, Kay Kaufman, Samuel & Francine Klagsbrun, Celia R. Klein, Lynn Sacks Klein, Lisa Kohen, Lee Kurzer, Sherrill Kushner, Joette Labinger, Mildred Lackow, Bob Lamm, Alma Lasher, Joan Seif Levi, Joan D. Levin, Mildred Levin, Sophie L. Lovinger, Julia F Mack, Annette Mauer, Lynda

G. Mayman, Merit Gasoline Foundation, Jill Meyer, Harriet Meyers, Jane S. Miller, Susan Miller, Ms. Foundation, Helen Muhlbauer, Shelley Mulberg, Sondra Nathan, Dianne Newman, Gertrude Ogushwitz, Jo Ann Mayer Orlinsky, Daisy M. Osborn, Laurel Paley, Harriet L, Parmet, Myra Patner, Michael & Natalie Pelavin, Judith Plaskow, Susan Pollock, Vicki Raab, Sonya Rapee, Evelyn Redlich, Angela Reinhard, Lilly Rivlin, Mallory Robinson, Norma Rolnick, Ellen S. Saltman, Ann Baldridge Scheuer, Clara G Schiffler, Toby & Mort Schneider, Rabbi Judy Shanks, Sandra E Shifrin, Gail Shiner, Carol B. Shore, Rabbi Marion Shulevitz, Charles E. Silberman, Cantor Paul Silbersher, Henriette Simon, Minna Slater, Sarah Small, Lynn Somerstein, Mildred Spevack, Sheila & Melvin Stanger, Buth Steinberg, Sandy Tamni, Sheila Tanenbaum, Temple Emanu-EI Library of Providence Bl, Peggy Tishman, Helen Weisberg, Henny Wenkart, Mauri J. Willis, Alexandra Wright, Sharon D. Young, Marjone Yudkin, Vivian Zamel, Cindy Zelkowitz.

LILITH thanks the following for their advice and assistance: Pauline Bart, Ivan Berkowitz, Marvin Cohn, Barbara & Eric Dobkin, Deborah E Hahn, Doreen Hermelin, Nat Kameny, Linda Lee, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Rachel & Seth Salpeter, Yael Schneider.

2 L I L I T H Winter 1990