1893 Polish ‘Passion Banquet’ Is Recreated

Café Europa in Tel Aviv will reconstruct an elite Jewish-Polish meal from 1893 in Warsaw. Image by Haaretz
Dror Segev, the secretary of the Tel Aviv University Institute for the History of Polish Jewry has, in recent years, spent many an hour going through Jewish daily newspapers of the 19th century. Segev is searching for materials dealing with his Ph.D thesis, but often runs into features that simply make a 21st century person smile. One of these was published in the Warsaw Hebrew newspaper Ha’Tzfira on August 3rd, 1893.
Under the headline “Passion banquet,” the story describes a festive dinner held in the summer residence in one Warsaw suburb, attended by “many of the city’s sages and learned.” The reason for the party: the arrival of “a distinguished guest presently honoring our city, Rabbi Dr. Abraham Eliyahu Harkavi.” The Hebrew paper continues its report: “On a wide bar near the summer house the table was set. Many lanterns hung on the trees illuminated the garden, and many lit candles were set on the table… The table was loaded with various delicacies and superb wine… the food was served according to Shulchan Aruch,” the code for Jewish law.
Another Hebrew paper, Hamalitz, also happily reported the banquet. “The writers and sages of Warsaw tasted heaven on earth last night. They drank from the cup of paradise and enjoyed holy delights which cannot be described in words.” After the speeches and conversations which lasted until “nightfall,” the guests were ready for dinner. “They then approached the set table and sat each on his seat, finding a list of the foods offered, printed on a beautiful, adorned sheet of paper.”
According to the custom in these days, the paper detailed the full menu. Women, incidentally, were not invited. The guests ate “stuffed fish, various seeds, grape soup, roasted chicken, fried fruits, excellent wines and various fruits,” and were offered coffee.
Read more at Haaretz.com.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Fast Forward Brooklyn event with Itamar Ben-Gvir cancelled days before Israeli far-right minister’s US trip
-
Culture How Abraham Lincoln in a kippah wound up making a $250,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.