VIDEO: How To Make A Czernowitzer Challah
Photo by Getty Images
By Rukhl Schaechter July 18, 2019
In the video bellow, using the Czernowitzer challah recipe published by Maggie Glezer in “The Blessing of Bread” as a basis, Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Jochnowitz, co-hosts of the Forverts cooking show, “Eat In Good Health,” demonstrate how to shape the challah in several ways, ranging from sophisticated to simple enough that a child can do it.
As Glezer writes in the book:
“In the late nineteenth century, the city of Czernowitz, known as the Vienna of Eastern Europe, was famous throughout Austria-Hungary for its tolerance, civic beauty, culture, and learning. Frequently renationalized over the last millennium, Czernowitz has passed through Romanian, Ottoman, and Austrian control and is now a Ukrainian city called Chernivtsi. At its cultural peak at the turn of the twentieth century, it was populated and governed by Jews from Poland, Russia, Austria, and Romania — it even hosted the first-ever Yiddish-language conference in 1908. Of course, World War II destroyed this idyll, and most of the city’s Jews were deported to Auschwitz.
This recipe for a classic European challah (pronounced “chern-o-vitzer”) comes from the late Lotte Langmann. It is not terribly sweet or eggy, but it is generously enriched with oil. The Austrians traditionally use a four-stranded braid, but this dough holds its shape so beautifully during baking that it is a great choice for showing off any fancy shape.”
Enjoy the show, and as we say in Yiddish: “Est gezunterheyt!”
A message from Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forverts' 127-year legacy — and its bright future.
In the past, the goal of the Forverts was to Americanize its readers, to encourage them to learn English well and to acculturate to American society. Today, our goal is the reverse: to acquaint readers — especially those with Eastern European roots — with their Jewish cultural heritage, through the Yiddish language, literature, recipes and songs.
Our daily Yiddish content brings you new and creative ways to engage with this vibrant, living language, including Yiddish Wordle, Word of the Day videos, Yiddish cooking demos, new music, poetry and so much more.
— Rukhl Schaechter, Yiddish Editor
