The Great Matzo Ball-Eating Contest
The question is not: How is this night is different from all other nights? Rather: How many matzo balls can you eat? Those who are in need of inspiration in this department may greatly benefit from watching Faye Lederman’s documentary “Hold the Soup,” which is now being featured at the Seattle’s Jewish Film Festival.
As the film will remind you, to make your grandmother, aunts and in-laws truly kvell, you don’t have to melodiously recite the Haggadah, or even memorize the four questions by heart. Just eat and praise the cook. Do it for them.
The film follows a matzo ball-eating contest held at the Friars Club in Manhattan a few years back. You may already be familiar with the illustrious Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. That was where the Friar’s Club took its cue, and then truly transcended the genre.
Without giving away too much of the film’s breathtaking plot, I’ll only say that one does not need to be Jewish to know how to properly inhale matzo balls, though a certain familiarity does count for much.
Throughout the film, look out for numerous tips and tricks of efficient and elegant gluttony and you will surely make splash at the Passover table this year.
Bon appetite!
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.
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.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
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.