Uniting the community through food is the aim of the organizers of this weekend’s Jewish Food Festival in Laguna Woods.
Whether a pastrami sandwich or a lox-topped bagel represents comfort food or culinary outreach, the event will offer an opportunity to indulge in the traditional foods that define Jewish deli cuisine.
The fourth annual festival returns to Clubhouse 1 on Sunday, June 22, from 5 to 8 p.m., sponsored by the Reform Temple of Laguna Woods. Admission and entertainment are free, with food for sale.
Deli delicacies available will include pastrami and brisket sandwiches, lox and cream cheese on bagels, barbecued jumbo all-beef hot dogs, noodle kugel (pudding), hummus and pita bread, small challahs (egg breads), chicken soup with matzah balls, jelly doughnuts and home-baked treats such as rugelach, mandelbrot and coffee cake. Dr. Brown’s sodas, popular back East, will also be available for the first time in several years.
While the focus may be on the food, community and camaraderie top the menu for festival Chair Lynne Rosenstein.
“An event like this brings the community together,” she said. “People of every ethnic group and background in the Village can come and have a chance to sample and enjoy Jewish foods.”
Many may have eaten the foods before, while for others, the tastes will be new and different, she said.
Foods identified with Jewish culinary culture derive from two main traditions. Immigrants from the Germanic and Eastern European countries who came to this country in the mid- to late-1800s brought with them the delicatessen staples of frankfurters, sauerkraut, pickles and cold cuts like pastrami and corned beef.
These transplants came from the Ashkenazi tradition, while Jewish immigrants from southern Europe and northern Africa came from the Sephardic tradition and brought with them foods like hummus that were associated with the Middle East.
Cold cuts, bread, pickles and meats will be sourced from local purveyors, as they have in the past.
While lox from Costco has been a festival staple, this year the smoked salmon being served has been made by temple member Rebecca Weinstein.
Her Seattle cousins have owned and operated a deli grocery store since the 1940s, and she borrowed their recipe for the home-made lox, she said.
“I take a slab of salmon flavored with sugar, salt and liquid hickory smoke, cover it with plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator for a week or two,” Weinstein said.
Then she slices the fish with a carving knife and freezes the slices until ready to use.
“Easy!” she said, although she admitted that it took a while to convert 25 pounds of salmon to lox since she could only accommodate two pieces of salmon in her refrigerator at a time.
“Lynne Rosenstein was my taste tester, and she really liked it,” Weinstein said.
Last time, the festival kitchen sold out its entire poundage so organizers are stocking up with more this year.
Baked goods have also been home-made by “talented bakers” under the leadership of Susi Levin.
The festival also offers lively music for dancing along with other entertainment. The Shtetl Menschen Klezmer Band will play on the back patio. Village resident Rebeca Gilad and her troupe will lead participants in Israeli dance moves, and magician Jeff Olds will entertain with close-up magic.
An opportunity drawing with a multitude of gift cards will be a feature of the event.
Besides the Reform Temple, organizations sponsoring the event are ORT America, Friends of the Jewish Federation, the National Council of Jewish Women, Chabad Jewish Center of Aliso Viejo and Laguna Woods, and Hadassah.
Rosenstein touted the cooperative spirit existing among the Jewish organizations in the Village.
“When I moved here in 2016, there was no cooperation among the Jewish groups here at all,” she said. “Now, we work together, because when one is strong it strengthens the others.”
Dozens of volunteers are vital to the success of the event as well.
The first Jewish Food Festival took place in 2018. Rosenstein recalls that it was so well attended, the food ran out.
“That has never happened again,” she emphasized.
For Rosenstein, however, it has never been about the food.
“It’s all about camaraderie and community building,” she said.
Food tickets can be purchased in advance in the Drop-In Lounge at Clubhouse 1 today, June 19, from 10 a.m to 12 p.m. or at the door the day of the festival. Prices will range from $4 for pita bread with hummus to $15 for sandwiches.
Parking will be at a premium. So an Age Well bus will shuttle attendees from the Clubhouse 4 parking lot to Clubhouse 1 at no cost to riders. The bus will begin a continuous loop from the Clubhouse 4 lot beginning at 4:30 p.m., with the final return run leaving Clubhouse 1 at 8 p.m.
Village residents who have a Laguna Woods Senior Mobility card can request a free taxi from their home to Clubhouse 1 and return.