Sephardic Jews who were expelled in the late 15th century from Portugal and Spain learned about cocoa and the production of chocolate from the indigenous peoples of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Keeping up contacts with non-Jewish acquaintances who had remained on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, they helped to popularize chocolate and develop it as a product in international trade.
Centuries later when European immigrants fleeing the Nazis came to the United States, the family that started Barton’s Chocolate began their business in the kitchen of their tenement apartment, with relatives and friends selling the candies on pushcarts. Israelis, according to the exhibit, are “meshuga” over chocolate.
Stories and a variety of photos showing the production of chocolate from cocoa bean to gift box delicacy are part of the “Semi[te] Sweet: On Jews and Chocolate” exhibit running through Jan. 31 at the Gotthelf Gallery at the Lawrence Family JCC. On Jan. 14, Rabbi Deborah Prinz, who has written a book on the Jewish connection to the chocolate trade, will be a guest lecturer at 7 p.m. in the JCC’s Rehearsal Room. Reservations may be made via this website.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World