![]() Also, in Chinese restaurants, there is no use of milk. And so you're able to partake in this wonderful delicacy without actually knowingly eating this non-kosher food item. PLAUT: Jews in Chinese restaurants are eating all sorts of non-kosher food items such as shellfish, pork products which are hidden in a wonton or in some type of eggroll. SIEGEL: Which raises the question of a phrase sometimes used to describe Chinese food - safe trayf, using the Hebrew word for un-kosher food, trayf. So this marriage between Jews and Chinese food really goes back to when Jews and Chinese people were immigrants in the United States. Actually, Jews eating and Chinese restaurants goes back to 1899, when the American Jewish Journal - a weekly publication - criticized Jews for eating at non-kosher restaurants and singling out, in particular, Jews who flocked to Chinese restaurants. This has become quite common over the years. SIEGEL: It's either the discovery by Jews of Chinese food on Christmas or the discovery of Jewish customers by a Chinese restaurant on Christmas, whichever way you want to look at it. ![]() That's the first written citation of Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas. PLAUT: At least since 1935, according to The New York Times, which cites that a man by the name of Eng Shee Chuck brought chow mein on Christmas Day to the Jewish Children's Home in Newark, N.J. SIEGEL: You have a chapter in the book called "We Eat Chinese Food On Christmas." How long has this been going on? He's the author of "A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis The Season To Be Jewish." Welcome to the program. And as part of our exploration of holiday traditions, we have invited Rabbi Joshua Plaut to our studios. Chinese food on Christmas has become as American Jewish as apple pie. ![]() But when it's time to send out for lunch on Christmas Day, I do as so many of my co-religionists do - I send out for Chinese food. Let one more Christmas observer have the day off. What is the most American thing a Jew can do on Christmas? Well, for me, it's to go to work.
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