baal taschit

The next time you pick up a piece of chocolate, consider that you are partaking in an aspect of Jewish history. There are some surprising Jewish connections with chocolate, including Jews in the early chocolate trade and early Jewish chocolate makers. Jews, Pre-Columbians, Catholics, and Protestants also connect in Jews on the Chocolate Trail through its exploration of chocolate’s religious narratives and rituals. Jews on the Chocolate Trail uniquely melds a popularity of chocolate with a fascination about Judaism. Those interested in Judaism and religion will enjoy this unique approach. In combining age old passions for chocolate and religion, Jews on the Chocolate Trail unwraps delightful new themes.

As they travel Rabbi Prinz and her husband, Rabbi Mark Hurvitz, explore local chocolate opportunities and culture, two Jews enjoying the trail of chocolate around the world.

Chocolate in Mexico

Chocolate in the South?

The Chocolate Princess: Chocolate's Arrival in Israel

Chocolate Travel

Church Not Paying Cost of Chocolate, Complains Minister

Cocoa-dar

Family Fun Day: Gomez House, Teaneck and Chocolate

Finding your bashert through chocolate matzah! It's a family deal for Charles Chocolate

Got Gelt?

Milk and Chocolate in the Promised Land

The Minister's Sweet Tooth

Mixing Chocolate & Work in the East Bay

On the Trail of Belgian Chocolate Museums

Shanah Tovah u'Metukah! But, Where's the Chocolate?

Traif Temptations or Stop Being a Hazir (pig)

Welcome to Spain and France

Winning Some Chocolate and Losing Some Chocolate

And Your Favorite Is…

Lecture - “Our Dark Addictions to Chocolate” at Hazon Food Conference, August 18, 2011

Lecture - Stay the Night Tikkun Leil Shavuot, JCC Manhattan; 2009, 2010, 2011

Lecture - "Chocolate in Colonial Newport" at Newport Historical Society; May 2010

Lecture - "Jews on the Chocolate Trail" at Peninsula Jewish Community Center; March, 2010

Lecture - "Jews Pioneer Chocolate in the Colonial Period," Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis; January, 2010

Lecture: Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, Annual Convention, Palm Spring, California; January 2009

Lecture: Hazon Food Conference, Asilomar Conference Center, California; December 2008

Lecture: Temple Shaarey Tefillah, New York City; September, 2008:

Lecture: Hazon New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride Shabbaton; September 2008

Chocolate Day in New York City
May 4, 2008

Lecture: “Jews on the Chocolate Trail,” part of “Taste Matters” series at the Magnes Museum, Berkeley, CA; December 6, 2007

Visit: The New York Chocolate Festival; November, 2007

2009: Recipient of the Gilder Lehrman Fellowship of the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library

2008 (Fall): Director's Fellowship from the American Jewish Archives to research Jews and chocolate in the colonial period

2008 (Spring): Recipient of The Starkoff Fellowship from the American Jewish Archives to research Jews and chocolate in the colonial period

Jews on the Chocolate Trail: Stories of Jews and Cacao, to be published by Jewish Lights in 2012. You may order your copy now.

To arrange a scholar-in-residence weekend or lecture, contact Rabbi Prinz.

Chocolate Chronicles

I invite you to hop onto the chocolate trail by posting your story of Jews, religion and chocolate at this blog. Please submit it right away to Chocolate Chronicles by clicking here.

Scholar in Residence - Congregation Achduth Vesholom, Fort Wayne, April 20-22, 2012

Lecture - “Jews and Chocolate in New York’s Colonial Period” for the Jewish Genealogical Society, New York, at the Center for Jewish History, May 20, 2012

"Our Dark Addictions: Chocolate, Coffee and Tea” in The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic (2011)

"Artisanal Chocolate Temptations" in Pork Memoirs; Personal Stories About a Complicated Meat (August 18, 2011)

"Ethics-Minded Confectioners Work to Keep Chocolate Sweet" by Deborah Prinz at the Forward's The Jew and the Carrot, October 28, 2010

"Shanah Tovah u'Metukah! But, Where is the Chocolate?" cross posted at The Jewish Magazine, September 2009

Leah Koenig "Jews on the Chocolate Trail" at My Jewish Learning

Nonna Gorilovskaya "The Mostly Sweet Tale of Jews and Chocolate" in Moment Magazine

The Jew and the Carrot
1. An Interview with Rabbi Prinz
2. "Where's the Chocolate this Rosh Hashanah?"

Randi Sherman "On A Chocolate Chai" The Jewish Week, May 14, 2008