Jake Cohen: Being Gay And Being Jewish Have Dictated My Career
When I think of who I am, it’s dictated by the fact that I was raised with this understanding of Judaism — and not in a traditional sense, as we were raised pretty reformed. Jewish values are focused on hospitality, on being a good community member, on treating others the way you want to be treated, on not bearing false witness, on standing by the truth, on trying to repair the world ― and I feel like all of these things are what I try to strive toward every day.
Being queer has helped me discover my Jewishness and vice versa. There is this concept of finding pride in however you are different and, oftentimes, we think of that through the lens of queerness. In a place like New York and in the mainstream media, it is much cooler to be queer than to be Jewish. Seeing the way I addressed my pride as a gay man has helped me find my pride in being Jewish.
That’s completely true in the kitchen, as well. One of the big things that I’m fighting for is pride in Jewish food and traditions. I think there was such a push for assimilation when we immigrated to America and a lot of culinary traditions are rooted in the shtetl and times of poverty, times of persecution. I think a huge part of it was trying to distance ourselves from that when we came to America. However, at the same time, there is this excitement around deli culture right now that needs to trickle down and focus to make sure that Jewish food is as respected as any other marginalized cuisine that we see celebrated in food magazines.
Food is a vessel. We always talk about what gay food is, what queer food is and, for me personally, the definition has always been the way food has been connected to stories of queerness. Whether it’s the meal that you came out to your parents over or the food that you make as you build a queer community, or the first meal you had with your queer partner. All the things that become part of your narrative as a queer person, the same way that so many Jewish foods are foods that came from other cultures and areas that got absorbed by Jews.
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