local
I SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
t doesn’t take a Torah scholar to know
that God promised the Israelites
a land overfl owing with milk and
honey, not a land overfl owing with oat
milk, or soy milk, or cashew, rice, hemp
or pea milk.

But as Jews celebrate Shavuot — com-
memorating Moses and the Israelites
receiving the Torah — by eating cheese-
cake, cheese blintzes and cheese kugel,
many experience a gastrointestinal wrath
that feels like punishment from God.

While an estimated 60-80% of
Ashkenazi Jews suff er from lactose
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Photos: iStock, AdobeStock
6 JUNE 2, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
intolerance, according
to an American Family
Vegan chef Rachel Klein uses tofu and cashews
Physician study, Jews
to make matzah balls that are fl oaters, not sinkers,
began the tradition of
despite their plant-based ingredients.

indulging in dairy as a
nod to the promise of a
land of milk and honey, but it also serves nomadic cultures relied on other methods,
a practical purpose, Ko Kosher Service and they were relying more on more fer-
Rabbi Amiel Novoseller said. To fulfi ll mented dairy products, and they did not
the Shavuot ritual of studying Torah, develop their daily tolerance.”
Jews should prepare with a dairy meal, a
Th e stereotype of the wandering Jew
lighter alternative to its meat counterpart. may hold weight to the reason so many
“God forbid we should be sleepy are lactose intolerant, Goldberg said. Jews
when we’re going to receive the Torah!” have relied on fermented dairy products
Novoseller said. “[Rabbis] fi gure, you still for centuries, Yoskowitz added, as seen
gotta eat. Eat something dairy, eat vege- in the Ashkenazi proclivity toward sour
table protein. Th is way, we’ll stay alert for cream in borscht, for example.

the acceptance of the Torah.”
For Jews who relied on fermented dairy
Cookbook author and food writer to make milk products more digest-
Jeff rey Yoskowitz suggests that consum- ible, assimilation, which “stamped out”
ing dairy is a matter of anthropology just many cooking traditions, provided fewer
as much as tradition.

opportunities for Jewish cooks to make
“When it comes to food and food tra- food from their home countries that best
ditions, to me, it always comes down to suited their sensitive digestion, he said.

seasonal abundance,” Yoskowitz said. All
But looking to the past could also
of these ritual agricultural festivals fall for off er solutions on how to navigate a lac-
very specifi c reasons or at certain times.” tose-heavy holiday celebration.

Shavuot falls 49 days aft er Passover, a
Th ese days, it’s easy for people to make
time in the spring when goats are birth- dairy products, Yoskowitz argued. One
ing their kids, mirrored on the Passover can make creme fraiche or sour cream
seder plate with the lamb shank rep- by inoculating cream with cultured but-
resenting the sacrifi ce of the animal. termilk or yogurt.

Nearly two months later, goats are start-
“It’s a really good opportunity for peo-
ing to wean their kids off their milk, ple to learn how to make some of these
leaving a surplus of dairy to the farmers. things from scratch,” Yoskowitz said.

Milk consumption in Jewish antiq-
But in true Jewish fashion, some cooks
uity, on the surface, contradicts Jewish are looking toward modern food technolo-
aversion to lactose today. But Einstein gies, relying on the ample plant-based dairy
Healthcare Network gastroenterologist alternatives to recreate nostalgic dishes.

Dr. Michael Goldberg qualifi es the idea.

Rachel Klein, creator and chef of
Lactose intolerance is caused by the Philadelphia’s Miss Rachel’s Pantry, uses
body’s buildup of lactose, the sugar in milk, cashews and tofu to make fl uff y matzah
in the colon, Goldberg said. Jews, among balls that, when she fi rst fed them to her
most other demographics, have a defi - grandmother, made her tear up.

ciency in lactase, the enzyme that breaks
Recreating a family dish for a Jewish
down this sugar and, over time, excess holiday is more than just about comfort.

lactose can cause digestive unpleasantries. For Klein, the vegan dishes she creates
“Populations that were staying rooted retain the labor-intensive techniques.

in one place long enough to cultivate and
“It makes me happy that I can continue
raise livestock, they more easily developed a tradition for my family,” Klein said. JE
dairy tolerance because they were using
the dairy all the time,” he said. “Th e more srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com
Courtesy of Rachel Klein
Lactose Intolerants
Make Shavuot Ritual
Easier to Stomach



local
Former Neo-Nazi
Converting to Judaism
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
F red Cook, by his own admis-
sion, is a man in search of an
identity. From his teenage years through
his early 30s, he fi lled that void with
neo-Nazism. But over the past decade,
he has grown to fi ll it with Judaism.

Cook, 43 and a Philadelphia resi-
dent, has spent the past year-and-a-
half converting to Judaism through
Congregation Rodeph Shalom on
North Broad Street. In July, his beit
din will rule on his conversion. If the
three religious authorities accept Cook
into the faith, the convert will enter the
mikveh. He already wears a Star of David
necklace with the star hanging where
his swastika used to be: above his heart.

“It’s been a pretty amazing journey,”
Cook said.

It started when Cook was a teen. As
he put it, he grew up “with no iden-
tity whatsoever.” All he knew, per his
grandmother, was that he was German.

But when his family moved to an Irish
neighborhood in South Philadelphia,
the German kid did not fi t in.

“Th ey were like, ‘Hey, you’re not
Irish,’” Cook recalled.

At 13, Cook was looking for a crew,
and he found one on South Street.

Cook’s friend told him to come hang
out with his friends. It turned out to
be a group of seven or eight skinheads.

Th ey were not affi liated with an
organization. Th ey would just listen
to loud music and fi ght with “sharp
skinheads,” or skinheads of non-white
races, according to Cook.

Th e Philadelphia native liked that his
new friends welcomed him and made
him feel comfortable.

“It was something to latch on to,” he
said. But once he latched on, he did not let
go. One particular incident became a
point of no return, according to Cook.

As a student at Horace Howard
Furness High School, a girl asked Cook
on a date, and he said no. Th en, as the
convert explained it, she told other stu-
dents that he called her the “n word.”
Cook estimates that 13 kids responded
by jumping him and hitting him in the
back of the head with a piece of brick.

He spent two or three days in a
coma and emerged with a steel plate in
his head. To this day, he said, he still
has memory issues. Aft er the incident,
Cook’s skinhead friends started walk-
ing him to school.

“I took things more serious than a
bunch of guys goofi ng around,” he said.

Using America Online, Cook entered
chat rooms and started talking to other
white supremacists. He got connected
to William Pierce, author of the rac-
ist and antisemitic book “Th e Turner
Diaries,” and David Lane, who coined
the line repeated by all white hate
organizations, according to Cook: “We
must secure the existence of our race
and a future for white children.”
Th e convert even did security for
former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard
David Duke during his appearances in
Philadelphia. Eventually, Cook worked
his way up to the chief of staff posi-
tion for Jeff Schoep, the leader of the
National Socialist organization.

But in a high-ranking position, Cook
started to get calls from friends about
how their white brothers appeared to
have Black friends in Facebook pic-
tures. As he kept getting these types
of calls, Cook came to a gnawing real-
ization. “I started to see it as people looking
for enemies because there were none,”
he said.

Cook understood that the identity he
had found and cultivated was hollow.

So fi nally, he told Schoep that he had
to step down.

“I gave up on that identity,” he said.

For years aft er leaving, Cook stopped
trying to answer the identity question.

He focused just on trying to be a good
person and on building a family with
his wife.

But in December 2020, he took a
DNA test and learned that he was 30%
Jewish. He reached out to the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia and
got a box of books in return.

He started reading and became
“obsessive,” he said. Since then, he
has read 80 books on Judaism, joined
Rodeph Shalom and com-
mitted to the conversion
process. Rodeph Shalom Rabbi
Eli Freedman called it “a
shock” when the former
neo-Nazi first reached
out to him. But the rabbi
embraced the convert any-
way and saw that he was
genuine. “When someone decides
Judaism is the path for
Courtesy of Fred Cook
them, they have a Jewish Fred Cook
soul,” he said.

Cook also works with
Schoep, a reformed neo-Nazi himself Schoep said. “Now we’re on the right
who did a talk at Drexel University path and trying to do good.”
in November, at Schoep’s organization
As Cook put it, his mission now is
Beyond Barriers, which works to com- “tikkun olam.” JE
bat extremism.

“We were on the wrong track,” jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
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