Latke–Hamantash Debate

The Latke-Hamantash Debate is a serious academic debate about the relative merits and meanings of these two items of Jewish cuisine. The debate originated at the University of Chicago in 1946[1] and has since been held annually. Subsequent debates have taken place at Middlebury College, Stanford Law School, George Washington University, Amherst College, Swarthmore College, Williams College, Wesleyan University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Brandeis University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, the University of Minnesota, Mount Holyoke, Bowdoin College, UCSD, Haverford College, Johns Hopkins University, University of Denver, Buntport Theater, and secondary school Milton Academy.[2][3][4][5][6] Participants in the debate, held within the format of a symposium, have included past University of Chicago president Hanna Holborn Gray, philosopher Martha Nussbaum, Nobel Prize winners Milton Friedman and Leon M. Lederman, and essayist Allan Bloom. A compendium of the debate, which has never been won, was published in 2005.[7] The most recent Latke-Hamantash debate took place at University of Chicago on November 22nd, 2011.[8]

Contents

Background and history

Latkes with sour cream
Hamantashen with milk

A latke is a kind of potato pancake traditionally eaten during the Jewish holiday of Hannukah. Fried in oil, latkes serve to commemorate the holiday miracle in which one day’s worth of oil illuminated the temple for eight days. Hamantashen are triangular wheat-flour pastries with a sweet filling which are traditionally eaten on the holiday of Purim.

A debate on their relative merits was first held in the winter of 1946 at the University of Chicago chapter house of the Hillel Foundation, sponsored by Rabbi Maurice Pekarsky. At the time, according to Ruth Fredman Cernea, editor of The Great Latke–Hamantash Debate, "...scholarly life discouraged an open display of Jewish ethnicity. The event provided a rare opportunity for faculty to reveal their hidden Jewish souls and poke fun at the high seriousness of everyday academic life."[9] It has been held annually since then, usually on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, with the exception of one year. Both foodstuffs are usually served at a reception afterwards, offering debaters and listeners an opportunity to evaluate primary sources.[9] Several long-standing customs are observed at the University of Chicago; the debaters must have gained a Ph.D. or an equivalent advanced degree, make a formal entry in academic clothing to the strains of Pomp and Circumstance, and their number must include at least one non-Jewish participant to add gentility to the proceedings.[10]

The debate is said to have arisen from a tradition of spoofing Talmudic study during Purim. It is also felt to offer a humorous relief valve from the university’s rigorous academic program.

Notable Debates and Arguments

The debaters represent a range of academic disciplines. Some of the entries are described below:

Hanna Gray has stated for the record that "both the latke and hamentasch are simply wonderful. We welcome them to our diverse, pluralistic and tolerant community of scholars." She has, however, taken a stand with her statement that "Renaissance humanism grew out of the revival of the latke."

Footnotes

  1. ^ University of Chicago Magazine
  2. ^ a b "Latkes vs. Hamantashen: The Promised Food". http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=517444. Retrieved 2008-05-23. 
  3. ^ "Profs Face Off on Latkes Versus Hamantaschen". http://tech.mit.edu/V126/N9/9latke.html. Retrieved 2008-05-23. 
  4. ^ "Prattle of the ages: Hamantasch vs. latke". https://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/02/27/67353. Retrieved 2008-05-23. 
  5. ^ "Latke-Hamantasch Debate Becomes Verbal Food Fight". http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/970404/food.html. Retrieved 2008-05-23. 
  6. ^ "Professors debate merits of latkes, hamantash". http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2009-02-27&section=1&id=4. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  7. ^ Ruth Fredman Cernea (2005) The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226100235
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ a b "Shticking to Their Puns". University of Chicago Magazine. http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0512/features/puns.shtml. Retrieved 2009-10-08. 
  10. ^ Ruth Fredman Cernea, Ted Cohen (2006). The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate. University of Chicago Press. p. xxii. ISBN 9780226100241. http://books.google.com/books?id=VAFQpLe9hpUC&pg=PR22&dq=Great+Latke-Hamantash+Debate+lend+a+note+of+gentility#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
  11. ^ Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), p. 35
  12. ^ "Latke-Hamentash Interaction"
  13. ^ Steven Pinker's lecture website
  14. ^ http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0492_0573_ZO.html
  15. ^ December at Hopkins (2010) blog

External links