What did you do on your summer vacation?
With a small grant from the Greenberg Center, Max Teplitz, a second-year student at the College studying Economics and Hebrew, spent his summer creating Kosher Style, a short film documentary on the decline of the New York deli. What led him to this study? Max writes,
"This project was predominantly inspired by a class trip I took, during my senior year of high school, to the lower east side of Manhattan. It was incredible to see the remnants of what was once a hub of Eastern European Jewry. Arguably integral to this beautiful culture is food, and at the forefront of Jewish cuisine is the delicatessen. In this film, I tried to chronicle the process through which traditional deli food is prepared, and to show that it's so much more than what is commonly sold as deli meat. Delicatessens have essentially become synonymous with New York, and despite their historical importance in the city, they are unfortunately dying out. Here, with this project, I wanted to showcase what remains of the classic, Jewish deli and how incredible it is."
And indeed he has! Please take a few moments to view the results here! Thank you, Max, for sharing it with all of us!