A Down Home Passover - Grandparents.com

For Marcie Cohen Ferris, who grew up Jewish in the South, the anticipation of Passover was half the fun.

As one of a small community of Jews in Blytheville, Ark., in the 1960s, Marcie Cohen Ferris, the author of Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (UNC Press, 2005), shopped for her Passover outfit while every other young girl in her neighborhood was choosing her Easter frocks.

A stylish turnout was a point of pride in Ferris’s family, and on the first night of Passover, her grandmother Luba Tooter Cohen would arrive dressed up for the occasion in a cotton print dress, fitted at the waist and secured with Bakelite buttons.

“She always had a great outfit on,” says Ferris, who is associate director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies in Chapel Hill, N. Carolina.

Ferris’ mother would set the dining-room table days in advance of the first night’s Seder — the tableside service and meal at the heart of Passover — with freshly starched white linens and sterling flatware that was polished to a high shine. In addition to her smart outfit, Grandma Luba always brought a handful of freshly cut daffodils for the table.

“There was so much anticipation of the ritual with the table all set,” says Ferris.
And because her grandmother lived just five minutes away, she participated in the cooking on the second night of the eight-night holiday.

“I remember her being one of those women in the back in the kitchen, futzing, serving and preparing,” says Ferris.

Another Passover treat Ferris and her younger sister looked forward to was watching their petite and stylish Russian-born grandmother prepare silver-dollar-size matzo-meal pancakes. “They were very delicate and she served them warm, one or two at a time, with butter,” Ferris recalls. “They were just delicious!”