Helen Nash, a New-York based kosher cookbook author and philanthropist who pioneered modern kosher cooking starting in the 1980s, died on Dec. 8 at the age of 89.<\/p>\n
Her first cookbook \u201cKosher Cuisine,\u201d was published in 1984 by Random House, and adapted a variety of international recipes for kosher cooks. Its publication, Nash told the Detroit Jewish News<\/a> at the time, sought to prove that kosher cooking \u201ccould be as varied, elegant and exciting as one wished to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n She went on to demonstrate that in two more cookbooks, demonstrating what one reviewer called \u201cher abil\u00adi\u00adty to expand the kosher palate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKeeping kosher is more, to me, than just a sensible way to live and to eat healthfully. The ancient Jewish dietary laws help to organize my life around family, Friday nights, and holidays,\u201d wrote Nash in her 2012 book,<\/a> \u201cHelen Nash\u2019s New Kosher Cuisine: Healthy, Simple, and Stylish.\u201d<\/p>\n Nash was born Helen Englander in Krakow, Poland, on Dec. 24, 1935 where her family owned a textile business. With her parents and sister, Nash survived World War II with her family after they were deported to Siberia.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no cook\u00ading in my child\u00adhood,\u201d Nash told the Jewish Book Council<\/a> in 2012. \u201cWhen I was four and a half, my fam\u00adi\u00adly was trans\u00adport\u00aded out of Krakow, and we spent the war in labor camps in Siberia. Food was nonex\u00adistent\u2009\u2014\u2009no fruit, no veg\u00adeta\u00adbles. It was a ration diet of sub\u00adsis\u00adtence level.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the war, Nash\u2019s family reunited with her maternal grandparents in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, before settling in Crown Heights.<\/p>\n In 1957, she met and married her husband, Jack Nash, who was also a refugee from Berlin. Having grown up in an Orthodox family, Nash insisted that she keep a kosher kitchen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was my interest,\u201d Nash told New York Jewish Week<\/a> in 2015. \u201cMost women didn\u2019t have careers outside the home, and I sort of carved a niche for myself, and the niche was entertaining in a certain style. Jack was very encouraging. And I met so many people I wouldn\u2019t have met if I\u2019d stayed in the religious mode.\u201d<\/p>\n While her husband, who died in 2008<\/a>, went on to serve as the chairman of the Oppenheimer & Company mutual fund business and founded the revival of The New York Sun, Nash charted her own path in the kitchen.<\/p>\n Following the birth of her children, Joshua and Pamela, Nash took classes with famed chefs including Michael Field and Millie Chan and worked on how to adapt their cuisines to a kosher palate.<\/p>\n Her second cookbook, \u201cHelen Nash\u2019s Kosher Kitchen,\u201d published in 1988, also sought to break boundaries in kosher recipes. \u201c\u2019Kosher food is more than chopped liver and gefilte fish,\u201d said Nash at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cHelen Nash\u2019s New Kosher Cuisine,\u201d published following the death of her husband, also took kosher cooking to new heights, incorporating new global ingredients that had been made kosher since the publication of her earlier books.<\/p>\n Nash also chaired the Nash Family Foundation, which supported numerous Jewish organizations in New York City. She and her husband were also contributors to UJA-Federation of New York, Mount Sinai Medical Center, the Israel Museum, Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Yeshiva University.<\/p>\n Rabbi Menachem Creditor, a scholar in residence and rabbi for the UJA-Federation of New York, dedicated his Torah study<\/a> on Youtube Wednesday to Nash.<\/p>\n \u201cHelen Nash was many things, including a renowned author of recipe books and chef, she was a matriarch in her family,\u201d said Creditor. \u201cHer family foundation has changed the Jewish world for the better in countless ways, and I was blessed, privileged since the first moment I began at UJA almost eight years ago to learn Torah with Helen every single Wednesday for these last eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n Nash is survived by her children and grandchildren. A funeral service for her was held on Dec. 9 at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, an Orthodox synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n The post Helen Nash, kosher cookbook author and NYC philanthropist, dies at 89<\/a> appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Helen Nash, a New-York based kosher cookbook author and philanthropist who pioneered modern kosher cooking starting in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,50695,17382,202215,40228,202214,202216,202213,31033,202212,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,23529,152721,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-437125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-cookbook","10":"tag-cooking","11":"tag-ethnoreligious-groups","12":"tag-foods","13":"tag-jewish-belief-and-doctrine","14":"tag-jewish-religious-movements","15":"tag-jews-and-judaism","16":"tag-judaism","17":"tag-kashrut","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-newyork","21":"tag-newyorkcity","22":"tag-ny","23":"tag-nyc","24":"tag-rabbi","25":"tag-recipe","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115693600556700910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}