All Consuming

A captivating 700-year history of meat at the intersection of German and Jewish culture, uniquely illuminating the rich, fraught, and tragic history of German Jewry. In Judaism, meat is of paramount importance as it constitutes the very focal point of the dietary laws. With an intricate set of codified regulations concerning forbidden and permissible meats, highly prescribed methods of butchering, and elaborate rules governing consumption, meat is one of the most visible, and gustatory, markers of Jewish distinctness and social separation. It is an object of tangible, touchable, and tastable difference like no other. In All Consuming, John M. Efron shows that Germans have identified, thought about, studied, decried, and gladly eaten meat understood to be "Jewish" to an extent not seen elsewhere in Europe. Expressions of this engagement are found across the cultural landscapein literature, sculpture, and visual artsand evident in legal codes and commercial enterprises. Likewise, Jews in Germany have vigorously defended their meats and the culture and rituals surrounding them by educating Germans and Jews alike about their meaning and relevance. In a capacious narrative extending from from the Middle Ages to today, Efron goes far beyond a discussion of dietary laws and ritual slaughter. Ranging through a network of moral, aesthetic, and political ideas, and an archive that frequently defies expectations, All Consuming is a tour de force in culinary and cultural history, transforming not only our understanding of German-Jewish identity, but Jewish and Christian religious sensibilities, and the vicissitudes of religious freedom for Germany's minority populations.