*CHANNEL UPDATES* 1. I'm currently working on my next book, so if I'm a little slow to put out videos, this is why. It has nothing to do with Jewish history, but if you liked my first book you'll probably like this one. 2. The WWI halftime recap, Pasadena recap, and viewer survey results are all coming out before the new year.

@ironhell813

5 ай бұрын

Always wanted a Jewish Xmas especially after i found out about my Hebrew heritage, unfortunately I got one after my family didn’t want me around but it was interesting.

@Mongoose-ct6us

5 ай бұрын

This makes no sense

@johngillespie3409

5 ай бұрын

Next time you go to Chicago, you should go to the Polish Art museum. They have some awesome Jewish Crush Art from Krakow. The sweet old lady tour guide has an insane amount of knowledge on Polska 🇵🇱 pretty cool place.

@Mongoose-ct6us

5 ай бұрын

@@johngillespie3409 I never been to Poland.

@johngillespie3409

4 ай бұрын

@@Mongoose-ct6us the Polish Art museum is in Chicago 🇵🇱

Yehudi, a European Jew, walks into a kosher restaurant in Brooklin. He is received by a Chinese waiter who speaks Yiddish with a slight Mandarin accent. Pleasantly surprised, Yehudi approaches the owner and asks him: - How come your waiter speaks Yiddish? And the boss replies in a low voice: “Don’t speak so loudly. He thinks it’s English!”

Growing up, I learned "Jewish Christmas" = Chinese food + a movie. Everything else was closed.

@joaovitormatos8147

5 ай бұрын

There's also the geography thing

@nicholasneyhart396

5 ай бұрын

That is the way in big cities, but I never experienced it being from the middle of nowhere. My dad told me stories oabou being so confused by mom taking him around the families for a feast, he forgot his catholic wife has different holidays than he does.

As a Jewish person who is a proud connoisseur of Chinese food for the holidays, I was hoping you'd cover this topic. Happy Holidays, Sam!

@captain34ca

4 ай бұрын

I'm in Alberta, Canada where there are more black Dodge trucks than Jews. We ordered in take out and watched netflix because covid is still a thing

As a Chinese, I laughed when you two ordered the exact same thing. There has been recently a joke trending on Chinese internet platforms: Four Chinese men walk into a Chinese restaurant. They ordered four different dishes to create sort of a "mini buffet". Four white men walk into a Chinese restaurant. They ordered four Kung Pao Chicken. Edit: for hygiene purposes, sharing food could still work by adding another set of chopsticks/spoon, used only to transfer food into your individual plates or bowls, but never touching your mouths. Then you eat with your individual chopsticks/spoons.

@futon2345

5 ай бұрын

Yeah it was super cringe to see them order two of the same thing, plus two different noodle dishes. Yikes 😱

@futon2345

5 ай бұрын

Oh yeah and when he said he doesn’t like the “texture” of the rice flour dumpling wrapper

@SamAronow

5 ай бұрын

In fairness, the former is what I usually do and grew up doing. You just can't really do that with soup.

@shardanette1

5 ай бұрын

Oh, no, they don't eat like chinese people do! Ban Them! What nonsense.

@ironhell813

5 ай бұрын

Yeah westerners don’t really know how to share.

Fulfilling this tradition and looking for Chinese restaurants in tel aviv made me realize that unlike almost any other country, traditional Chinese food is far more popular than Chinese-American food: any other nationality usually has a far more popular American version of their food (for instance burritos, sushi, hamburgers) which is all you can find restaurants of. But for some reason specifically for Chinese food outside of America it's far easier to find actual traditional Chinese food than all these famous Chinese American dishes that I'm sure people would enjoy if they had access to them. For instance in tel aviv there's tons of very famous places like taizu or málà that have pretty authentic Chinese food, but absolutely no American Chinese food.

@chromographia106

4 ай бұрын

In Australia, we have Chinese-Malaysian food instead, because a lot of Chinese people come here via Malaysia, far more than have ever come via the United States. People from Hainan don't know what Hainanese Chicken Rice is, because that's a Chinese-Malaysian development. That being said, authentic mainland Chinese cuisine is very popular where I am and in many places around Australia. We also have some Chinese-Australian food, though I don't think it extends to full dishes; that manifests as the dim sim and putting western vegetables like broccoli in dishes.

@SamAronow

4 ай бұрын

In fairness, burritos are from San Francisco originally, and it was part of Mexico briefly and unhappily.

@mdu02

4 ай бұрын

I think it's because Israel has had influence directly from China in the form of guest workers, and not so much from Chinese Americans, who presumably would only make their way to Israel by marrying and/or converting then making Aliyah, making them not the type of person to start a restaurant serving fortune cookies.

Yesterday, we Israelis decided to celebrate Christmas by cooking and eating Chinese American food. Specifically, we have made General Tso's Chicken, which is not readily available in Chinese Restraurants in Israel. 10/10, would Christmas again. Happy Holidays from Haifa!

@user-sh3cf7kd6e

5 ай бұрын

What the heck are you talking about? The only thing that MAYBE Israeli Jews are doing on Christmas, is to go to a Christian town or area to see a Santa or a Christmas tree.

@Alex.HFA1

5 ай бұрын

@@user-sh3cf7kd6eThat's why I didn't say "All Israelis", just that we decided to borrow an American tradition. As for visiting a Christian area on Christmas - I did mention I live in Haifa. Me and the wife literaly take people on tours for Christmas. It is a bit subdued this year, because of the war.

@user-sh3cf7kd6e

5 ай бұрын

Yeah, I usually visit the "German Colony" in Haifa during the "Holiday of Holidays" festival (for those who don't know, it's a December festival of Islamic, Christian and Jewish holidays with the Baha'i world center in the background.) But I never heard about a single person who does what you mentioned. When you write "we Israelis", it's an indication for all or most Israelis.

It's a good day when Sam Aronow posts a video.

Hey thats me! I had a great time meeting and filming with Sam!

Gottlieb's Restaurant near the Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn serves some pretty good kosher lo mein, egg rolls, and sesame chicken

I appreciate this tradition. In my Christian family, we have a special Christmas breakfast but are otherwise too busy to cook, so we always get Chinese takeout on Christmas Eve and eat the leftovers on Christmas Day. (So for us, it's not important that the Chinese restaurants are open on Christmas, although they are.)

You know it's new york when you see a rat at 6:41

@SamAronow

5 ай бұрын

Listen, I know my face can be a bit r- oh, there's an actual rat!

@amendareid9256

4 ай бұрын

Tks, couldn't pay attention bc I was anticipating the rat, lol.

I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1950's. Christmas was always a big family day for Jews. All the adults were off from work, there were no businesses open except for Chinese restaurants. So Jews visited families on Christmas, and some went to the Chinese restaurants to eat

@marsmickle7472

4 ай бұрын

Damn how old are you? 1950s???

@michaelbettinger3486

4 ай бұрын

I'm now 78 and going strong.@@marsmickle7472

The funniest thing in the world, a few hours ago I have told my Ukrainian Jewish father about the meme about American Jews, going to Chinese restaurant on Christmas, and here's you video 🤭😁

Not long ago I discovered the channel of Michael Rubenfeld, a Jewish actor, playwright and activist, who moved from Canada to Poland. Recently he talked about this whole eating Chinese food (and watching movies) thing. BTW I recommend your channel to him in a comment. 😉

Finally!!!!!!!!!! Considering I ate Chinese last night because of this tradition (in Palm Beach County it can be hard to get Chinese on actual Christmas) and have been for my whole life, it's a great video to put out.

Enough Chinese take-out to pick over throughout the day and a mountain of DVD's of films I missed throughout the year. Interspersed with lots of chocolate. Some of my happiest Christmases.

@SamAronow

5 ай бұрын

Make sure to disable your motion smoothing!

Just wait until we reach Two-gun Morris. (He is already featured in the video about Jewish history in China).

Omigod yes. My family and our Jewish friends used to always go out to Shanghai Kitchen in Lower Manhattan on Christmas Day. So fun.

Four years ago I went to see my family's old town in Poland. The town had a quarter known as "hell", due to the abundance of opportunities to sin and also the concentration of "sinful" minorities: Jews and Provoslavs. Is it really a coincidence that minorities (who do not celebrate Christmas, at least not as such or on Dec 25th) live in close by to each other?

@user-yf7kz3pj5l

4 ай бұрын

Them dirty bastards :(((((

@patrickblanchette4337

4 ай бұрын

Can you please tell me who Provoslavs are? I tried looking it up but didn’t find anything.

In Downtown Toronto, the current Chinatown at Dundas and Spadina was historically the center of the Jewish community well into the mid 20th century. As the Jews moved farther north into (what was then) the suburbs, the Chinese character of the neighborhood grew and the Jewish character dwindled. I don't know much more about the history but I would imagine there was a lot of crossover between the Jewish and the Chinese residents similar to the Lower East Side albeit on a smaller scale.

@mdu02

4 ай бұрын

It's worth noting that the original Chinatown was mostly demolished for Nathan Phillips Square, and by the time of that move Jews had made their way up a lot of Bathurst. It's pretty surprising how far north Jewish Bathurst goes - there's Chabads and JCCs and schools/parks with names like Menachem all the way until Elgin Mills. There's especially a lot of Soviet Jews in Thornhill in my experience; I've known quite a few, between friends and math teachers. Often they're people who made Aliyah after the Soviet Union fell but felt too secular for Israel. Generally the Chinese suburbanization has been from Scarborough up through Markham, Richmond Hill, into new parts of Aurora, and isn't really contiguous with the Spadina Chinatown (which in my experience has a heavy Viet Chinese character from the 1970-80s). Of course it's still the top choice for Chinese culture in the core. Although the main parts of the ethnic enclaves don't intersect too much (perhaps in Thornhill and Richmond Hill), there's definitely still a lot of cultural mixing going on; I know multiple Chinese/Jewish mixes and two friends of those backgrounds have been dating for years (and the Jewish side is the girl this time! she's not halachically Jewish though). And besides, our academic cultures bring us into lots of contact that way too. Perhaps somebody else could contribute how other communities have been interacting with the Toronto Jewish community - we're pretty much right up there with New York for cultural diversity. Final funny story: while definitely not a Jew, I was once in Flint, Michigan on Christmas Day, and there was absolutely nothing open except for a Chinese place. Beef broccoli was pretty good - and should be Kosher enough.

Damn this was a really fun video, also loved our friend rudy!

@Rudster14

5 ай бұрын

Hey thats me! Thanks!

Oh man I wish I ran into you yesterday when I was picking up my take out order from the other Buddha Bodai location. Thank you for the videos!

In Barbra Streisand’s memoir she talks about growing up working at a restaurant in NYC’s Chinatown and babysitting the owners kids and how to this day Chinese food is her favorite kind to eat. And she even calls things by their Chinese names. This just reminded me of that.

Another great video, Sam.

will you do a video discussing Jewish Novygod and the Soviet Jewish culutre next year? seems like a good topic to cover

Been curious about this one, thanks, Sam!

I love your bit about "news flash! Not all of America is like New York!" Still eating Chinese but I only found out it was a thing in like 2012. Greetings from Kansas! Yes, Jews exist even here!

@SamAronow

4 ай бұрын

Israelis sincerely seem to believe that all of America is New York. They’re in awe that you can get anywhere in the US by train.

Dude! You guys have to learn about vegetarian food (tofu, seitan) not to mention asian food. 😀 love Chinatown. Great place for lunch when you have jury duty at the court a few blocks away Oh, and I have really enjoyed your videos overall. Thank you!

6:20 Immigrants on the Lower East Side started to move uptown to Yorkville in the 1880s. In 1878 the Third Avenue Elevated Train was completed, and the 1879 Tenement Law lead to major improvements in the standard of new home construction, such as windows for fresh air and light in every habitable room. Families who could manage it were eager to escape the typhoid and cholera of the LES slums. At the same time, the shipyards of the LES were closing, and many of the laborers moved into the booming construction industry. Tammany Hall was heavily involved in facilitating and profiting from this new wave of construction uptown.

Learn so much about Jewish history from your videos, keep it up! I do appreciate your openness

I am ashkenazi, and my family definitely eats spicy food. Lots of curries, horseradish. They eat a lot of spicy middle eastern food and spicy asian food. At least in MY family, who are from eastern europe.

@SamAronow

5 ай бұрын

Right? Israeli stereotypes of Ashkenazim just seem to be based on stereotypes of northern Europe, when in reality the majority of us live in the US (and Sephardim have all the same digestive issues, albeit to a lesser extent. Thanks, Black Death!).

@danielalbo3781

4 ай бұрын

@@SamAronowdid you make a video covering the reason Sephardi Jews have digestion issues due to the Black Death?

@danielalbo3781

4 ай бұрын

@@Tsutait’s only true with white washed American Ashkenazi Jews, or euro centric Ashkenazi Jews in israel Many Ashkenazi Jews would indulge in Szechuan food, South Indian Food, Nigerian food, Thai food, Korean food, that’s where the spice is

Hey, I just had chinese food this evening with my family! Glad to see that others have this tradition as well

Merry Christmas! 🥢✡️

3:15 in Chinese, different bean curd styles are named after different meats that they are substitutes for. Chicken substitute or 素鸡，literally translates to “vegetable/vegetarian chicken”

6:40 Rat spotted, running from door to door on the right

Sam is dressing in style which was liked by Russian mafiosos in the 90's, with the chain and the polo neck and the black jacket.

The best hot & sour soup is from Wo Hop (17 Mott Street, go down the red steps) and their roast duck chow fun is delicious too!

Shoutout to sam for sharing this history!

Merry Christmas! Enjoy your Chinese food.

Awesome to see Jewish History on the Plate back. You're definitely recording that on Christmas.

Wow you were right outside where I live, literally passed my apartment in video. Too bad I'm visiting family in California now.

Turtleneck & gold chains! Somebody loves the Rock. Happy Holidays!

For what it's worth, my family on both sides came to New York somewhere between 1910-1913, although some were here by 1890, and basically stayed put for decades. I don't recall eating Chinese food or going out for a movie on Christmas during my childhood during the 1980s at all.

5:00 "Redlining" refers to the FHA maps that designated certain neighborhoods as being ineligible for federal mortgage insurance because they were considered at-risk loans, based on the percentage of minority-owned properties. This is very important because it affected everyone's property values within the red line, which fed white homeowners' opposition to black families purchasing homes in the neighborhood. Thus it hardened housing bias and de facto segregation. We can still see the effect of redlining in the neighborhood boundaries of major cities.

How nice!!

In San Francisco, there’s a very kosher restaurant called Sabra in Chinatown. Good food, and the proprietor made me feel like a welcome guest with his big kind smile.

Yo are you gonna make any more videos on Israil? I really love that channel

My G-d am I looking forward to try out kosher chinese food on my first trip to NYC in the new gregorian year.

Not Aranov? Thanks for clearing that up.

Okay, but why do Christians put up trees on Chinese Food and Movie Day?

Hey man, Jalapeño chicken and vegetable chow mein sound like a nice dinner idea to me. Add in some peanuts and I’m in heaven

I wish we had something similiar here in Brazil.

I miss eating in Chinese restaurants, none gave reopened dining in since COVID in my area, they've all stayed pure takeout/delivery.

My family is from the Appalachian region of Western NC. You should see the reaction of other Jews when I visit New York. Oh my.

@stephenfisher3721

4 ай бұрын

Do y'all use moonshine for kiddush?

Well, looks like I’m getting Chinese tonight. Thanks for the reminder, Sam!

I believe mostly the Cantonese style one because Southern Chinese style is the most popular Chinese food style because Chinese from Southern region of China tend to be migrate more frequently compared from the northern region

Did you see the rat running between shops at 6:40 lololololol NYC at its finest

I grew up in Saint Louis and going to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day wasn’t really a thing but we did like to go to Chinese restaurants, as did most of the Jews in the Saint Louis area, it seemed to me.

Me and the missus tried to honor the tradition by ordering some from a local chain here in Sao Paulo, China In Box (unfortunately they never even began to make our order but that's a whole other story)

I live in Taiwan, so it's Christmas every day.

@d.n.8919

12 күн бұрын

🤣 I’m an American but I lived in Taiwan for two years. Besides the availability of Chinese/Taiwanese food, I also noticed that a lot of places in Taiwan keep their Christmas decorations up all year. I saw Christmas trees and lights in some train stations all year long

@spews1973

12 күн бұрын

@@d.n.8919 True. That's another reason why it could be Christmas every day here that I hadn't thought about.

Sam, when you coming to Borough Park? You can do a video on Galician Jews haha

@SamAronow

5 ай бұрын

I guess when I have more time to spend in New York. I've been cycling around the US and soon a little bit of Mexico for my next book.

I just realized that I can't recall ever seeing a specifically Jewish restaurant. Is assimilation to blame? There must be plenty of Jewish folks in the restaurant industry, but maybe they serve typical American cuisine?

@SamAronow

5 ай бұрын

Ever? Guess I have to make a video about that.

@leeratner8064

5 ай бұрын

There are still delis and plenty of Israeli restaurants in the US. Not necessarily assimilation but you have a continual flow of immigrants from China, India, etc.; in a way you don't have a big flow of Jewish immigrants these days. Plus most American Jews have a lot easier ways of making a living than running a restaurant.

We need more NYC videos

Polish Catholic Jew, I eat Chinese food on Christmas because of the Christmas Story movie. Chinese turkey 😳🤣 glad you're safe and eating Chinese for Christmas 🇺🇲🇵🇱🇮🇱

@user-sh3cf7kd6e

5 ай бұрын

What is a "Catholic Jew"? Do you mean half and a half?

@johngillespie3409

4 ай бұрын

@@user-sh3cf7kd6e My mom's family name is Majewski, Warsaw, and Kreig, Krakow, It can be either catholic or Jewish. Kreig is probably Jewish. I was raised Catholic but was trying to convert, without DNA, but covid closed the Temple I was going to. I know Hebrew and had drawn a calendar, can do Torah script. I have talent from my grandfather who was a painter, he came to Chicago to paint a church ceiling. Catholic Jew. Polska Shalom 🤣🇺🇲🇵🇱🇮🇱

@user-sh3cf7kd6e

4 ай бұрын

@@johngillespie3409 נחמד. Do you celebrate holidays? Oh, and there is that one thing that isn't that nice about that if you are a male...

This is something that my family has always leant into, and we're not from New York, also not a kosher family. To me Chinese food has always been facetiously "Jewish Food," I mean, after all, General Tso's Chicken is not what you get served in a Chinese household, but we had it a couple times a month. My Jewish family emigrated to the US in the mid 19th century, a bit early, and its been a thing at least since my grandparents. At least a Christmas Eve thing, on Christmas, for some reason, the tradition is to do a more typical American style celebratory meal. I mean, it's an excuse for a family get-together if nothing else, so it's not too surprising.

@ironhell813

5 ай бұрын

Gotta love general Taos whether you’re Jewish or not.

Simpler - what other restaurants are open Dec 24th?

You're filming this video Christmas 2023?? What Chinese places are serving tofu ,lo mein and curry soup at 9 in the morning?? (KZread just dropped this an hour ago from when I'm posting)

I know traditional Jewmas food is Chinese, but I almost always go to a local Ramen place instead. I just like it a lot more. I hope this does not shame my ancestors.

Sam has completed his transformation into a Persian E dealer

One of the great unlikely marriages of two cultures. Kind of moving in a strange way

The curry noodle soup look good.

I’ve always wondered if that was just a urban legend.

Orthodox Jews have something called "in-towners" and "out-of-towners" and whether or not you're an in-towner mainly hinges on whether or not you're from the New York area

As a Brooklyn Jew I thought the preview was like san fransico or something cuz no way hes gonna talk about NYC. You mentioned were not the majority, but why do you need to be the majority? New york jews live in closer proximety to more jews than anywhere else, the largest most diverse array of synagauges you can choose from, and the best music and food. I was suprised how much smaller historic chinatown was from its size today. Flushings Queens, which feels like China when you walk around (facemasks are common regardless of has a very historic synagouge in the center. Very lovely video much appreciated!! Also, you come across in no way NY at all, you speak like a Californian.

Ruuudi

Lot of people eat Chinese on Christmas Only restaurants open

My father grew up on the UWS by Columbia in the 40's and they went to local chinese restaurants near them on Christmas. And it would not have been a dim sum place, but a place offering egg foo yung and moo goo gai pan, etc. like most chinese places thought Americans wanted back then.

Buddha Bodai Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant 5 Mott St. New York, NY 10013 It is wonderful to support kosher restaurants.

My wife and I are currently having Chinese food lol

breaking with tradition and eating thai food today

Trevor Noah said something similar about the difference between racism in South Africa and racism in America. In South Africa there were laws - “this area is for whites only” - black and white. In America the same thing would be an informal wink-and-a-nod. Guessing that Sam saw Doyers Street on a map and said “I have to go there” (“Doyers” is how Latinos in LA pronounce “Dodgers”).

@SamAronow

5 ай бұрын

Depends where and when in the US.

Sam was way better looking without the stache as if a pawn star from the 80s’.

~9:21 Just the other day I saw a video posted by an official Twitter account of Israel - Israel, the country you'd expect to be the most aware of the existence of non-New Yorker Jews - where 1st century Aramaic-speaking Levantine Jew Jesus of Nazareth was depicted with a New York accent.

@SamAronow

4 ай бұрын

The original run of _Fiddler on the Roof_ on Broadway used a similar conceit, but it was dropped for the film adaptation because it was seen as too abstract and unrealistic for the new medium.

MSG headache in only 2 hours.

When youre standing in the street at 10:12-the red yellow and purple lanterns behind you across the street say “Mazel” in hebrew!

You are getting more and more handsome mr Aronow

Wow, you look just like your cartoon you!

When did Sam glow up tf??

The curry soup looks like a vegetarian laksa. A dish, or family of dishes, more associated with the countries of southeastern Asia rather than Chinese-majority countries. Flavoured with curry leaf, galangal, lemon grass, candle nut, as well as more typical curry ingredients like turmeric. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laksa

LOL I'm Israeli and my American mom just told me today about this Jewish American tradition

@TheKimels

5 ай бұрын

She's not Jewish btw

6:47 rat watch

Brb, gonna get me some chinese.

My mother married a gentile so we had Chinese food and Christmas.

I never knew about “Jewish Christmas” = Chinese food.

Something to keep in mind for Seniors. Its LOADED with SODIUM!!!!

@SusanBSketchy

5 ай бұрын

A lot of Chinese restaurants now offer a section on the menu for "healthy options" that are lower in sodium, since many westerners have an aversion towards MSG.

@thomaszaccone3960

5 ай бұрын

@@SusanBSketchy That's good. Have to check it out and make sure lower NaCl is included.

Lol I thought this was just an inside joke on my jewish side of the family

2:38 most Jewish neighborhoods were next to Chinatowns? Well, Israel and China are separated from each other by at least four countries, Jordan, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

@SamAronow

4 ай бұрын

Other way around.

Why doesn’t your cartoon voice sound like your real voice?

@SamAronow

4 ай бұрын

Because I'm not reading from a script.

i think its cantonese