by Yori Yanover

Cameron Kerry, center, talks about Jewish issues over a pastrami sandwich with Sheldon Silver, left, on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Sept. 22, 2004 Photo: Uriel Heilman/JTA

or Kerry’s Jewish brother, pickle choice is order of day," a Jewish Telegraphic Agency story ran last month, as the Democratic party’s nominee’s brother Cameron Kerry, “discussed Jewish issues over a pastrami sandwich with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.”

That the event took place, according to JTA, at “Noah’s Ark deli on Grand Avenue,” can be forgiven. Grand Street, Grand Avenue, they’re all basically non-number thoroughfares down there, below Houston Street, where Jews and other colorful ethnics munch on their spicy foods. Less forgivable was the fact that the entire affair was depicted as a deleted scene from Fiddler on the Roof.

“The talk quickly turned to more important issues — like pickles,” reported JTA (a news agency featuring the telegraph in its name and, presumably, transmitting its copy by Morse code). The story continued: “Kerry said he preferred the half-sour variety, which he demonstrated by biting into one.”

Cameron Kerry, a convert to Judaism (in Reform Movement style, which may be disputed by competing denominations) noted that his brother John, a Catholic, “often joined his family for Shabbat dinner, though the senator from Massachusetts had never come to a family Passover Seder.”

A quick Republican spinner could have used this no-show to suggest that, as the Seder is a celebration of freedom, John Kerry may be harboring proslavery sentiments. But the JTA story just continued to seek its own Anatevka roots with lines like: “As the lunch wound down, one or two of the diners slipped some of the warm rugelach that had been put out for dessert into their purses and briefcases. One asked for a brown paper bag and emptied a plateful.”

There was, apparently, a Q & A segment, when brother Kerry was asked about his favorite Jewish food. “Lox,” he said. The phenomenon of catering (literally) to large blocks of ethnic voters through cheap gastronomical gestures is not limited to this campaign, and certainly not to Jewish voters. Why, President Bush has been bar-b-cueing so many ribs for the down-home folks, he could qualify as a franchise. So why did the scene on “Grand Avenue” bother me so much this time around?

It probably has to do with the fact that the Lower East Side in which Cameron Kerry imagined he was gnawing on his semi-sour pickles has been gone for at least fifty years, and its disappearance has been accelerated in the last five. The Eastern European Jewish character of the neighborhood is a cherished memory, but in reality the centers of vibrant traditional Jewish life have long since moved to Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau County, Westchester County, Riverdale and New Jersey.

The slow decline of traditional Jewish life on the Lower East Side is a serious concern, born by economic changes and the changing needs of Jewish families in the city. Frankly, I think these changes are inevitable. I also trust that the local Jewish community will find adequate ways to preserve its way of life down here. Jews do the survival thing better than any other known human group. None of that very real set of changes finds its expression in pickle and pastrami stories a la JTA. I’m sure the candidate’s brother, the Speaker and the assembled local dignitaries, all of them intelligent and enterprising people, discussed many issues not directly related to Jewish cuisine. Our city, especially downtown, is still waiting for full delivery on promises made after 9/11.

So why did the visit end up as a poster for any one of Shalom Aleichem’s more colorful creations? I suspect it’s because JTA is serving a constituency of national Jewish newspapers, and those are much more interested in the pickle and lox angle than they are in learned discussions of the state of Jewish communities in America.

I live among so many active, creative men and women, published authors, concert musicians, renowned artists, as well as an amazing list of people in high office in Law, Finance and Trade. Yet I discover regularly that my neighborhood is still perceived by the media as the domain of pushcarts (and, occasionally, of regressive early 80’s punk rockers). You’re going to eat this pickle?