On-site: Cultural Diffusion: “I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli

For Educators in Grades 6-12

The Skirball Museum curated the exhibition “I’ll Have What She’s Having”, on view at Illinois Holocaust Museum from October 22, 2023 – April 14, 2024.   

The exhibition explores topics including deli culture, the proliferation of delis alongside the expansion of New York’s Jewish communities, kosher meat manufacturing, shortages during World War II, and advertising campaigns that helped popularize Jewish foods throughout the city.  

In this workshop, explore facets of the lives of Central and Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that echo in contemporary immigrant experiences, and discover how people adapt and transform their own cultural traditions over time, resulting in a living style of cooking, eating, and sharing community that is at once deeply rooted in their own heritage and continuously changing.  

These imported and adapted traditions created a cuisine that became a cornerstone of popular culture with worldwide influence.  

Workshop Includes:

• Classroom Rosources
• Tour of Exhibition
• Dinner
• 3 Clock Hours/CPDUs