A Facebook friend posted this article. True, it’s two years old, but Passover is older than that and we're still talking about it, so anyway...

the article raised a bit of a stir among folks in the Yiddish and klezmer world, and it brought back some memories for your correspondent. Ah, matzo brei… Who wouldn’t like to read about that? The ensuing discussion was, of course, primarily about recipes, but the writing itself raised my own hackles. What exactly does the author mean when he writes

This is not a food that most people are even aware exists.

I would tell Mr. Gethers to, first off, know your audience. If Tablet readers don’t know from matzo brei, then who does? And if they aren’t aware that it’s a pretty specific Ashkenazic dish, well, then I give up. So for whom is this news? Why, even when I was a young sheygetz, I knew, and even had an affinity for, matzo brei. But now that I’m all grown up and speak Yiddish vi es firt zikh ba shkotzim (azoy vi es Yidlt zikh, azoy Kristlt zikh, khaveyrim...) I really took umbrage at THIS line:

Matzo brei, in Hebrew and in Yiddish, literally means ‘fried matzo’.

Lord, deliver us from our Yiddish experts. The brei comes from nothing but brayen, i.e., “to brew” and refers most likely specifically to the wetting of the matzo. A brayhoyz is a brewery, and The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language lists bray as parallel to a very thick soup, and gives examples of the verb, oysbrayen for instance, as the malting of barley.

When will journalists and editors finally understand that Yiddish is a known language with dictionaries and grammars and there’s even a Yiddish academy, more or less, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research? If you’re going to make claims about the language, it couldn’t hurt to run it by an expert at the YIVO before you put it into print, no?

I’m not going to go into the rest of the article except to say that it was also mildly jarring to read such sentences as:

It is, of course, on the weird side that people follow dietary laws that were dictated by sanitary conditions from thousands of years ago –––and this in regard to the prohibition on mixing meat and dairy, which is more likely to be a rejection of a common practice among idolators.

Another paragraph, on the difficulty of finding matzo in New York when it’s NOT Passover was also a baffling. Every grocery store in this town has a kosher section, and even in Kansas City and San Antonio of 25 years ago you could find matzos all year round.

But he does mention Ratner's, and everybody misses that, whether the 2nd Avenue shop or Delancey Street, so all is forgiven.

Of course, the main bone of contention was the matzo brei recipe itself, and that I’m not even touching. I’m going to tell you how to make matzo brei? Suffice to say that one well-known klezmer singer and musician replied:

Where are the onions––and the cinnamon/sugar?

We’ll have to swing an invitation to their place for matzo brei sometime, no? Still another answered:

This is not a great recipe no offense. Mush the matzo up totally. Don't worry about keeping any matzah structure. Turn it into matzah goo. Eggs and milk yes but also vanilla dammit! Enjoy. And maple syrup of course what are these people meshugge? 

To which we replied: Sounds like you’re just making a bubeleh the hard way. And as to the bubeleh, well, it brings to mind my third wife Rozka, a likhtikn gan-eydn zol zi hobn.  Sometime I’ll tell you about her cooking, but right now I’ll just sigh and wish for one of her Passover bubelekh. And since Passover’s on the way out––even the khsidim among us are probably preparing for meals with gebrokhts––if I can interest anyone in some khomets come Saturday night, I've got it at very reasonable prices. (I bought it in bulk just last week!)

Thanks for letting me bend your ear, and if any of you have ever heard the term der vaybersher seyder in reference to the last two nights of Passover and know WHY that term is used, I’d love to hear back. I heard it from the great singer Masha Benya Matz, who remembered it from her childhood in Virbaln, but ALSO didn't know why the term was used. 

vi tomid…