Last week, we were thrilled to host Dr Michal Nahman’s Blessed Hands/ / Bendichas Manos: Cooking Up a Show With My Turkish Jewish Granny — an experiment, show, cookery class, and dinner rolled into one. Participants cooked a meal together based on seven years of research into Sephardi and other Jewish foodways, while watching and interacting with the character of Dr Nahman’s grandmother (played by Dr Nahman herself), who experienced love, loss, and migration. The event was part fiction, part anthropology, and part history, drawing together Nahman’s research conducted with Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others. She explains:
“All this together helped create a tale about migration, racism and gender that go beyond seeing us as museum pieces.”
Dr Nahman says,
“Growing up, my family’s foods always evoked a sense of home, togetherness, and belonging to something bigger. I didn’t know what that ‘bigger’ was, apart from a ‘Jewish’ collective.”
She further explains:
“History is not a static thing. We are not museum pieces, and social change shapes families and cultures. Migration and world events meant that the family I was born into was among the humblest. Like many global migrants forced into displacement, loss of memory and loss of home are part and parcel of identity. Recipes were lost, stories as well. But pride and love were still there.”
The show was made possible by a generous award from UWE Bristol’s Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Impact Accelerator Fund. With help from the Bristol Clown School, the show was produced by Aisha Ali (Kiota Bristol), choreographed and costumed by Marianne Machin, and written and performed by Dr Michal Nahman.
It was a truly magical afternoon of learning, fun, connection, and food. We hope to run this event again — and also to invite Dr Nahman to cook at one of our dinners, as her food is absolutely delicious.
Here’s what some of our participants had to say:
“A very engaging, funny, and touching performance with some fantastic (in our case, vegan) food — clearly made with loving hands!”
“I absolutely loved Blessed Hands — it was the most unique and inspiring event. I’ve never experienced such a mix of interactive live performance, profound history, and a cooking class rolled into one! It felt like the epitome of JVS — food and community with a Jewish theme. It was so easy to get to know each other while cooking together!”
“Blessed Hands was an innovative way to enjoy learning new recipes, meeting new people, and watching an amusing show, all at the same time. The time passed very quickly — and we had a lovely meal to finish off with.”