Posted on December 27, 2019 at 9:44 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Genie Milgrom didn’t need to use 23 and Me or any other ancestry website to uncover a secret heritage.

All she needed was a recipe box.

Milgrom is a Cuban-American woman who was raised Catholic but converted to Judaism later in life.

The sense that Judaism was the right move for her was confirmed in several different ways, the most dramatic of which was when she dug through her elderly mother’s papers.

Among the recipes she found there were some that, literally, dated back to Inquisition-era Spain and Portugal.

Milgrom is fortunate that when her curiosity led her to that region, she was able to find centuries-old records of her family, proving that her ancestors were indeed Jewish.

Her research has inspired several books, the most recent of which is Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers, a combination cookbook and history of Jewish people who had to hide their religion from authorities.

Milgrom shares more about the book and her broader journey in an interview with Greg Allen, which you can read on NPR’s website or listen to below.

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Categories: Author Interview

Tagged As: Author interview, Memoir, NPR

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