In mid-summer of 1944, my mother was rounded up along with her parents and younger brother from their cellar hiding place in Amstelveen, where they had been reduced to eating tulip bulbs. The lone survivor of her immediate family, she was transported to Bergen-Belsen where she labored for the Nazis and struggled to stay alive until the end of the war and blessed freedom - when she, (to qoute Jaffe) "grabbed a hold of life". When it was 1963 and I was all of a worldly twelve, I thought I was ready to learn about the tribulations of my mother and her family .... and how, if at all, these ancient dreams and ancient dramas impacted on me, a 'typical' American kid. I longed to understand the past that I had not been a part of.

With JEWISH SOULFOOD, poet and writer Larry Jaffe has been able to boil all of my longings down into one big pot. Through his eyes and heart, he generously took me on a welcome journey to visit his grandparents, mother, father, aunts, uncles and cousins. And in the process of this totally unexpected trip, I learned a thing or two about my own dear family. " ...a person's greatest assets are their family ....." That couldn't be truer, Larry.

JEWISH SOULFOOD is intricately layered with story upon story and poem upon poem bravely assessing and confronting life not just as a Jew but as a Human. In THE REPATRIATION OF ANGER, Jaffe clearly defines the immense impotence of anger. WHO TOLD YOU beautifully and rightfully so, resonates with indignant rightousness. SOULKEEPER knowingly acknowledges that the "food of any culture is it's art." His WHEN I WAS LITTLE made me catch my breath with it's simple wording and simultaneous powerful invocation of seemingly universal childish memories.

I thank you for JEWISH SOULFOOD, Mr. Jaffe. I thank you for helping me to remember once again what is important in life. I thank both your mother and mine, for faithfully admonishing us to "wear clean underwear" in case of that always looming, ever-pending accident. I know JEWISH SOULFOOD was penned for many, but I will unabashedly paraphrase Mr. Jaffe's SOULWALKER in a tribute to my almost ninety year old mother: "The wings of butterflies and angels beat in your heart." Kisses and Knishes. Mindy Adams, http://www.fictionforest.com/