Jews, Pork, and Identity

I thought this lecture by Jordan Rosenblum was interesting, but I would have hoped that he would have talked about other food identities in Judaism. He gave us some teasers about other Jewish food identities but never really ended up explaining them. I would be interested to know about how bagels became a Jewish identity food as well. I also would have liked to learn more about where the idea that pigs were unclean to eat came from. He talked about a theoretical explanation, but I think considering this was the whole topic it should have been explained further. I did like the way he taught the lesson with the examples of how pork was viewed within the religion as well as outside the religion. It did prove a lot and seemed like it showed stereotyping and at times antisemitism at its best. I was especially interested in the fact that the Reform Rabbis luncheon had other non-kosher food except pork. It was very telling about how far this forbidden food has been ingrained in Jewish people's heads. Overall, I enjoyed this lecture, but it left me wanting to know more.