Family & Fish

Last April, shortly after we returned from Chuck’s father’s memorial service and interment out in Washington state, we recorded a program on the Boston PBS station, WGBH. It was called “The Gefilte Fish Chronicles”. (Perhaps it was the nearness of Dad’s passing, but we just couldn’t watch it until this past week.) It is a very funny, yet deeply moving documentary about one family’s preparations for a Passover Seder. But that sentence doesn’t begin to capture the “behind the scenes” look at three elderly sisters of the Dubroff clan as they clash, kibbitz and kvetch their way through six weeks of food preparation in advance of Pesach.

The Dubroff family is blessedly large and to host a Seder for dozens of people requires enormous quantities of food and many willing hands set to seemingly unending tasks. All of which is done under the leadership of the sisters, who are doing so much more than fulfilling a religious obligation. They are also honoring their parents Abe and Minnie Dubroff in continuing a wonderful family tradition. Their great and enduring gift is the way they have risen to the challenge, year after year and brought the subsequent generations into the mix. Now, they are sharing it with the world.

Chuck put it best when he wrote:
“We laughed.
We cried.
We got hungry.
We ordered the DVD and the cookbook.”

By the way, you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy “The Gefilte Fish Chronicles”. Dollars to doughnuts, if you come from any ethnic background with strong traditions of family and food - and if the phrase: “That’s how (not how) Mom always did it.” has ever been heard in your kitchen, then you’ll feel right at home with the Dubroffs!

Here’s where you can learn more, watch a brief video clip and order your own copy of “The Gefilte Fish Chronicles” - and the companion cookbook.