Latkefest brings community together to cook for Hanukkah

Larry Marks (left) and Aaron Weiss make — and taste — traditional potato pancakes as they help make lunch for Latkefest at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congegation. Two dozen people cooked 250 latkes from scratch for the potluck in anticipation of Hanukah, which starts Sunday night.

Some connect the tradition of eating oil-fried potatoes to the miracle of the oil that marks the holiday. Marks makes latkes because he likes the mechanics of the process: the oil, spatula and the mix of ingredients. “It’s an intense communal experience,” he said. He likes latkes, but with limits. “If you ate them every day, it would kill you,” Marks said. “But you can get away with it a day or two.”

JRC member Michael Bloom, organizer of Latkefest for the past dozen years at the synagogue at 303 Dodge Ave., relies on his mother’s latke recipe. The key is squishing water from the mix of potatoes and onions. Twice. “Otherwise, it doesn’t get crispy,” Bloom said. Volunteers also make their own applesauce by steaming apples and running them through a hand-cranked grinder. The whole process takes about three hours.

The latke makers come for community (“Listen how loud it is,” said Bloom), the taste and because, he says: “They like making latkes in someone else’s house so their whole house doesn’t smell like oil.” (Photo by Richard Cahan.)