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April 6 • 2017 51 jn continued on page 52 Locals share family holiday traditions learned at a young age. Pesach Memories W ay down the hall in the front bedroom, Grandpa (Hyman Finkelman) grated the horserad- ish and mixed in just the right amount of fresh-squeezed lemon juice and bit of sugar. He offered everyone a taste, to get our opinions about adjusting the amounts. "Here," he would say, "this will open your passageways." He also prepared the charoset. Meanwhile, in the narrow kitchen, Grandma (Rose Finkelman) produced a feast for 15 or 20 for each seder night. No one else was welcome in the kitchen. And then one year, Grandma was ready for some help. Miriam Greene, my sister, remembers getting invited into that kitchen before Passover, more than 60 years ago. "Grandma did all the cooking," she recalls. "I turned 11 at about the time grandma got older or weaker and needed assistance. By that time, her daughters and in- laws already had their own meth- ods and, because grandma was particular, she could not count on them to do things her way. I was just right to be trained. I loved it. "What did I learn? I was sort of a sous chef. I could prepare vegetables and fruits and could grate items for inclusion in kugels — and watch everything and learn. I could make snow from egg whites. It was an honor. "I guess I learned about respect for guests and the integrity of the process," Greene says. "I also learned recipes I con- tinue to use, and I remember working alongside Grandma as I do so to this day." Mintzi Schramm of Southfield had a different kitchen experience in her childhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan as her mother, Chana (Anna) Schnaidman, pre- pared the seder meals. "I came from a background where we had no processed food," Schramm says. "We ground our own pepper using an old-fashioned pepper mill. We did not use oil or sugar or dairy, or chocolate from Barton's. A guest once brought chocolate from Barton's and my father put it away for after the holiday. "My mother cooked everything with schmaltz [chicken fat]. We had fleishigs [meaty foods] for eight days. "My mother worked hard," Schramm recalls. "She did all the cleaning the week before Pesach, and all the cooking on the last day. And I didn't do anything. I was a princess. Pesach was my favorite holiday because I didn't do any of the work." So, did Schramm learn anything about cooking for Pesach from her mother? "My mother wrote out the recipes for all my favorite Pesach foods," Schramm says. "I still have those eight or nine recipes in my mother's handwriting. You can get through any Pesach on those." Nehama Stampfer Glogower of Ann Arbor inherited a recipe for sponge cake from her mother, a recipe that calls for extensive use of fresh eggs. This recipe led Glogower to a memorable childhood pre- LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER passover Miriam Greene ABOVE: Hyman and Rose Finkelman, the author's grandparents, handled Pesach foods. Rose did mostly everything; Hyman made the horseradish.