All Consuming: Germans, Jews, and the Meaning of Meat

by John M. Efron

In Judaism, meat is of paramount importance as it constitutes the very focal point of the dietary laws. With an intricate set of codified regulations concerning forbidden and permissible meats, highly prescribed methods of killing, and elaborate rules governing consumption, meat is one of the most visible, and gustatory, markers of Jewish distinctness and social separation. It is an object of tangible, touchable, and tastable difference like no other.

In All Consuming, historian John M. Efron focuses on the contested culture of meat and its role in the formation of ethnic identities in Germany. To an extent not seen elsewhere in Europe, Germans have identified, thought about, studied, decried, and gladly eaten meat understood to be "Jewish." Expressions of this engagement are found across the cultural landscape—in literature, sculpture, and visual arts—and evident in legal codes and commercial enterprises. Likewise, Jews in Germany have vigorously defended their meats and the culture and rituals surrounding them by educating Germans and Jews alike about their meaning and relevance.

Exploring a cultural history that extends some seven hundred years, from the Middle Ages to today, Efron goes beyond a discussion of dietary laws and ritual slaughter to take a broad view of what meat can tell us about German-Jewish identity and culinary culture, Jewish and Christian religious sensibilities, and religious freedom for minorities in Germany. In so doing, he provides a singular window into the rich, fraught, and ultimately tragic history of German Jewry.

About the author

John M. Efron is Koret Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic (2016) and The Jews: A History, now in its third edition (2019), among other books.

392 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2025

Reviews

[Joel Haber · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, not great book. There was a lot of great and interesting material, but the book lacked a "big idea," as I like to see in such works of history. The book was more a catalog of many slightly different aspects in each chapter's topic. So while definitely interesting, and a worthwhile read, the insights were mostly fairly obvious or predictable.

Furthermore, I was most interested in the food elements, and the author is more of a traditional historian it seems. Therefore, his chapter that was the most food-focused was the one that seemed the weakest, unfortunately. While most of the book relied on primary sources, this one was much more based on secondary sources. And while he seems passionate and interested in the subject, the author did make a number of errors in this section, as far as I can tell from my prior knowledge on the subject.

The most interesting and compelling chapter was the one about the campaign against shechita ("kosher slaughter"). It seemed to be the best researched, and read like a standalone paper (which it may have been at some point -- no issues with that, if so). This offered some deeper insights into the core subject.

Despite all of this, I found the book generally enjoyable, and well-researched enough to offer me a lot of details I had not seen covered elsewhere.

[Rachel]

“Food is far more than just sustenance.” That idea is the inspiration behind John M. Efron’s research in “All Consuming: Germans, Jews, and the Meaning of Meat” (Stanford University Press). Efron, Koret professor of Jewish history at the University of California, Berkeley, notes that “food is culture, and the evolution of culture has a history, and the history of food is fascinating, important, and intersects with many other aspects of culture.” He focuses on meat because Jewish dietary laws – in this case, what meat can be eaten and how that meat should be slaughtered – played a major role in the relationship between Christians and Jews in Germany over the centuries.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...