How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved. - Sigmund Freud        

 

Fried Chicken and Matzo Ball Soup: The Balance of Being Jewish and Black is an entertaining and thought-provoking memoir about Aisha Rosenfeld-- a biracial woman born in Queens, New York, in the early '80s to a Jewish mother of Hungarian Polish descent and an African American father.

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When Aisha is still an infant, issues of domestic violence provoke her mother to leave her father, choosing to raise her as a single parent. As she grows Aisha’s world continues to shift; shortly after her thirteenth birthday her vegetarian-hippie-artist-mother suddenly embraces orthodox Judaism. Two years later, at fifteen, Aisha’s mother makes a drastic, life-altering, decision; despite having no family ties outside of the U.S. and no experience with travel abroad she decides to relocate to Israel with daughter in tow.

 

After seven years in Israel-- completing high school with top honors, and fluent in Hebrew-- Aisha moves back to the U.S.; leaving behind her mother (now remarried), and an abundance of friends. She always knew she would move back to the states when the opportunity arose. Aisha moves from Israel to Los Angeles to pursue her college degree and to explore her roots as a Black American. 

 

Aisha hasn’t had any contact with her father since the fourth grade. Her mother never speaks of him and if it weren't for Aisha's coffee complexion and the fact that stork delivery has been widely debunked, she would deny his very existence. Aisha searches off and on for twenty years, to no avail; beyond a criminal record from the early 90’s in Philadelphia, she has zero information to go on-- it seems he is untraceable.

 

During this time Aisha’s life continues to move along. She takes part in several comical dating experiences, an eight-year committed relationship, and an engagement she ended up breaking off one month before the wedding. After the date is called off, the tears dried, and the custom dress put on hold, Aisha decides it’s time to uproot her life, and head back to where those roots first sprouted.

 

Once in New York Aisha begins to look for love again, and after the hundredth time answering small talk questions like "Where is your father?"  and stuttering through an answer that is just some variation of "I don't know." she decides to try in earnest to renew the search for him. One evening, what was supposed to be a date with a psychiatrist, inadvertently becomes a therapy session. "You should really try and find your father." The words continue to echo through her mind.

 

A month later Aisha is dating a criminal attorney who introduces her to a private detective (and former NYPD officer). She provides the P.I. with what little info she has been able to put together and within a week he announces that he has located her estranged father in Harlem. She reunites with her father and the awkward relationship finds its ground. Despite the curveballs in her own life and the discoveries of her father’s past, her focus remains on creating stability in an otherwise unstable world.

 

Fried Chicken and Matzo Ball Soup reflects on the challenges and rewards of being biracial. Though she is not exempt from the struggles and complexities of a world that often see’s things in black and white, Aisha’s memoir speaks to the joy in being Black and Jewish. Wearing her identity as a badge of honor, Aisha presents an engaging portrayal of a mixed-race woman inspecting the space between “both” worlds and the eureka moments that come with exploring the beauty of diversity. 

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In prose, which is conversational and deeply insightful, the memoir provides first-person analysis in confronting issues of racism, identity, and religious influences. Every chapter stands alone with easily digestible chapters that tackle big ideas about the human psyche and hopefulness, yet in a funny-BFF-voice. The book provides introspective and philosophical narrative taking the reader through different aspects of her life experiences, the ups and downs, and life as a chameleon.