For Jewish communities, Chinese food is more than a Christmas tradition – they’re also walking the wok

Jason Wang is the co-editor of Creative Resilience and COVID-19: Figuring the Everyday in a Pandemic, as well as the forthcoming Writing COVID-19 Lives. For nearly a century, a ritual has become so entrenched into the Jewish experience in North America that it has become shorthand: Every Christmas, while much of the country gathers around a roast or a turkey, Jewish families gather around a Lazy Susan for ginger beef and egg rolls. The clatter of porcelain in a brightly lit dining room is the quintessential soundtrack for this beloved tradition. This bond was forged in the heat of urban…