Love them or hate them, Hamantaschen are a staple of the Jewish holiday of Purim. But when a non-Jew said that these cookies left her unimpressed, a woke war of biblical scale broke out, and her magazine apologized to the mob.
Hamantaschen are stuffed triangular cookies eaten by Jews to celebrate Purim, a holiday that commemorates the defeat of Haman, a Persian warlord bent on the destruction of their people. But to food writer Dawn Perry, hamantaschen never hit the spot.
In a 2015 article for Bon Appetit, Perry wrote a long introduction describing how “Jews and non-Jews alike” at the magazine hated “dry and sandy hamantaschen that left your mouth coated with a weird film.” After a brief and lighthearted retelling of the Purim story (“Bad guy” Haman is defeated by “nice Jewish lady” Ester), Perry promised a recipe that would “make actually good Hamantaschen.”
To the woke brigade who discovered her article six years later, her disdain for hamantaschen was definitely not kosher.
“The fact that @bonappetit has published A NON-JEW claiming that it’s normally bad and they can do better is ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING,” one outraged commenter wrote.
Hamantaschen is delicious and the fact that @bonappetit has published A NON-JEW claiming that it’s normally bad and they can do better is ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING. https://t.co/ORej5szshS
Although Perry’s article was more than half a decade old, Bon Appetit bent the knee and changed its headline to “5 Steps to Really Good Hamantaschen” on Wednesday. The magazine’s website also apologized “for the previous version’s flippant tone and stereotypical characterizations of Jewish culture,” and said the new article had been scrubbed of “insensitive” language as part of the magazine’s Orwellian-sounding “Archive Repair Project,” a site-wide effort to “discover and eliminate racist and insensitive language used in cooking directions and headnotes.”
“Glad they apologized,” one commenter wrote. “But they should have recognized how offensive it was without it being pointed out to them.”
I have literally never had a bad hamantaschen. Glad they apologized, but they should have recognized how offensive it was without it being pointed out to them.
— Dr. Angela worked hard for the PhD (@IVoteClimate) February 12, 2021
However, Bon Appetit’s hamantaschen revisionism and “sniveling apology” were ridiculed on Twitter. “Hamentaschen [sic] are often tasteless,” Jewish conservative Ben Shapiro tweeted, adding, “Anything that can improve the recipe is fine with me, you ridiculous woke ghouls.”
Hamentashen are often tasteless. Anything that can improve the recipe is fine with me, you ridiculous woke ghouls. https://t.co/DCNU7G7qqn
2/ In 2021, this is considered so offensive it required an “Archive Repair,” complete with a sniveling apology note written as though the author were being held captive by the Mossad. The nerds are ruining everything.https://t.co/9q5QPdGMripic.twitter.com/qgPp2G3lSi
Hamantaschen tastes like used sand and needs all the help it can get. We Jews who aren’t “woke“ nuts don’t get all wiggo if the help comes from somebody who isn’t Jewish! https://t.co/8juV3oNfEA
