About

Richard K. Scher

Ph.D., Columbia University (1972)

Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, University of Florida, Gainesville

 

 

I retired from UF in 2016, after 44 years. While there, I developed and taught courses in Food Politics and Jewish Food Politics, both of which proved to be among the most popular in the Department. These courses are explorations of the social, political, economic, historical, and more generally cultural forces which influence what and how people from a variety of lands, ethnicities, nationalities, and religions eat, and why.

I also lived in Hungary twice, once as a Visiting Fulbright Scholar where I held the John Marshall Distinguished Chair of American Government and once as Visiting Professor, Central European University in Budapest. It was at the latter venue that I first developed courses in food politics, including Jewish food. I have also taught at the University of Sarajevo, Bogazici University, Istanbul, and lectured in Argentina. In all of these places, and in others such as Trieste, Italy; Dublin, Ireland; and Edinburgh, Scotland, I made a concerted effort to seek out local Jewish communities, explore their cultures, and immerse myself in their traditions of Jewish cuisine. These efforts proved invaluable for enriching and enlightening the content of my classes on food politics generally, and Jewish food politics in particular.

These investigative travels also allowed me to re-connect with my own Jewish roots, which emphasized the food of Eastern Europe, especially what is now the western Ukraine. I literally learned about Jewish food in the kitchens and tables of my Mother and Aunt Tillie, both superb cooks and both of whom inspired me to a lifelong love of, and interest in, a vast range of Jewish foods.

My food-related courses at UF always included samples, which I would personally prepare and bring to class; students consistently regarded them as revelatory, even distinguished, in some cases better than their Grandmothers’. In the fall, 2015, I was one of the prizewinners of the Center for Jewish Studies and Issa and Rae Price Library of Judaica, UF, contest on cholent. More recently, I was invited by the Rabbi of Congregation B’Nai Israel, Gainesville, David Kaiman, to offer a presentation on “The Significance of Jewish Food.”

I am a member of Congregation B’nai Israel in Gainesville, and sit on its Board of Trustees. I have been invited to teach a number of popular classes on Jewish food there, including “What is Jewish Food,” and “Dining at King Solomon’s Table,” which also included samples I prepared and brought to class. In addition, I organized and was in charge of Congregation B’Nai Israel’s first annual Jewish Food Festival in 2017, which proved to be a huge success. Others are planned for future springtimes.