Jewish Invention Myths: Lox

I was asked in the comments section of my ‘Jewish Invention Myths’ article of yesterday – where I debunked the claim that jews invented the popular American sandwich the ‘Reuben’ – (1) whether the famous ‘Lox’ of jewish-American culture was also something that jews hadn’t in fact invented but rather filched from another food culture.

I wasn’t initially optimistic, but I also quickly realised there might be something to his conjecture, so I checked, and it turns out that lox (cured salmon to you and me) isn’t a ‘jewish invention’ at all but rather filched from Scandinavian culture due to the high price of herring in the early twentieth century in the United States.

As Ethel Hofman explains in the ‘St. Louis Jewish Light’:

‘Lox wasn’t always the silky, buttery-cured salmon found nearly everywhere today. For Eastern European Jews, it was herring salted to last through the winter. Many think of lox as a Jewish staple, but the preparation has its origins in Scandinavia. The traditional curing method was using a salty brine, not smoking the fish. It was only in the early 1900s when Jews immigrated to the United States and found salmon cheaper than herring, that lox (from the Yiddish laks) became popular. Fish is considered pareve (foods that are neither meat nor dairy), and so for new immigrants, salmon could be bought from a non-kosher market. But what really popularized lox throughout America was the Transcontinental Railroad, which transported salted salmon from the Pacific coast to other parts of the country, including New York.’ (2)

Hofman’s attempt to downplay the Scandinavian origin of ‘Lox’ – the Yiddish term itself comes from the German term for salmon ‘Lachs’ similar to the old English word for salmon ‘Lax’ – is disingenuous but typical. However, the history is pretty clear in that lox - as we’d understand it today - was simply imported Scandinavian cured salmon and because of its popularity in jewish culture it was falsely assumed to be a jewish creation.

Indeed, lox is widely credited with being a Scandinavian creation and not a jewish one (3) even by some jews. (4)

However, what of the cured herring that was the original lox I hear you ask?

Well that’s also an easy one because cured/pickled herring on bread is actually a staple Scandinavian dish with a traditional Swedish dish that is almost identical in content to what we’d think of as ‘a bagel and lox’ (but with herring) being smor, ost and sill — butter, cheese and herring – which was – and is – frequently served as an appetizer in Swedish restaurants or as a snack that is first mentioned in 1755 in the cook book of Cajsa Warg. (5)

But there weren’t many jews in Sweden I hear you cry, but even if we exclude the Swedish connection (and Scandinavian more broadly) despite Sweden having a substantial empire in Eastern Europe lands – as well as campaigning in other central European lands such as the Holy Roman Empire - with significant jewish populations between 1611 and 1721; there is another far more plausible candidate in the form of Poland from whom the jews probably stole the idea from the bagel. (6)

This because like Scandinavia; Poland’s food culture has traditionally eaten (cured and pickled) herring on bread for centuries – usually on religious holidays such as Christmas Eve – (7) with an example being the dish of sledzie marynowane that is eaten as an appetizer, snack or light meal the same way the Swedes ate – and still eat - smor, ost and sill.

The point being that lox – both of the salmon and herring variety – being eaten on bread isn’t a remotely jewish thing and has actually been filched wholesale from Poland and/or Scandinavia by jews and then represented as a ‘jewish invention’ in modernity.

References

(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-reuben

(2) https://stljewishlight.org/jewishfood/lox-gravlax-smoked-salmon-how-a-fish-became-the-quintessential-jewish-dish/

(3) https://www.buffalomarket.com/blogs/news/the-history-of-bagels-and-lox

(4) For example, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/crosswords/lox-story-crossword-clue.html and https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3227501/jewish/Why-Do-Jews-Eat-Lox-and-Bagels.htm

(5) https://swedishspoon.com/pickled-herring/

(6) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-bagel

(7) https://polishhousewife.com/polish-pickled-herring-sledzie-marynowane/ and https://www.polishmamacooks.com/post/herring-%C5%9Bled%C5%BA-with-apples-and-onion-polish-appetizer-for-any-occasion