Jewish Invention Myths: The Reuben Sandwich

It was recently queried in a Telegram group that I am a part of whether the famous Reuben sandwich (corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian/thousand island dressing) was in fact of jewish origin since people in the group were concerned that their favourite lunchtime food might have a decidedly kosher pedigree.

Naturally I looked it up and while it superficially looked like they might have to abandon their favourite sandwich; I quickly worked out that the traditional claim that it was invented for – or by – the jewish grocer named Reuben Kulakofsky in 1925 for a late-night poker game at the Blackstone Hotel in the city of Omaha. (1)

Now this narrative – while it has been officially adopted by the state of Nebraska as well as the city of Omaha – is unfortunately for them folk myth not a solid historical tale and debunking it was largely the work of Jim Rader of ‘Merriam-Webster’ (as in the Dictionary for non-Americans) who explains how:

‘In a reply to Mr. Cortelyou I questioned the existence of Reuben Kulakofsky outside of Omaha folklore and challenged him to come up with evidence documenting an Omaha origin for the Reuben sandwich. Cortelyou--not very ethically to my mind--sent my letter without my permission or knowledge to McMorris, who pilloried me in his column for Aug. 23 ("Amazing. The man admittedly knows nothing about the Reuben, but he has doubts about Reuben Kulakofsky, somehow equating him with folklore figures like Paul Bunyan. One wonders how Rader feels about the Earl of Sandwich.") To my delight, though, he challenged his readers to come up with evidence for the sandwich ("Any of you out there have older Blackstone menus that document the Reuben's existence?").

One of McMorris's readers produced a Depression-era menu--though datable only by its reference to "world confusion" and exaggerated pessimism," as a sort of apology for the sumptuous decor--from the Plush Horse, a newly opened restaurant in the Blackstone Hotel that offered under sandwich specialties a "Rueben" [sic] for 50 cents. Another reader produced a menu containing the sandwich from the coffee shop of the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska, which was actually dated: October 9, 1937. McMorris stated in his column of Sept. 13 that he planned to send copies of this material to me. Unfortunately, he never came through, despite a couple of pleading letters on my part.

Mr. Cortelyou, who initially provoked the exchange, did some research on his own, however. He sent me a copy of a menu from the Plush Horse held in the library of the Douglas County Historical Society. The "Rueben" (same spelling as above) is now 60 cents. This menu too is undated but a note at the bottom states "All prices are our ceiling prices or below. By O.P.A. regulation, our ceilings are based on our highest prices from April 4 to 10, 1943." The Office of Price Administration, which regulated prices during World War II, ceased operations in 1946, so it is probably safe to date the menu from somewhere in the period 1943-46 (assuming prices were raised as soon as regulations were lifted). This is the earliest attestation of at least a variant of "Reuben (sandwich)" that I have in hand.’ (2)

The point Rader is making here is – and goes on to make more explicitly – is that:

‘How much evidence is there, really, for the Kulakofsky story? As far as I know, neither Reuben himself nor anyone in his family ever took credit for the sandwich. McMorris claimed, in "World-Herald" columns of Jan 31, 1986, and several columns of August and September, 1989, that Ed Schimmel, the manager of the Blackstone Hotel, told him the story personally in 1965, and told a Chicago radio talk show host the story on Feb. 28, 1968. Of course, Schimmel was not a participant in the 1920's poker games--he was relating a story told him by his father, Charles, who was a participant. No one who was actually there tells the story firsthand. McMorris (column of Sept. 7, 1989) quotes one Louise Ware, who was a niece of Harvey Newbranch, a one-time editor of the "World-Herald":

"My Uncle Harvey played regularly in those poker games at the Blackstone," Mrs. Ware said. "One time when I was visiting him he asked the cook to make sandwiches 'like we have at the Blackstone poker parties.' He gave her the recipe. "I don't remember what he called the sandwich, but it was definitely a Reuben because the ingredients were the same--corned beef, sauerkraut, and so forth."

She said she was equally sure of the year, 1922 [not 1925 as in Schimmel's account--JLR] because: "I was living in Nebraska City then, and I had to come to Omaha to buy clothes for my first year of college. That's a date you remember."

Note that in this version the sandwich exists, but is unnamed, and there is no mention of Reuben Kulakofsky.’ (3)

What Rader is pointing out here is that that the Reuben Kulakofsky story is based entirely on hearsay from the Schimmel family – who owned the Blackstone hotel and thus had every reason to try and claim to be the home of a popular sandwich from a commercial standpoint – and even then, comes from someone who wasn’t there; the son of Charles Schimmel (who was allegedly present): Edward.

Rader also did some digging for evidence that doesn’t depend on ‘he said, she said’ in the form of menus along with Robert McMorris and they managed to come up with two undated menus (one of which can be conclusively dated to 1943 to 1946, but one is probably from the 1930s going by the language but cannot be strongly dated to them [since language hangs about especially in more provincial cities like Omaha so could well be dated to the late 1930s rather than the early 1930s]) and the earliest which is securely dateable is not to Omaha at all but rather in the Cornhusker Hotel in the city of Lincoln, Nebraska.

That is to 9^th October 1937 – which Rader subsequently verified – (4) which puts the Reuben sandwich first there and there is other independently reported testimonial evidence that this was indeed the origin of the Reuben sandwich being called the Reuben sandwich. (5)

I also agree with Rader in so far as I think that the Reuben sandwich was originally just an unnamed type of sandwich – probably in the early 1920s if not earlier – that was popular and was then given the name of ‘Reuben’ at the Cornhusker hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska (purchased by Charles Schimmel in 1930) sometime no later than October 1937, which then removes Reuben Kulakofsky as the originator of the sandwich – a fact that is also supported by the fact that he never claimed to have originated it nor did his family do so – (6) and suggests that the origin is not of jewish origin but is almost certainly a sandwich created by German immigrants to Nebraska – remember that Nebraska is a state with a very large amount of immigrants from Germany at this time – sometime in the 1920s that got named the ‘Reuben’ for reasons that are unknown to us sometime before October 1937.

But what of the other jewish claimant to have invented the Reuben in the form of Arnold Reuben of ‘Reuben’s Deli’ in New York?

His family – notably his granddaughter Elizabeth Weil - certainly claim he was the creator of the Reuben sandwich (7) which has been ripped apart by Rader who writes:

‘Now to the origin stories. In 1976, Craig Claiborne in the "N.Y. Times" "De Gustibus" column queried his readers about the origin of the Reuben sandwich. The replies were summarized in his May 17 column. The Omaha origin was given more serious consideration, though Reuben Kulakofsky was identified as "Reuben Kay." (Probably via the Claiborne article this name found its way into the "Webster New World" 3rd ed. etymology of "Reuben sandwich"; according to another McMorris "Omaha World-Herald" column (Jan. 31, 1986), Reuben and various other members of the Kulakofsky clan were sometimes referred to by the first letter of their surname.) However, Claiborne also printed extracts from a letter from Patricia R. Taylor of Manhattan, the daughter of Arnold Reuben Sr. (and presumably brother of Arnold Jr.), part of which runs as follows:

I would like to share with you the story of the first Reuben's Special and what went into it. The year was 1914. Late one evening a leading lady of Charlie Chaplin's came into the restaurant and said, "Reuben, make me a sandwich, make it a combination. I'm so hungry I could eat a brick." He took a loaf of rye bread, cut two slices on the bias and stacked one piece with sliced baked Virginia ham, sliced roast turkey, sliced imported Swiss cheese, topped it off with cole slaw and lots of Reuben's special Russian dressing and the second slice of bread.... He served it to the lady who said, "Gee, Reuben, this is the best sandwich I ever ate. You ought to call it an Annette Seelos Special." To which he replied, "Like hell I will. I'll call it a Reuben's Special."

The most interesting thing about this story is that the "Reuben's Special" is not a Reuben sandwich, though it has certain features thereof: it includes meat, some form of cabbage, and cheese. During the Reuben sandwich debate with McMorris, one of his researchers phoned Reuben's Restaurant in Manhattan and was told that the restaurant carried both a "Reuben's Special"--described exactly as Ms. Taylor described it--and a Reuben, described as "corned beef, sauerkraut, and melted cheese" (McMorris "World-Herald" column of July 27, 1989).

This would seem to settle the matter in favor of the Nebraskans--the sandwich created in New York is connected to the Nebraskan sandwich by onomastic coincidence--were it not for a story told late in his life by Arnold Reuben Jr., who himself claimed credit for the sandwich's origin. As related to the "St Petersburg Times" (Dec. 1, 1993),

The sandwich, he [Arnold Jr.] says, goes back to the 1930's. The restaurant, which his father founded in 1915 [sic!], was open 24 hours a day, and the younger Reuben worked from noon until 3 or 4 in the morning. He didn't take time to sit down to eat. He had too many customers.

So every day, Reuben asked the chef to make him a hamburger. One day, chef Alfred Scheuing said he was sick of seeing Reuben eating the hamburger.

The chef said, "I've made some nice, fresh corned beef." He layered slices onto Russian dark pumpernickel bread, which he had buttered and toasted. Then Scheuing said, "Let's see what we can do now to make it tastier," adding Swiss cheese.

The chef also had a huge pot of fresh sauerkraut, which he made the sandwich's finishing touch.

I suppose that if Reuben had told this story about his father, it would be family folklore. The fact that he makes himself a participant means that it is either truth or (charitably) very faulty memory. The only thing that could possibly validate it would be evidence from old Reuben's Restaurant menus attesting to the antiquity of the corned beef-Swiss cheese-sauerkraut Reuben (as opposed to the Reuben Special).’ (8)

We can thus see that the Arnold Reuben origin story for the Reuben sandwich is thus without any real foundation. However, I should point out that that Rader is incorrect in wondering if Arnold Reuben was really of jewish origin, because of his first name as while it isn’t a jewish one: it is likely a Anglicized/Germanized jewish first name like say ‘Avraham’ became ‘Arnold’ as was common then.

The truth is we have every reason to believe that Arnold Reuben was jewish.

However, Rader does make a very good point subsequent to this in that if the Reuben sandwich was originated by a jew then they must have been a very non-jewish jew who didn’t have jewish customers because the original Reuben sandwich was not kosher at all: it was treif. (9)

Why you ask?

Well, you have both meat (the corned beef) and milk (Swiss cheese and the Sauerkraut) which directly violates kashruth’s prohibition to have meat and milk together.

All this rather points to a non-jewish origin for the Reuben sandwich: doesn’t it?

Which in turn further supports the idea that the actual original of the Reuben sandwich is to be found among German immigrants to Nebraska in the 1920s and that it has absolutely nothing to do with the jews.

References

(1) http://www.rowlandweb.com/reuben/history.asp

(2) Ibid.

(3) Ibid.

(4) Ibid

(5) Ibid.

(6) Ibid.

(7) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/magazine/my-grandfather-invented-the-reuben-sandwich-right.html?_r=0

(8) http://www.rowlandweb.com/reuben/history.asp

(9) Ibid.