Jewish-American patronage of Chinese restaurants

In Lower Manhattan, immigrant Jews would open delis for other Jews, Italians ran restaurants primarily for other Italians, and Germans had many places that would serve only Germans,[5] but Chinese restaurant owners "accept[ed] Jews and other immigrant and ethnic groups as customers without precondition."[6] More of the Jews and Italians would want to eat at Chinese restaurants than they would want to eat at their own ethnic restaurants.[5]

Chinese restaurateurs' lack of anti-Semitism gave Jews a sense of security, and they were also drawn to the restaurants' exoticism. "Of all the peoples whom immigrant Jews and their children met, of all the foods they encountered in America, the Chinese were the most foreign, the most 'un-Jewish'."[5]

A large majority of the Jews saw "eating in Chinese restaurants as an antidote for Jewish parochialism, for the exclusive and overweening emphasis on the culture of the Jews as it had been."[5]

Many of the people whom Tuchman and Levine spoke to felt that eating in a place that was "un-Jewish" showed that they could be "somewhat sophisticated, urbane New Yorkers."[5] The restaurants had unusual wallpaper, eccentric decorations, chopsticks, and exotic food names.

The generations of Jews who grew up in New York after the initial Eastern European Jews immigrated wanted their identity to be based on cosmopolitan ideals.[5]

Chinese food allowed Jews to transition from strict kosher to incorporating non-kosher foods into their diets.[6] Chinese cuisine is "unusually well suited to Jewish tastes because, unlike virtually any other cuisine available in America, traditional Chinese cooking rarely uses milk products."[5] Because kosher food cannot mix meat with dairy, generally Jews can order meat dishes in a Chinese restaurant without worrying that they will contain dairy products such as cheese, unlike in other cuisines, such as Italian, which routinely serve meat mixed with cheese.

While most first-generation Jews living in America strictly practiced kashrut at all times, many second-generation Jews remained strict in their home observance but became more flexible in the foods they ate outside the home.

The nature of Chinese food allowed them to rationalize this decision, as it is "disguised through a process of cutting, chopping and mincing. Pork, shrimp, lobster, and other so-called dietary abominations are no longer viewed in their more natural states."

This process of cutting, chopping, and mincing, referred to as ko p'eng (to cut and cook) in ancient Chinese texts, made the ingredients invisible and thus safe treyf.[5] For instance, pork was hidden and wrapped in wontons that looked similar to Jewish kreplach (dumplings).[6]

Ultimately this gave way to many US-born Jews rejecting kashrut altogether as "impractical and anachronistic".[7] Breaking the rules of kashrut by eating Chinese food allowed the younger generation to assert their independence and further established a "cosmopolitan spirit".[6]

Among Orthodox-Jewish communities in America, Chinese restaurants which fully follow kashrut laws do exist, and are under strict rabbinical supervision.