America is a nation of industrialization.  Therefore, many Jewish foods became mass produced.  The old bagel more closely represented a bialy, whereas today, processing methods and mass production have led for its evolution into this:

Some influences on Jewish food come from the New World entirely, such as putting cream cheese on a bagel, new or old.  It was the “American Melting Pot,” and everyone shared bits of their food culture.  In fact, today many people consider falafel to be a Jewish food in the same way that the bagel is, when in fact it comes from the Middle East, and until recently was only eaten by Sephardic Jews.

Another interesting development of Jewish foods in the New World is the evolution of kashrut, or Jewish dietary laws.  Traditionally, a man called a mashgiach supervises kosher establishments to ensure that there has not been a mixing of meat and dairy, and in slaughterhouses to ensure that the animals have been slaughtered in the correct fashion.  Because food is so rarely local today, organizations send out mashgiachs to factories and distributors to check them, and those that they approve they grant the right to use their hechsher, a mark that proves the food is up to their standards.  In the old country, food was rarely even packaged and shipped, and each town trusted their local authority.

Between the bee and American flag lies the trademarked symbol of one of many, many organizations that certifies Kashrut

Even kashrut has evolved based on modern American capitalism in the food world, and there is a new and growing movement to additionally certify the foods with a sign that the workers for the food company were treated fairly.

With “kosher style” food establishments serving Jewish food, and fast food restaurants selling food that used to have elite baking unions (Bagels were taken very seriously), Jewish food has in many ways assimilated into American culture.  Like Jews themselves, there remain different levels of distinction and integration.  There are still some foods that remain fairly intact and out of mainstream society (I’ll never understand why kugel never made it big-time), but they have not disappeared.  Like the Jews in America, they are here to stay.

Sources:

Photos: www.everystockphoto.com

Hechshure: Hit or Miss

Bagel: Jason Hutchens

www.jewishrecipes.org

www.ou.org

http://media.gfem.org/node/11687

http://magentzedek.org/

http://www.haruth.com/bagel.html