My mother’s bosses told him the position had already been filled. Of course it had. It had been created specifically for my mother. They didn’t really need a Kosher cook at all.
My parents came to America with the intention of making some money and returning to Poland when the political situation there was more stable. My mother worked as a housekeeper and my father worked as a cab driver. Over a decade later, they had two children who were born on American soil and were thus American citizens, and decided that it was too late go back. However, America was not truly their home since they were legally not allowed to be here. They had come on tourist visas that expired after six months and they had long overstayed their welcome. There weren’t many channels through which they could obtain green cards and the bureaucratic hassle resulted in people waiting sometimes years for legal documentation.
In the 1990’s, one way undocumented immigrants could become legal residents was sponsorship through employment. My mother found two men who ran a Jewish retirement home in our neighborhood, Canarsie who were willing to help her. They hired her as a Kosher cook, despite her being Catholic. She learned how to cook traditional Jewish meals and how to properly keep a Kosher kitchen. Separate dishes for meat and cheese, draining all the blood from a chicken before cooking it, no shellfish, eggs must be carefully inspected for blood. However, one requirement for obtaining a green card through being sponsored by an employer was that the employer had to place an ad for the position in a widely circulated newspaper, and only if no legal U. S. residents or citizens applied could the undocumented worker become a permanent resident.
My mother’s bosses placed the ad in the paper, and for a few weeks no one applied. Then one man, a U. S. citizen, came by to inquire. He had a pages-long resume of being a chef in restaurants in Tel Aviv, Israel. He was extremely qualified to cook for the Jewish retirees living in the home.
A few months later, after long waits at immigration offices and consulates, my mother got her green card, and because she got one, her husband, my father, got one too. Shortly thereafter, new immigration legislation was passed and it was no longer possible to become a legal residents through employer sponsorship. Every time I pass a Kosher restaurant, or eat Kosher candy during Jewish holidays, I remember that this culture and this food that is mostly foreign to me is the reason they can now vote in elections, the reason they no longer have to work scrubbing floors and getting paid under the table, the reason my parents no longer have to worry about getting deported.
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