Deli night was a wonderful throwback for those of us of ‘a certain age’

Trips on the Jewish Wayback Machine are wonderful, and the recent “A Night at the Deli” at the Dwares JCC was magnificent.

Ah, the sight of an old-fashioned slicing machine and the deli man in his whites, the smell of spicy  pastrami, and the texture of the vat of Dr. Brown soda cans.

And yet.

You could probably count on one hand the people under 40 there. No kids. And Rhode Island, of course, hasn’t had a kosher deli for many years and prospects for a new one are about as likely as the chance of finding a bottle of schmaltz at Whole Foods.

Nostalgia has its place. It’s comfortable and cozy to enjoy it sometimes and be reminded of the good old days.  There’s even now a place, if sometimes a snarky one, for nostalgia on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram: “Throwback Thursday.” Old photos become a way to reveal part of one’s self and poke some fun.

To grow many kinds of support, nostalgia’s role is large. Looking back to past glories is common in religion – what would the Torah be without the references to the past? In far less spiritual areas, nostalgia is often used to “make the sale.” In politics, candidates hark back to olden days. Nostalgia is huge in marketing and advertising – how else to explain those ubiquitous Budweiser Clydesdales?

And yet.

The limits of nostalgia are also real, especially when it comes to wooing new generations. Young people who don’t remember or understand cultural history can be turned off or uninterested.

Jewish food is no different. Tastes and traditions have changed greatly in the last generations. Closely related are the effects of assimilation and intermarriage, which have weakened the bonds of traditional Jewish food. The result, as the delightful film at the JCC, “Deli Man,” pointed out: the thousands of Jewish delis in the United State less than a century ago have dwindled to fewer than 200 nationally.

This situation makes me think of two wise adages: “You are what you eat” and “meet people where they are.”

In Judaism, as in other religions, food has long been an integral part of practice and group identification. The Torah makes major pronouncements on food, such as the laws of kashrut and prohibition of leavened bread during Passover. Much tradition has arisen through time around food, and food has an enormous place in rituals. There are many people whose closest connection to Judaism comes through food, not liturgy. It’s been seen many times over that if you interest someone in Jewish food, there’s a good chance that more Jewish involvement could  follow.

Which brings us to “meeting people where they are.”

It seems highly unlikely that a generation of Jews not raised on traditional deli foods will spontaneously find intense taste buds for them. You have to creatively coax someone to try something new. It could be by cooking more of these recipes at home, such as stuffed cabbage, and serving them without guilt (“your grandfather loved this, why not you?”). For those for whom it fits with their practice, a festive meal at a non-kosher Jewish style deli can be fun and, yes, a teaching experience. An outing to the real thing – a kosher deli – whether around Boston or elsewhere, can be a place for special celebration.

Saving all the enthusiasm for “the real thing” – kosher deli – is not realistic. There’s not enough of it accessible. And that approach isn’t useful, as it communicates that it’s all or nothing, rather than a continuum.

There are, fortunately, creative examples here of ways to draw in younger Jews by meeting them, literally, in a non-traditional place.  “D’var in the Bar” is a successful program of (401)j, a project of three Providence synagogues and the Jewish Alliance to encourage Jews in their early 20s to mid-40s outside of synagogue walls. It is a series of conversations about Torah topics in, well, bars. The idea, which is just one of many programming options fashioned by (401)j, is to get people connected to the subject matter and wanting to know more, not getting hung up on whether it’s on a Saturday morning or in a synagogue. Maybe it will encourage them to go to a synagogue, maybe not, but at least it perpetuates Torah and Jewish values.

Sadly for fans, Jewish kosher delis are not on their way back into fashion, and the night at the JCC was more like an oasis in the desert. But we can find a way for the great tradition to live on for people of many ages, and the smell of that chicken soup and the pungent spiciness of that pastrami can still go a long way.

NOEL RUBINTON is a consultant and writer based in Providence.