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Praise for "A Recipe for Success"
Hasia Diner, the Paul S. Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History and the director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History at NYU
"First, let me say how fine the manuscript is. It is nicely written, conveys a tremendous amount of information, and weaves beautifully the personal details of LKB's life with the life of the community and the larger narrative of American history. She really comes to life in this piece." Marcie Cohen Ferris, author of "Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South" and Associate Director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"What a delight to finally get to know the real Lizzie Kander in 'A Recipe for Success.' Lizzie Kander is my hero — she found other doorways when men closed doors to women, and she told us the secret — it was through their hearts and tummies. Lizzie understood the power of food to nourish, to educate, to calm, to raise money, and to spread love. This powerful Badger Biography tells this story beautifully, and whets our appetites to learn more about the important women in America's past."
Carolyn Phelan, Booklist February 2007
From the Badger Biographies series, this nicely designed paperback introduces social reformer Lizzie Kander. Born in Milwaukee in 1858 to German immigrant parents, she worked tirelessly to improve the health, welfare, and education of children and their families, particularly in the Jewish immigrant community. One fund-raising project for the Milwaukee Settlement House met with spectacular success. "The Settlement House Cookbook", which provided simple recipes for preparing nutritious and appealing dishes, went through many editions from 1901 to 1997 and funded many social services. Kann provides insights into Kander's times, her character, and her work in the community. Many lengthy sidebars bring in background information on topics as diverse as women's suffrage, Parcheesi, and marshmallows as well as questions from an actual 1878 Milwaukee high-school entrance exam. Appendixes include a time line, a glossary, and a few recipes. This very accessible biography is illustrated with black-and-white reproductions of period photos, drawings, and documents.
Reform Judaism book feature Fall 2007
Lizzie Kander (1858-1940) represents a generation of German-Jewish women dedicated to philanthropy and volunteerism. President of the first Jewish settlement house in Milwaukee, she herself taught cooking and homemaking classes to Jewish immigrants arriving from Russia and Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Written for young readers from eight to twelve, Bob Kann's biography of Lizzie Kander tells an inspiring tale of commitment and spunk. When the men on the board of the settlement house refused to allocate $18 to print the recipes for the students, she and her committee raised the money for publication by selling advertisements in the book. An immediate commercial success, The Settlement House Cook Book paid in part for the construction of a new settlement house building and later Milwaukee's Jewish Community Center. (It was reprinted forty times between 1901 and 1991 and sold over 2 million copies.) Called the "Jane Addams of Milwaukee," Kander was a warm and generous woman whose volunteer work laid the foundations for Jewish social services.
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