Healing foods of the Jewish people: A winter prescription from our ancestors

When cold weather arrives and the air turns sharp enough to sting, some Jewish households still turn to the kitchen. Long before health insurance, urgent-care clinics, or online medical advice, healing came from bubbling pots, simple ingredients, and slow cooking. Food has always been more than sustenance: It is how people manage to stay upright when illness, hunger, and winter close in. Grandmothers do not need nutrition charts to know what works.

Nutrition writers today speak of probiotics, antioxidants, collagen, and immune-supporting foods as if they were brand-new discoveries. Actually, J...