Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1960s and ’70s, Linda Brody Bakst knew she was Jewish—but not quite how she fit into the story. There were matzoh balls and Yiddish expressions, Holocaust shadows and family secrets, cultural pride and silent grief. There were loving grandparents who had lost everything, parents who carried unspoken burdens, and a world changing faster than anyone could fully understand. More than Matzoh Balls is a tender, reflective, and often humorous memoir about identity, loss, resilience, and the quiet power of family. Through richly detailed storytelling, Bakst explores the complexity of growing up Jewish in America—where tradition meets independence, memory meets modern life, and belonging is something learned, questioned, and reclaimed. From her grandmother’s warm kitchen in Canarsie to the shifting cultural and political landscape of late twentieth-century America, Bakst traces what is handed down through food, silence, laughter, and love—and what must be discovered for oneself. A heartfelt tribute to the generations who came before and the search to understand one’s place among them, More than Matzoh Balls is a story for anyone who has wondered where they come from, who they are, and what it means to carry a legacy forward.
