(Hasidic Caramelized Noodle Pudding)
The Chmielnicki massacres in Poland in 1648, the apostasy of the false messiah Shabbetai Tzvi in 1666, the subsequent partition of Poland, and other problems shook the Jewish communities of eastern Europe. Some Jews found an answer in the freedom offered by the Enlightenment (Haskala in Yiddish). Others turned to Kabbalistic healers and miracle workers. One of these holy men was Israel ben Eliezer, commonly called the Ba'al Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name). By the time of his death in 1760, he had created a full-fledged religious movement known as Hasidism and, within a generation, the bulk of the Jews in central Poland, Galicia, and the Ukraine were Hasidim.
Beginning in the late 1700s, groups of Hasidim began moving to the Holy Land in order to live a more fully religious life. They brought with them the traditions of eastern Europe, including their manner of dress and foods. It was among the Hasidim of Jerusalem that this distinctive noodle kugel, which features a tantalizing contrast of pepper and caramelized sugar, was popularized.
