Don’t pity the gefilte enthusiasts

If you meant for your article [“The Fish We Love to Hate,” by Laurie Winer, April 20] to be insulting to Jewish people who regularly include and enjoy gefilte fish during holiday celebrations, you succeeded.

My Latvian grandmother made her own gefilte fish well into her 80s. My 94-year-old grandmother still makes gefilte fish for all of our family celebrations by re-boiling store-bought patties in her own broth. And up until a few years ago, she was making homemade horseradish to accompany her delicious appetizer.

We do not include this dish on our holiday table out of some obligation. We genuinely enjoy it. You have done a great disservice to Jewish people and tradition.

Lori Marks

Tarzana

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Each year as soon as the frost on the great gefilte lakes (located upstate New York somewhere in the Catskills) is thin enough to break the surface, observant fishermen set out to “catch” gefilte fish. Unlike your normal fish, gefilte fish cannot be caught with a rod and a reel or standard bait. The art of catching gefilte fish was handed down hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago. For all I know Moses went gefilte fish-catching.

So how is it done? Well, you go up to the edge of the lake with some matzo. It has to be Manischewitz matzo or the fish will not be attracted. You stand on the edge of the lake and whistle and say, “Here, boy!” The fish can’t resist the smell of matzo. They come to the edge of the lake, where they jump into jars and are bottled on the spot.

The time of the catch is very important. The fish cannot be caught before Purim is over or the fish are considered chumetz (not acceptable for Passover food). I am still a little bothered by which end of the fish is the head and which is the tail (not to mention that I am not sure where their eyes are). This is a small price to pay for the luxury of eating this delicacy.

Bob Ressler

Century City

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If Laurie Winer doesn’t like gefilte fish, she doesn’t have to eat it! I know we have freedom of speech in this country, but why The Times would want to take a beloved Jewish holiday and make fun of it, I don’t know. We celebrate the exile from slavery and look forward to a good year at this time.

Ruth Paver

Culver City