Stop Dissociating Bagels From Their Jewish Roots

It was uncharacteristic, the flash of anger that hit me when a friend, fresh off a trip to Iceland, told me he had a fantasy of going back and opening a New York-style bagel shop.

“You’re not even Jewish!,” I sputtered.

“I’m from New York!,” he countered.

I was fuming. As a secular Jew who was raised by a Montrealer and a New Yorker, bagels are my birthright. They’re my cultural...