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Ruth\u2019s is a kosher vegetarian restaurant next to the synagogue in Florence. Its owner for over twenty years, Tomas Simcha Jelinek, is also a vegetarian. \u201cEveryone has been here. Even the Italian steak king, Dario Cecchini. Outside his realm, he doesn\u2019t eat meat. He often chooses us to escape that bubble,\u201d Simcha said with amusement. \u201cBut it\u2019s all of Florence that holds us dear. We are considered an important part of the city. Some have been coming here for decades and now return with the same curiosity as always, bringing their children and grandchildren.\u201d\nInside the restaurant, five books collect the dedications of past and present customers. Among them is Israeli writer David Grossman, also a vegetarian, whose photo is displayed near the cash register amidst postcards of Franz Kafka and scenes from Central Europe. Also featured is Adin Steinsaltz z\u201dl, one of the greatest Talmudic scholars of all time, who, during a visit to Florence, gave Simcha and the restaurant \u201ca special blessing.\u201d
\nBefore launching Ruth\u2019s adventure in 2001, Simcha worked as a mashgiach, a kosher supervisor, for various Italian rabbis. Today, his restaurant is a multicultural environment, with a staff of Bangladeshi Muslims who greet customers with Hebrew expressions and celebrate special occasions with a cheerful ‘Mazal tov!’
\nA dissident and human rights activist who stood alongside V\u00e1clav Havel, the last president of Czechoslovakia, in the informal initiative Charta 77, and a professional puppeteer with a degree in Creative Education from the Prague Academy of Music Arts, the Bohemian Jelinek does not fit the conventional image of a Florence restaurateur. His Ruth\u2019s is a world made not only from the substance of the food served but also from the intangible heritage embodied by its owner, who weaves together witty remarks with nuggets of wisdom and surrealistic suggestions. His mentor was, after all, one of the greatest masters of the craft, Czech film director and screenwriter Jan \u0160vankmajer.
\nJelinek’s commitment to his restaurant has not interrupted his work as a puppeteer, an art considered one of the noblest in his homeland but somewhat less appreciated in Italy. Nevertheless, Simcha persists. His favorite character is the Golem, the legendary protector of the Prague Jews, created from a potato \u201cbecause the Golem is a product of the earth.\u201d
\nSimcha’s puppet shows are for both adults and children. He has even dedicated to young readers a book about the Holocaust, Kaddish. Per i bambini senza figli (Kaddish: for children without children). Simcha\u2019s favorite dish is not on the Ruth\u2019s menu; it is fried elderflowers, \u201ca wonderful substitute for meat, so much so that my mother, when I was a child, used to joke: \u2018Look Tomas, how beautiful Czechoslovakia is; here the schnitzel grows on trees.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n