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Caviar Artichoke Spread, Mrs. Elihu (Marge) Hurwitz

What brought Marjorie and her husband Elihu to Maryland?

Author

Kara Harris
July 01, 2025

Marjorie Hurwitz loved baseball. She had season tickets to San Francisco Giants games when they played at Candlestick Park. Marjorie herself played tennis and bowled. She loved playing Bridge and hiking. I know these things from her 2023 obituary.

What I do not know about Marjorie is what brought Marjorie and her husband Elihu to Maryland.

In May of 1967, Marjorie's father Harry Gittlesohn died. His obituary lists his daughter as living in Silver Spring Maryland. The Hurwitz' stay must have been brief. All other documents point to lives on the opposite side of the country.

Marjorie Hurwitz on left in 1965

"Marjorie was truly a social connector," her obituary reads. This may explain why, years after their Maryland residency, "Mrs. Elihu Hurwitz"' recipe for Caviar Artichoke Spread ended up in "Treasures from Our Tables," compiled by the Sisterhood of Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase in the late 70s. She contributed four others: Pineapple Muffins, eggless Pumpkin Bread, Easy Fudge, and Chocolate Sponge cake. It seems Marjorie was also a baker.

Born in Oregon in 1929, Marjorie Gittlesohn met her husband Elihu Hurwitz when they were both attending the University of Washington in the 1940s. Elihu was a labor lawyer and his name appears connected to many high-profile trials in Washington State. Though they divorced in 1979, she kept the name.

Caviar Artichoke Spread is the kind of recipe that I would only make because someone gave us a jar of caviar. I searched my database to see if I could find interesting uses and came up with Mrs. Hurwitz' unique if visually unappealing recipe.

What I ended up with was an okay dip and a dearth of information on the recipe's author. The Hurwitz' short tenure in Maryland left almost no trace, just a line in a newspaper and five recipes, five tiny strands within the colossal tapestry of community cookbooks.

Cookbook Corner (the latest from Instagram)

I have a good few new cookbooks to catalog into my collection, including a manuscript and three cookbooks connected to my life: Riverdale, Beltsville, and the hospital in Silver Spring where I was born (ten years before this cookbook)

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