Fania Lewando (Yiddish: פֿאַנני לעװאַנדאָ, née Fiszelewicz, 1888–1941) was a vegetarian chef, restaurateur, nutritionist, and cookbook author from Vilnius.[1][2] She operated a vegetarian restaurant called Dieto-Jarska Jadłodajnia and in 1938 was author of the first known Yiddish language vegetarian cookbook in Europe.[3][4][5][6]
She was born in 1888 or 1889 in Włocławek, Warsaw Governorate, Russian Empire (today located in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland).[3] Her parents were Haim Efraim Fiszelewicz, a Fishmonger, and Esther-Malakalah (née Stulzaft).[3] Most of her family emigrated to England or the United States at around the turn of the twentieth century.[3] She married an egg merchant named Lazar Lewando.[3] During the Russian Civil War they relocated to Vilnius, and attempted to emigrate to the United States, but were refused a visa.[3]
Lewando came to be well known in Vilnius for her vegetarian restaurant Dieto-Jarska Jadłodajnia which was located on Niemiecka street in the Jewish Quarter; it had a number of bohemian and celebrity guests including the artist Marc Chagall and the songwriter Itzik Manger.[1][7][8][3] She also operated a cooking school which was located a few blocks away.[1] She published her Yiddish-language vegetarian cookbook in 1938.[3][9] It contained a number of Jewish cooking recipes adapted for a vegetarian diet, and was exported to England and the United States. She attempted to market the recipes to the H. J. Heinz Company.[3]
Lewando and her husband died in 1941 during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.[3]
In 2017 the German artist Gunter Demnig installed Stolperstein for the Lewandos in Vilnius.[10]
