百吉饼的美国故事始于19世纪末和20世纪初，当时逃离东欧反犹太主义的波兰犹太人将这一传统食物带到了美国。[1]从纽约街头小推车和社区面包房起步，百吉饼最终演变成了美国文化中的重要标志。[1]
Harry Lender在新泽西一家面包房工作期间积累了专业经验，其后代随后将家族面包业从康涅狄格州纽黑文扩展至全国超市，并推出了冷冻百吉饼产品，这一创新大大扩大了百吉饼的市场覆盖范围。[1]
百吉饼在美国犹太社群中承载着深刻的文化意义。这种食物在人生的重要时刻出现——从婴儿的割礼仪式、13岁的成人礼（Bar mitzvah），到丧礼（Shiva）期间，百吉饼都是传统的一部分。[1]这些场合中的百吉饼象征着移民群体成功融入美国社会的历程。
The bagel's transformation into an American culinary icon began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Eastern European Jewish immigrants fleeing antisemitism brought the bread to the United States from its origins in Polish Jewish communities [1]. What started as street cart fare and neighborhood bakery staples in cities like New York gradually entered supermarket freezer cases, becoming woven into the fabric of American food culture [1].
Harry Lender played a pivotal role in this expansion [1]. After working at a bakery in New Jersey, Lender's descendants expanded the family's baking business from New Haven, Connecticut, across the nation, introducing frozen bagels that made the product accessible to a far wider audience [1]. This innovation helped transform bagels from a niche immigrant food into a mainstream breakfast staple.
For American Jewish communities, bagels hold significance beyond their culinary appeal [1]. The bread appears at crucial life milestones and rituals: circumcision ceremonies for infants, bar mitzvah celebrations for thirteen-year-olds, and shiva gatherings following death [1]. These associations underscore how the bagel became not merely a food but a cultural emblem of Jewish immigrant success and integration into American society [1].
This story of the bagel's rise is featured as part of a commemorative series titled "American Objects" marking 250 years of American history [1].