I was wondering about the term used here “cholopches” because we refer to it as “holopches” with no “ch” at the beginning but an “h” (or more frequently gefilte-kraut but that’s not my point now).
When doing a search this way, Google immediately “understood” that I meant “holopchi” (or alternately, holopki) which is the UKRANIAN term for stuffed cabbage. Which makes sense with all the Jewish migration and border changes, that Slavic influences appear in Hungarian Jewish food and expression. Which might explain why ethnic Hungarians or more “proper” Hungarians didn’t use this term. So Holopches is simply the pluralized form of Holopchi, by non Ukranian Jews who aren’t particular about exact pronunciation IMHO.
Sauerkraut is definitely a German food, so CTL’s assertion that his German Jewish family calls cabbage kohl not kraut got me baffled. However, it seems that kraut was a derogatory term for a German or German soldier (precisely because of the German love of Sauerkraut). It’s possible that’s the reason his Oma stayed away from the term, but it’s simply my guess.