By Sybil Kaplan B’te Avon III Tasteful Treasures from North Boundary Hadassah, 3-ring binder, $25 plus $7 postage and handling; order from bigchapter.chicago@Hadassah.org or North Boundary Hadassah, 4711 Golf Road, Skokie, IL. 50076 For the 40-some years I’ve been involved with food as a food writer, cookbook author and cookbook reviewer, I have maintained that […]
Archives for January 2012
Our first Israeli wedding
January 30, 2012 by
By Sybil Kaplan We had been in Israel one week short of three years, and although we have attended many simchot, heard about weddings from friends (and from my daughter who has gone to many weddings), when our friend called to ask if we would like to attend the wedding of his daughter, we were […]
Begrudging or Bust – Cinema Jews from Rosh Hashanah to New Year’s Eve
January 30, 2012 by
Jack and Jill There’s no denying that Adam Sandler has a talent for playing rather awkward and puerile Jewish men who are surprisingly likable, even appealing. Yet when Sandler applies this formula to portraying a Jewish woman, the result is the awkwardness without the appeal and likability factors. This is all too clear all too […]
Creating Meaningful Jewish Rituals – A Recipe For Well-Being
January 26, 2012 by
By Amy Hirshberg Lederman January 26, 2012 When I was growing up my family didn’t observe many Jewish rituals. We didn’t light candles on Friday night and my dad’s idea of keeping kosher was not putting bacon on a cheeseburger. None of us knew which prayers were said for eating, drinking, or celebrating the holidays, […]
Shevat Began Jan 26
January 26, 2012 by
By Melinda Ribner It may still be the heart of the winter in many places, but the month of Shevat marks a hidden and mystical time of new beginnings. Shevat is a time of rebirth, new inspiration and creativity. The first part of the month may still feel dark and harsh, but that all changes […]
For the Sake of Others
January 26, 2012 by
By Rabbi Irwin Wiener, D.D Sitting in my study I began reading a book about the life of Albert Einstein. To say that he was an interesting person would be to understate his importance or the impact he had on humanity with his Theory of Relativity – the concept of time and space. To this […]
Kvetching Andy Rooney Style
January 26, 2012 by
Andy Rooney alas is dead. I used to love to hear him kvetch. Chanukah and that other holiday have passed when the transliteration chachamim (Chelm “wise” men) were at it again. I received a card with the Chanuka(h) blessings (spelled with two k’s no less) and I noticed the Hebrew word a-tah spelled with two […]
Shlemiel the First resurfaces and a new Porgy and Bess
January 26, 2012 by
“Shlemiel the First,” the joyous 1994 Klezmer musical, reappeared this past month on the New York stage for, alas, too brief a visit. This revival was the joint production of the National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene and the Theatre for a New Audience, staged at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. And […]
Ayin Caramba!
January 26, 2012 by
For most of the 20th century, Hebrew teachers dutifully taught pupils that the Hebrew alphabet had two “silent letters,” aleph and ayin. While this may be true of Modern Hebrew, both letters were pronounced in Biblical Hebrew. Eastern European Jews continued to pronounce the ayin until at least the 1700s. Ayin and aleph are still […]
Say Kaddish over your dead computer
January 26, 2012 by
By Ted Robert She was getting old. You could tell her passion was waning even though she was only 22 years old. Two out of three times when I clicked on her button she wouldn’t turn on. Well, she turned a dusky orange, but not that inviting – “here’s your mail” green that I had […]
A Zealot is a Zealot
January 17, 2012 by
By Jim Shipley In 1951, the Longshoreman / philosopher Eric Hoffer published The True Believer where he postulated that all extreme philosophies and movements were pretty much the same. Whether called Communism, Fascism, militant Islam or the Settler Movement, their tactics, extremism and lack of common sense are pretty much the same. Hoffer said “a […]
