Forward.com

Old World, New World Variations on Brisket

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:00:00 EST

There are few holiday foods that call up tradition and memories as much as brisket or brust, as I’m told my great-grandmother called it. There are endless variations of recipes — each one boasting local influences from sweet paprika to Coca-Cola to spicy Mexican chiles. This Passover season, we share with you a recipe from the Old World that made its way to both America and Sweden from Latvia, and one from the New World that provides a Mexican twist on the traditional dish.

Four Questions for Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:57:00 EST

Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, the brilliant young sage from the generation following the Second Temple’s destruction, likened himself to “a man of 70” in the Passover Haggadah. If ben Azariah were alive today, his role model for wisdom might very well be Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

An Abstract Haggadah

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:54:00 EST

A decade ago, artist Archie Granot sat down to give new texture to one of the world’s oldest books. This year, his Haggadah is finally complete.

Chasing the Passover Bunny

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:53:00 EST

The Passover Haggadah is jam-packed with symbols of redemption from the Egyptian enslavement. But scholars are divided over the significance of one particularly unusual symbol: rabbit hunts.

Home for the Holidays... Or Not

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:50:00 EST

I sometimes wonder what historians of the 22nd century might make of American Jewry of the 21st, especially when it comes to the ways in which the latter has chosen to mark the festival of Passover. Take, for instance, holiday-related advertisements, a wonderful source of social history. Where once ads for gefilte fish, horseradish and matzo held pride of place, suggesting that American Jews routinely celebrated a Seder at home, these days, advertisements for the Ritz-Carlton and the Hyatt Regency Bonaventure dominate instead, suggesting that large numbers of American Jews much prefer to celebrate a Seder-by-the-sea.

Holiday Cheer

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:12:00 EST

Who better to ask about great wines for Passover than people who buy wine for a living? At the Israwinexpo 2008 in Tel Aviv, I tasted kosher wine with a diverse group of buyers for American-based retailers, including HEB Kosher Store, Best Cellars, A&P Liquor, BevMax and Skyview.

A Kid-Friendly Seder

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:08:00 EST

Purim is funny. Passover, not so much.

My Chosen People

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:06:00 EST

Last spring, I celebrated Passover at the Seward Park Housing Corporation on Grand Street in Manhattan, a few blocks from where my grandmother grew up, above her father’s tailor shop in the 1920s. While the matzo ball soup simmered on the stove, my friends and I gathered in the dining room. The only thing distinguishing this Passover feast from any other? I was the only Jew at the table.

Food Freedom: A Celiac’s Passover Story

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:04:00 EST

Tell a Jew you have celiac disease, and the response is almost always: “So like Passover, but year-round?”

Happy Ending

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:02:00 EST

The following celiac-friendly dessert recipe is from Susie Fishbein’s new cookbook, “Passover by Design” (ArtScroll Shaar Press).

A Very Sweet Seder

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:59:00 EST

As miracles go, it’s hard to trump the parting of the Red Sea. But there’s something miraculous about the fact that a box of chocolate truffles made in a Boston suburb and ordered by Norma and Alvin Hass near Chicago will, once again, grace the Seder table of their daughter and her family in Eagle River, Alaska.