
Rob Eshman is a senior columnist for the Forward. For his food writing and recipes subscribe to his Foodaism newsletter.

Rob Eshman is a senior columnist for the Forward. For his food writing and recipes subscribe to his Foodaism newsletter.
Every time I visited Dr. Uri Herscher in his office, I stopped to look at an old photo of him standing on top of a landfill beside a freeway. The freeway is still there, but the landfill has since 1996 been the Skirball Cultural Center, a nexus for education, community and culture in Los Angeles….
The last time I saw Majdi Wadi, the owner of the Holy Land Brands in Minneapolis, and his daughter Lianne, we had our arms around one another, on stage in a synagogue auditorium. That was four years ago. The second time we spoke was Monday afternoon, as Wadi’s world was collapsing around him. Viciously racist…
By the time I caught up to the 500 or more people marching in Venice on behalf of Black Lives Matter, they were turning east in front of a narrow traffic island near the Venice Public Library, chanting “No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!” My iPhone camera caught the whole scene, and it…
It was weird, frankly, waking up on Sunday to a still, beautiful morning. The downtown L.A. streets that were inflamed by protests and riot police the night before were clamped shut by waves of uniformed National Guards. Cops and clean up crews made their way through the debris at Beverly Blvd. and Fairfax Ave., where…
If you’re from New York, the name Ratner’s gives you dewy-eyed nostalgia for the great dairy restaurant of yore. But I’m from LA, and Ratner’s just makes me think of my dentist, Dr. Farkas, whose office is on Ratner St. There’s a connection– Alex Ratner came west in 1914 to beat back tuberculosis, and he…
Previous Article Next Article To understand how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect Jewish media, just look at non-Jewish media. For years now, the forces that have wreaked havoc, forced change and inspired innovation in the general media have done exactly the same in the confines of Jewish media. Tens of thousands of journalists had already…
A culinary Zoom with the CEO of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles
Anyone else feeling claustrophobic? I’m blessed, I get that. We have a yard, fruit trees and vegetable gardens I’ve been tending for two decades – even a hammock. As internal exile goes, it’s pretty sweet. But here in Los Angeles, county officials just announced the stay-at-home order may extend through August. And, as the quarantine…
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