I’ve started noticing hamentaschen showing up in local bakeries, and it made me wonder if one of the reasons we say “Purim Sameach/Happy Purim” is because we know that we’ll be eating lots of hamentaschen, the traditional Eastern-European Purim dessert. This joyous day celebrates the repeal of the death decree against the Jewish inhabitants of…
Consume a lot of alcohol on Purim. As the Talmud pushes, “A person is obligated to drink on Purim to confuse the difference between the phrases ‘cursed be Haman)’ and ‘blessed be Mordecai.’ Megillah (7b). That would be a lot of drinking and any number of intoxicants could fulfill this mitzvah. This year you may…
Who knew there could be good chocolate Hanukkah gelt? I figured it had to be waxy and tasteless, left in its foil to decorate a festive table rather than my mouth. A lovely audience in New Jersey shared their favorite Jewish chocolate experiences with me recently and mentioned, among other things, chocolate covered matzah and…
Homemade honey-vanilla caramel and good dark chocolate raise the old-fashioned caramel apple to the status of a fine confection, to be sliced into wedges and savored at the Rosh Hashanah table. Related article: Choose crisp, juicy new-crop apples that are sensational to eat in the first place. In general I like sweet-but-tart Braeburns and Fujis,…
The West Bank is often in the limelight making political headlines, not gastronomic ones. But hidden beneath political and religious agendas, are a small group of artisans turning out various boutique edibles. Located only half an hour outside of Jerusalem, the Gush (short for Gush Etzion: settlement areas that were built after the 1967 war)…
On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao by Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz Jewish Lights, 272 pages, $18.99 If there is one attribute that all Jews across the spectrum possess, it’s the pride we feel when a fellow Jew accomplishes something noteworthy. Many…
I work for the largest Jewish environmental organization in the United States. The kind that has a written food values policy which outlines the steps we, as an organization, take to ensure that the food we serve to our guests, participants, and each other is kosher, ethical, healthy, delicious, and a conversation starter. Why then,…
A right-wing politician vying to head France’s opposition conservative party has raised a storm by suggesting Muslim youths tear pain au chocolat pastries from children’s hands during Islam’s fasting month. The controversy has inflamed old strains over secular and mainly-Catholic France’s struggle to assimilate Muslim culture. Jean-Francois Cope, who calls himself a non-practicing Jew, made…
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