When you’re feeling the strain of planning a break-the-fast for 50, try a strain of Religious Reefer. A new humor video from LA comic Benny Spiewak imagines a brand of weed called “religious reefer” (technical term, “besamim”), to get you through the holiday season. The yamim noraim have never been this awesome. Whether it’s a…
I used to be embarrassed that this was my brisket recipe. It’s the first I ever cooked. It is never going to be the sophisticated brisket a superstar chef would brag about (Heinz chili sauce? Lipton Onion Soup Mix?) but it is insanely good: achingly tender, bathed in a sweet, rich, thick tomato-y sauce. Almost…
I did not grow up a religious Jew, but for my entire adult life, I’ve been a member of the Orthodox world. As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time in other people’s homes, with other people’s families; Orthodox life is built around the family, and Shabbat and holidays are desolate affairs if you’re…
It is almost noon. We are standing in the Whitney Museum in New York for Alexander Calder: Hypermobility. Included in the exhibition are some of Calder’s earliest works — motor-driven and wind-propelled abstractions, alongside some of his more famous kinetic sculptures. In a departure from the usual ‘don’t you dare touch’ museum policy, Hypermobility gives…
A traditional greeting call before the High Holidays has become a point of contention for the Jewish community and a window into the Trump administration’s relations with the American Jewish establishment. The call, scheduled for Friday morning, was described by the White House in invitations sent out Wednesday to rabbis and Jewish leaders as a…
Halwa is a traditional Indian milk custard made by the Bene Israel Indian Jews in Mumbai for Rosh Hashanah. This recipe is an adaptation by the author’s mom, who now lives in Israel. In India halwa is made with “chick,” a wheat gluten, but in Israel, a majority of the community is using cornstarch as…
Donald Trump intends to hold on Friday the annual pre-High Holiday presidential conference call with Jewish leaders. The New York Times reported that invitations already went out to a call in which Trump “will send well wishes for the upcoming holidays and discuss his administration’s progress on issues of interest to the Jewish community.” The…
Did liberal Jewish denominations succeed in making a brave statement against President Trump’s divisive leadership by effectively torpedoing an annual High Holidays conference call with rabbis? Or did Trump hang up on them before they could hang up on him? Less than 24 hours after Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis announced they would not organize…
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