Purim is this week! We hope you have your costumes picked out, are getting ready to bake some hamantaschen and flexing your hands in preparation for all that vigorous grogger shaking. If you need a refresher on the story of Purim and only have, say, 30 seconds, we’ve got you covered. Here’s the story of…
Some 19th-century groggers are constructed to allow users to hang Haman over and over again
Some time ago, I came across the Twitter feed of a prominent American Jewish writer in which I noticed several disparaging remarks about ultra-Orthodox Jews, with liberal use of words like “parasites,” “psycho Haredim” and other choice denigrations. Whoa, I thought, that’s a bit harsh, and I tweeted at the writer, saying so. Another writer,…
Biblical ethnobotanist Jon Greenberg (above) says that beer and wine both have a very significant background in Jewish tradition. It may not have quite the same drama as the crisis Queen Esther faced centuries ago, but for many of us, Purim raises a major conflict. Call it the battle of the booze. On the festival…
Purim is around the corner, so as you’re washing down those hamentashen with a libation, or two, or three, stop a moment to send a card to a loved one, letting them know just how hard you plan on partying and your expected level of inebriation. We at the Forward created the perfect Someecards to…
In her recently published memoir (Berkley Books, September 2015), New York Times wellness blogger and nutritionist Dawn Lerman shares her food journey and that of her father, a copywriter from the “Mad Men” era of advertising at the Leo Burnett and McCann Erickson firms. Lerman spent her early childhood in Chicago constantly hungry as her…
Merrymaking and over-indulgence are encouraged in Purim celebrations. Esther’s good looks, luck and wherewithal saved the Jews in the Persian Empire from being annihilated. What followed, on the 14th of Adar, was the world’s first Purim party, an occasion of great levity. Purim is an occasion to be loose, relaxed and happy, and, perhaps, to…
This Purim, let’s move beyond the cookie, bringing a touch of the holiday to the breakfast table with a delectable, easy-to-make breakfast pastry. Last weekend, at a friend’s potluck, Max pointed emphatically to a plate on the table and said “cookie.” The fact that the object of his desire was actually a plate of biscuits…
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