Welcome to the Forward‘s coverage of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.
Welcome to the Forward‘s coverage of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.
Welcome to the Forward‘s coverage of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.
Welcome to the Forward‘s coverage of Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.
For the gadget-toting Jew, a recent announcement from the Conservative movement about new Sabbath guidelines on the ban on electronics might sound like a flight attendant’s canned directive before takeoff: no cell phones, smart phones, digital cameras or even e-readers. But beyond the traditional halachic reasons for pressing the “off button” on the Sabbath —…
My most lingering impression of New York City, after the excitement of my arrival (in 2003) had worn off, was that all the buzz and the people were there only to hide a deep and persistent potential for loneliness. This feeling of being alone in a crowd reached its peak on Shabbat when, ironically, I…
Despite a Jewish population of nearly 20,000, there is one lone kosher restaurant, Lokanta Levi, in Istanbul. Although it is adjacent to the Spice Market, its location is discreet and difficult to stumble upon, and it has an almost clandestine feel. The Muslim chef who was trained by his Jewish predecessor serves Sephardic-Turkish specialties like…
Being from solid Ashkenazi stock, Friday night dinners invariably meant several ways with chicken: chopped, boiled and roasted. Although it was the least glamorous — the boiled chicken — that most excited me. Chicken soup is a much loved dish and I’m always partial to a bowl or two, especially with my mother’s kneidlach. But…
As we opened the door of my Sephardic immigrant grandparents, Nonno David and Nonna Giulia’s Manhattan apartment, we might be greeted by the seductive sounds of Eartha Kitt singing Ushdakara, the Turkish lullaby, or perhaps Melina Mercouri’s Ta Pedia Tou Pirea. Nonno David, who had little formal schooling, spoke eight languages and often played some…
Shabbat happens every week. Twenty five hours of it. That means that over the course of a year, there are 1300 hours of Shabbat for relaxing, eating, and sharing with others. At least that’s how I usually spend those hours, and for all of 2011, I decided to document those experiences, especially the eating, in…
Orange juice has always had an important place in my life. It started when I was about 5 years old. I spent my childhood in Gabon, Africa. The rhythm of life there is nothing like a Western developed country. We lived a calm and stress-free life. My dad used to call it “heaven.” Everyday, my…
I spent the first two years of my marriage begging everyone who came to my wedding for recipes. It’s how I taught myself to cook. Imagining that we had to eat something different every week, my repertoire grew quickly. My husband fondly remembers disasters like Chicken Chips (totally burnt cutlets), Banana Goo (cake under-baked and…
100% of profits support our journalism