A notice on the Houston Food Bank’s website says the organization is closed due to flooding, but will reopen as soon as possible to help provide disaster relief to the community. It will surely have its work cut out for it, as will the other food-relief organizations and disaster-relief agencies offering assistance to those affected…
I have an old friend named Fraya Berg, a longtime food editor and walking culinary encyclopedia, whom I met at the very beginning of my career in food journalism. Over the years, when we weren’t talking about food (or later about our sons — hers, Eli, and mine, Rex, were born within a year of…
The corner bar on my street is taking a tithe. Its sidewalk chalkboard announces that 10% of all weekend income in December will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union. The bar is on to something. Amid all the uncertainty of this new political era, one thing is certain: Whatever our social values may…
The Boro Park branch of Masbia Soup Kitchen Network finally opened its doors Wednesday night, serving a hearty chicken dinner to a handful of hungry clients, after serious financial constraints resulted in delays over the past several months. So it was all the more satisfying for Masbia’s tireless executive director, Alexander Rapaport, when on Tuesday…
Alexander Rapaport and the people who depend on him for food are living on promises. The latest, yet to be delivered, is one of the key factors holding up the opening of his new soup kitchen in Boro Park. In the weeks leading up to the Forth of July, Rapaport, who is Masbia Soup Kitchen…
What do Brooklyn’s poorest residents have in common with the guests at Bella and Edward’s wedding in the popular vampire movie The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1? They could soon find themselves eating off the elegant dinnerware featured at the fictional wedding reception. Masbia Soup Kitchen Network, a project to alleviate hunger among…
Our youngest grandson will turn one year old this month. He was born last October as Hurricane Sandy swept up the East Coast. He arrived in the world during a time of uncertainty, when the limits of human ingenuity were starkly visible. As his birthday approaches, I think back over the year. Despite the fact…
● Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition by Gary A. Anderson Yale University Press, 232 pages, $30 Charity, as an old joke puts it, sometimes does begin at home, but it always begins with an annoying phone call. But Jews, with their high rates of charitable giving, have often been eager…
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