Ben Murane is formerly the Communications Coordinator at Hazon. He is new to the intersection of Jews, food and contemporary life and in particular he is new to vegetables which are not microwaved and relishes this learning experience.
Ben Murane was also the Executive Director of Jewish Student Press Service/New Voices Magazine in 2005-2006. He serves on the organizing committees for Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, the New Israel Fund, the National Havurah Committee's Summer Institute and Matzat; and is a proud resident of Crown Heights. He is also a contributing editor to Jewschool, and has written for New Voices, PresenTense, Jewish Currents, Ameinu.net, and The Forward.
Ben Murane's Website »
Michael Pollan said it first, “supermarket pastoral” is ubiquitous — as reported in the NY Times and dubbed “greenwashing” by Kim Severson.
The kind of greenwashing I’m talking about is not just a fake environmental ethos. Greenwashing, it seems to me, can also describe a pervasive genre of food packaging designed to make sure that manufacturers grab their slice of the $25 billion that American shoppers spend each year on natural or organic food.
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From JTA via JPost and our very favorite Alix Wall (who helped cook in the kitchen the food we all ate!)…
Forum urges Jews to think how did this food get to my plate?
By ALEXANDRA J. WALL / JTA
Dec. 31, 2006
FALLS VILLAGE, Conn — David Frank graduated from New York’s French Culinary Institute without ever tasting a single morsel.
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The Lord Almighty showers Hanukah miracles in all sorts of ways. Culinary masterpieces feed clean-burning transportation for a rabbi with his heart and soul in the right places.
The miracle of the (veggie) oil
Remnants of Vietnamese dinners power a rabbi’s car
…The 33-year-old Conservative rabbi and congregant at Berkeley’s Congregation Netivot Shalom indeed drives a diesel car. But for the past year, he has not spent dollar one at a gas station. In fact, for many months he hasn’t spent any money on fuel at all. And that’s because he runs his hulking, two-ton Mercedes on the vegetable oil left on the bottom of the wok at one of Oakland’s finest Vietnamese restaurants. And they’re all too happy to let him cart off the grease for free.
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I want to be up front that I am not a vegetarian. Nor am I Glatt kosher. That being said, I admire vegetarians and those with stricter kashrut than I, because it takes dedication to not look deeply and longingly at, say, New York pepperoni pizza and not wonder why the Lord Almighty made it a no-no.
But a great many friends of mine have found it incredible easier to be kosher if they are vegetarian — and found it a better application of kiddush Hashem than simply separating between meat and dairy. So here’s to them:
Top Ten Reasons to be a Kosher Vegetarian
- No one is offended when you only eat the fruit plate.
- You can eat your tofu fried during the meal, instead of frozen afterwards.
- Who cares if there’s no kosher butcher in your neighborhood?
- Time you have to wait until eating dairy: until you’re hungry again.
- Two sets of dishes = Shabbos and weekday.
- Who cares about the outrageous price of kosher meat?
- No concerns about shechitah!
- Life as a kollel man in Israel won’t be such a shock, as you’re used to doing without meat!
- Since you are passing on the bassar, you can focus on the yayin.
- Two words — buttered challah.
Found on the Jewish Food List.
Written and reposted courtesy of Y-Love.
It’s a common complaint about Orthodox Jews from their non-Orthodox MOTTs: Orthodox Jews are not concerned with anything outside of their own spheres of influence. Social justice, the Third World, and the environment are bypassed, with ever-strengthened insularity as the priority of the day.
However, this seems to be changing. YU was notably present at a Save Darfur rally this summer, and students from the Bat Ayin yeshiva were active not only at events but also in rhetoric following the Israel-Lebanon war.
Another nugget of Orthodox global consciousness graced the pages of the Jerusalem Post a few days ago:
Orthodox conservationists
By GAIL LICHTMAN
While many Israeli government organizations and private groups profess their commitment to multiculturalism, truly multicultural approaches to issues - especially with respect to engaging the haredi community - are few and far between. That is why a Torah essay competition on the environment in Jewish law and thought is being seen as such a welcome endeavor by both environmentalists and the haredi community.
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Food czarina Joan Nathan takes a fascinating look inside the insular Satmar Hasidic world — particularly at their dining tables.
Mrs. Appel’s everyday cooking includes dishes like sautéed cabbage and noodles, chicken paprikash with nocklern, stuffed cabbage and cholent with lima beans. Peppers, tomatoes and onions sat out on her counter, waiting to be turned into letcho, the ubiquitous Hungarian sauce, and a salad for a simple supper. Every once in a while, if she has been cooking all day for Shabbat meals or for other people, Mrs. Appel will serve her family frozen pizza.
Frozen pizza? Which frozen pizza has a hechsher? That’s quite awesome.
Read the full article here.
While perusing the weekly farmer’s market on 48th and 2nd Ave, I stumbled across this stunning piece of vegetable — Romanesca cauliflower.
Bringing it home to the office resulted in a cacophony of opposing exclamations. Someone declared how ugly it was, while our top Fresh Frum the Kitchen contributor declared there was no greater proof of a divine design in nature.
This of course immediately led to speculation on whether this piece of vegetable was natural or a genetically-modified marketing ploy. Hybrid? Cross-bred? Genetically tinkered? Did it even matter?
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A bit belated, but still useful for those of us who are total slackers in our shopping:
By the numbers:
25: percent increase in the trash generated during the holiday season.
86: percent of TreeHugger readers who say their kids have too much stuff.
97: percent of restaurant gift certificate receivers who say they would like to receive a restaurant gift certificate again.
83,000,000: square meters of gift wrap which winds up on the UK rubbish heaps after the holiday season.
300 million: dollars spent in the USA on mass market women’s bath gift sets.
Want to cut down on your holiday waste (or regifting)? Read Treehugger.com’s Green Gift Guide and take advantage of their well-compiled advice. From top tips to greening un-green gifts to buying the eco-conscious ideas out there. As they say:
To help you in your quest to find organic chocolate for your vegan girlfriend, or eco-friendly golf tees for your not-so-vegan dad, or a hemp T for your fashionista sister; TreeHugger has put together an eco-gift guide to help you and your family have a greener holiday. We’ll be adding new ideas throughout the season, but here’s something to help you get a jump on your holiday green giving.
Post idea courtesy of Venture Cycling.
Nothing speaks to the variety of Jewish opinion as an attempt to create a Jewish community cookbook. As reported in the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Beth David Synagogue and the JCC New Haven produced their own cookbooks reflecting recipes new and old collected locally.
Beth David Synagogue’s cookbook is the brainchild of 11-year- old Shoshi Benjamin and 12-year-old Noam Benjamin, who concocted and coordinated the book as their bar/bat mitzvah project, the cookbook’s title “Across Time and Many Lands: The Beth David Synagogue Kosher Legacy.”
“We are all so different…from so many different places. People sent in family recipes from places like Morocco, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, New Orleans, Norway, Hungary, Russia, Israel, Greece, Britain…One page in the book has one recipe that comes from Moldavia, another from Turkey, another from what was, at the time, Persia and another from America,” says Benjamin.
…Maya Ungar, for example, reminisced about life in Irkutsk, Siberia, as she imparted her recipe for pelmanin mini pirogis n 10,000 of which were made just before the start of winter by teams of women who would take them from house to house, singing and exchanging them with all the families in the village.
Check out the recipe for Savta Yafa’s kosher Rishte at the bottom.
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Children at Latkes to Lattes conference kneading challah dough.
Children and parents at the cob-fed oven at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center.
More to follow!
Greetings from the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center!
Over 150 Jewish food, farm, health, sustainability and spiritual learners are gathered here for the next four days to share our stories about food, connect Jewishly to contemporary issues, and celebrate innovative approaches to our heritage.
Said Nigel Savage during one of tonight’s sessions, as we innovate Jewish tradition in light of contemporary life, we also “vote with our feet” and determine which innovations have traction, which innovative ideas “stick.” That is precisely the purpose of Latkes to Lattes — innovating Jewishly, exchanging ideas, and ultimately broadening what it means to eat kosher with what “sticks.”
Over these days, we will bring the conference to you virtually through JCarrot.org! We encourage you to post your comments and let this fantastic beginning continue beyond Isabella Freedman into our everyday lives.
– Ben Murane, JCarrot Blog Team
Many so-called unaffiliated Jews find their connection to this here people through the very thing my family didn’t seem to have: Jewish food. Gourmania.com calls this denomination of our faith “Gastronomic Judaism.” But I am not a Jew by food.
Growing up as an Army brat in the Great Plains, away from any Jewish community to speak of, with a mother who didn’t dig the cooking schtik and a dad who converted from Christianity, I missed out on everything from knishes to gefilte fishes.
Yet into me was impressed a Jewish lack of food: fasting. To this day, I watch out for the fast days more than I watch for Shabbath. So for all those who are Jews by food or by fasting, here’s a helpful guide, courtesy of Gourmania again:
The Diet Guide to the Jewish Holidays
Rosh Hashanah - Feast
Tzom Gedalia - Fast
Yom Kippur - More fasting
Sukkot - Feast
Hashanah Rabbah - More feasting
Simchat Torah - Keep feasting
Month of Heshvan - No feasts or fasts for a whole month. Get a grip on yourself.
Hanukkah - Eat potato pancakes
Tenth of Tevet - Do not eat potato pancakes
Tu B’Shevat - Feast
Fast of Esther - Fast
Purim - Eat pastry
Passover - Do not eat pastry
Shavuot - Dairy feast (cheesecake, blintzes, etc.)
17th of Tammuz - Fast (definitely no cheesecake or blintzes)
Tish B’Av - Very strict fast (don’t even think about cheesecake or blintzes)
Month of Elul - End of cycle. Enroll in Center for Eating Disorders before High Holidays arrive again.
This post idea thanks to shamir*power.
This Jewish food joke entry courtesy of comedian Steven Brykman:
Q: What’s the best way to find Jewish dessert recipes online?
A: Do a Kugel search!
Submit your perfect Jewish food jokes here.
Hello friends! To inaugurate the launch of this here web log — and keeping in our tradition of food, fun and Jewish life — we are launching a Jewish food joke contest! Submit all your favorite jokes about food in Jewish life here and we’ll post them for your chuckle-worthy enjoyment. Submissions will be read and the winning joke with be selected at Latkes to Lattes: Hazon’s Conference on Jews, Food and Contemporary Life on December 14 -17 (click for more info).
Our premiering joke is courtesy of Daniel Taub:
Greenbaum finally succumbs to years of temptation and enters a non-kosher restaurant. He decides to go the whole way and orders wild boar. It soon arrives - roasted whole, with an apple between its teeth on a silver platter.
Just as Greenbaum is about to raise his knife and fork, he is shocked to see his rabbi walk past the window of the restaurant. Equally shocked to see Greenbaum, the rabbi rushes into the restaurant to see what he is doing there.
“Such a fancy restaurant,” exclaims Greenbaum. “I just ordered an apple and look how fancy they serve it!”
This is the home of Jews, food and contemporary life on the web, with the aim of taking the talk about eating in the Jewish community up a notch. The sponsor of this site is Hazon, an organization dedicated to a more healthy and sustainable Jewish community on the road to a more healthy and sustainable world for all.
In the coming months, we will feature high profile interviews, feature stories, reflections from vast range of Jewish thinkers on what it means to grow, make, eat and dispose of our food consistently with Judaism’s values of concern for self, others and earth. Reach the blog team with news, events around the country and Israel, and story tips.
