As reported by KosherToday and Ynet, the city council of Netanya, Israel, has banned the sale of pork, despite the likelihood that the law will be overturned by the High Court of Justice as against Israel’s equivelent of the Bill of Rights. Allegedly, 70 stores support 2,000 families with non-kosher products including pig products.
Fifty-percent of the city council are religious or traditional, although only 3 of 25 council members opposed the bill. Reports Ynet, “Up until now, the residents remained silent on the subject, but the opening of a new pork-selling supermarket in the city center [see photo] sparked protests by haredim, who chained themselves to the supermarket’s doors on Sunday.” [emphasis added]
Meanwhile, Netanya Mayor Miriam Fierberg is urging the Knesset to pass a bill to prohibit the sale of pork products in Israel.
(X-posted to Jewschool.)
Israel’s first Master Chef program opens at Hebrew U! Now perhaps we’ll have an answer to the Jewish culinary conundrum which has evaded us ever since the founding of the Jewish State!
I, like many of us I’m sure, have often been frustrated, confused and heart-broken by the discrepancy between American and Israeli culinary specialties, despite their both hailing from the same gene pool, particularly on the bagel-falafel front. Many a New York, Chicago and LA bagelry produce soft, fluffly and blessed with that slightly crispy crust in a perfect “O” in which the hole is really an afterthought. And many a Tel Aviv and Jerusalem falafel stand can likewise fry with ease bodiful, caramel-colored husks of green-tinted chickpea interiors that, even for this meat-eater, could stand in for a burger patty any day.
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The summer season is marked in a special way here in New York. I’m not talking about blooming trees or free concerts in the park (although both of these things are pretty great). Summer in New York officially arrives when everyone starts drinking iced coffee.
It’s especially visible on my daily commute. For most of the year, sleepy subway riders nurse a blue paper cup (or, too infrequently, reusable thermos) of steaming coffee as they rumble towards work. Sometime around June, however, a switch occurs, and these same commuters begin toting plastic cups of milky iced coffee, gleaming with condensation.
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I’d like to give a hearty hand of appreciation to the fresh fig. Although their dried counterparts usually rule in America, there is nothing like slippery sweet seeds of a fig bursting through its soft purple skin.
Figs generally grow in steamy climates, which is perhaps why biting into a fresh fig immediately evokes the warm, ancient air and sweet soil of the Mediterranean - and why these gems are one of the seven species of Israel:
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(Posted on behalf of Yigal Deustcher -the farmer at Chava V’Adam Farm in Israel, one of Tuv Ha’Aretz’s partner communities. He is also the founder of the Shorashim:Roots program. Photos taken by Tuv Ha’Aretz member, Naomi Marcus.)
I awoke at 5:30 AM and headed to the kitchen where I found Eitan, one of our Shorashim apprentices, dicing the root of Ashwaganda (aka Middle Eastern Ginseng) to make a medicinal tincture.
Eitan has just finished the pilot season of Shorashim:Roots - 5 month intensive housed by Chava v’Adam, an ecological education center outside Modi’in. Our apprentices live and work in a rustic setting, secluded by the rocky, sparsely forested hills hugging our little valley. Much of the work is agriculturally-based, cultivating 5 bio-diverse plots for the needs of our CSA community. All of the buildings are built with stone or mud. The water from our showers & sinks are cleansed by our greywater wetland system. The sounds from the farm can be hectic at times, with busloads of schoolchildren coming to learn about the wonders of plants, animals & mud.
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(posted on behalf of Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder PhD)
My husband recently returned from a trip to Warsaw. After nearly 9 months living in Israel it was quite a culture shock. There were many meaningful moments but also some funny ones. He took this photo with an ad for the Warsaw-Jerusalem restaurant. According to the ad this is the world’s only Israeli-Jewish-Polish eatery and I don’t doubt it. This unlikely mixing of cuisines has resulted in serving gefilte fish and shwarma side by side with a slice of klezmer on the side. The English script makes it clear that the potential customers are tourists not locals. While I’m guessing they are hoping for Jewish traffic the main drawing is of the Muslim not the Jewish view of Jerusalem. Apparently this restaurant is Kosher and Food is also available. As odd as all this seems, perhaps the most unbelievable piece of the ad is the chef in the white cloak serving falafel. Anyone who has ever had falafel at an authentic Israeli dive knows it is impossible to fill a pita with hot sauce, onions, salad, hummus, techina, garlic paste, pickles and falafel without getting at least a bit down your front!
Courtesy of Elisheva Kaufman:
Abundant remains of wheat were found by in the early 1970s by Prof. Yigal Yadin (translator of the Dead Sea Scrolls) at Masada, overlooking the Dead Sea in the Judean Mountains. The grains were stored in earthern jars when Masada was the royal palace of King Herod, from -37 to 73 CE. It is rare to be identify archeobotanic material to the level of a specific variety. The shape of the carbonized wheat rachis, the inner spin that holds the kernels and the kernels themselves from Masada were identified by Israeli plant-archeologist M. Kislev as Jaluli and Hourani.
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A quick follow up on my last blog post about hotel breakfast buffets in Israel: it’s true, alongside the shakshuka, eggs hardboiled in tea and spices, granola, labneh, and various fruit preserves, is chocolate cake. Warm, dark, gooey, chocolate cake, which the Israel Riders happily gobbled down at 5:30 in the morning. No wonder they had so much energy on the uphill climbs! I’ve attached two photos for proof (note the pancakes alongside the chocolate cake in the second picture) - you no longer need maple syrup to satisfy your breakfast sweetooth!
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The Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride has reached Mitzpe Ramon, where riders will spend Shabbat relaxing their tired muscles. Already, riders from last year are talking about the hotel’s buffet - a feast that includes multiple types of Israeli salad and coleslaw, labneh with zatar, labneh with dill, roasted vegetables, various soups, sprawling bread baskets, smoked salmon and - so I’ve heard - hot chocolate cake. At breakfast.
These shmorgs, which I’m realizing are typical of hotels across Israel, are shocking in choice and quantity, and stuff even the pickiest of patrons into blissful oblivion. A few riders commented, only somewhat jokingly, that they actually gained weight at last year’s Israel Ride, because they ate so much at the hotel buffets!
Were I back home and enjoying better internet access than the hotels have (apparently they spend far more on food than wifi connection), I’d try to find out where this culture of food excess comes from in Israel. Is it a parallel to the excess of American resort locations like Las Vegas and Disney Land? Is it leftover-compensation for times when Jews did not have the opportunity to enjoy food to excess? It is simply an unexplainable cultural anomaly? I’d love to hear some explanations - or descriptions from reader’s experiences at the Israeli hotel shmorg.
The newest thing in Jewish education? A cup of coffee with two teaspoon of Zionism. The Israeli sugar company Sugat has come out with single serving bags of sugar that sport pictures of “The Fathers of Zionism” important Zionist thinkers and early statesmen. In a somewhat repetative fashion, the package promises that they are, compact, easy to use, elegant, infomative and educational. When Theodor Herzl prophesized a futuristic, normalized Jewish state, it is hard to believe he imagined the marketing possibilities of ideological sugar packs.
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Via Jewschool, via Treehugger:
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye — everyone in the Middle East. Saddle your camels – Israel is announcing that it is to open the largest health food store in the region and among one of the largest in the world, reports Israel Today…
Eden Teva Market, a $6 million project invested by businessman Guy Provisor is expected to open this June in Netanya. On its shelves will be stocked more than 14,000 products in 20 different departments, which will include a bakery, a deli, an organic hummus stand, and an ice cream parlor – to name a few. Organic will be a focus but also specialized products manufactured by small companies will be kept in stock.
Full story.
I spent this afternoon wandering around Mahane Yehuda, the famous shuk (market) in Jerusalem. This indoor/outdoor market bursts with fruit and vegetable stands, bags of spices: rosehips, paprika, chili pepper, and curry…, baskets of roasted pecans, dried apricots, and dates, drippy buckets of herbed olives, cuts of meat hanging in refrigerated cases, and a few scattered bread and pastry stalls selling crusty breads and phyllo-wrapped treats. The stalls function a little like the kiddush table at shul, with grandmothers and youngsters elbowing each other out of the way to edge themselves closer to the best goods.
Israelis and tourists alike revere the shuk as a place to get “the freshest produce ever” (it seems that people speak in hyperbole about everything in Israel). A friend of mine who studied at Hebrew University recounts her weekly trips to the shuk where her lunch consisted of a seedless cucumber, a fresh, red tomato, and a hunk of bread. “That’s all I needed,” she wistfully recalled.
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Ready for another round of food updates from my trip to Israel? I’m very aware at how *dull* it can be to listen to stories from someone else’s trip, but I promise these are keepers:
Wheat berries on Shabbat -One of the Shabbat dinner guests arrived with fresh wheat and proceeded to roast it, extract the roasted wheat berries (by crushing the wheat stalk and rubbing it vigorously between his hands to release the berries), and “winnowing” it (separating the chaff from the grain) through a collandar. “What better way to count the omer?” he asked as we sampled the nubby, slightly nutty-flavored wheat berries. He countered himself, saying that barley would actually be preferable, because the wheat harvest isn’t supposed to happen until the end of counting the omer (Shavuot). But we appreciated the effort. (p.s. this is definitely a fun experiment to try at home!)
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This morning I arrived in Israel via a red-eye flight for the Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride. It’s my first time visiting the country, which means everyone I mentioned my trip to gave me a lengthy list of things I absolutely ”must” do and see. For the most part I’ve taken these suggestions with a grain of salt - I’m happy to be here, and not terribly anxious to see absolutely everything in this first trip. But when it comes to food, I’m taking all the advice I can get. Jcarrot Blogger, Phyllis Bieri, painted tales about the superbly fresh hummus, creamy labneh, and green falafel balls that are equal-parts fluffy, and crisp.
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