For this last MESH of the year, cook Sarita Eisenberg and her team of Lou Hammerman and Linda Ariel were joined by Risa Bernstein and Carole Rothman. Menu was our usual barbecue chicken legs and roasted potatoes with a side of salad, cookies and fruit cups.
We were a small group of Jews traveling in Uzbekistan, a predominantly Muslim country. Our tour group had originally included nine others who dropped out of the trip after war started between Israel and Hamas, because they did not feel comfortable being in a Muslim country. However we felt safe and entirely welcome. (All these people wanted to take picture with us!)
We spent two Shabbatot in Uzbekistan.
The first Shabbat was in Bukhara. The men in our group attended Friday services (we had been told earlier in the day by the Rabbi that women do not attend services on Friday).
Afterwards we all made our way for Shabbat dinner to the home of a Muslim family who specializes in cooking kosher meals for Israeli tour groups. Continue reading
I was sorry to be missing the Shomrei Purim celebrations. But I was looking forward to celebrating Purim in another country.
We met with Rabbi Abram Ishakov the day before Purim, on Friday. Rabbi Abram is the rabbi of the synagogue in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, a Jewish community of about 100 people. Continue reading
We love soup in the winter. However, many soups take 2-3 hours to cook and I don’t always leave myself enough time to make the soup to have for dinner the same day. These are a few soups that take an hour or less to prepare.
Continue reading
The notion of hardening the heart occurs 20 times in the book of Exodus.
Ten of these occurrences state either that Pharoah hardened his [own] heart (8:28, 9:34) or say that Pharoah’s heart hardened, suggesting that this was something that Pharoah did on his own (7:13, 7:14, 7:22, 8:11, 8:15, 9:7 , 9:35). The other ten occurrences attribute the heart hardening to God (4:21, 7:3, 9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:4, 14:8, 14:17).
The idea that God intentionally hardened Pharoah’s heart has always troubled me. Why would God do that? And how, if God made this happen, can we blame Pharoah and hold him accountable for his actions? Continue reading
The kiddush luncheon for MLK Shabbat (1/13/2024) was sponsored by participants from the November Civil Rights trip. In keeping with that experience, kiddush coordinator Dale Russakoff (who herself grew up in Alabama) planned a Southern-themed menu. The kiddush crew prepared these recipes: Southern Cajun Salmon, Soul Food Mac & Cheese, Southern-style BBQ Tofu (for a vegan option) and Sweet Potato Pie. There was also a chopped salad, “Sweet Cole Slaw” from Shoprite with bagged cole slaw and shredded carrots mixed in, and cornbread from a mix.
Thank you to Dale and to these other volunteers for preparing the kiddush luncheon: Lou Hammerman, Lynne Tapper, Gerry Blume, Linda Blume, Vicki Compter, Risa Bernstein, Fern Hening, Alex Kent, and Aileen Grossberg. Continue reading
The MESH team included our usual threesome of Linda Ariel, Lou Hammerman and me (Sarita Eisenberg) plus Alex Kent – a reunion of sorts as we had all just been together on the Civil Rights trip.
Our team for this first MESH of the year included Linda Ariel, Lou Hammerman, Lynne Kurzweil and me (Sarita Eisenberg).
We made our signature dish of barbeque chicken – each guest received 2 drumsticks with a generous side of roasted potatoes and a slice of bread. The meal also included a serving of cole slaw, fuit cup, cookies (left over from Selichot), and a bottle of water. Continue reading
It’s traditional to have honey on Rosh Hashanah to symbolize our hope for a sweet new year. That includes dipping apple and challah in honey. Over the years, I’ve also accumulated some recipes with honey that I make only at this time of the year – on Rosh Hashanah itself or during the period between Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot. Continue reading