Special Sections

Op-Ed: Keep the SNAP aid program strong

(JTA) — A well-known D.C. maxim advises that any economic stimulus must be timely, targeted and temporary. So as legislators begin drafting the 2012 Farm Bill, why are some proposing to cut a program that responds in direct relation to need, supports recipients for an average of just nine… Read more »

Colorful cookbook offers potato-free Passover recipes

  This Passover — think outside the spud with “The No-Potato Passover” (Brio Books), a new cookbook by artist and personal chef Aviva Kanoff. “The No-Potato Passover” combines full-color travel photographs with recipes that run the gamut from Cabbage Soup with Matzoh Meatballs, to Tuscan Tuna Steak with Mint… Read more »

How not to feel like a matzah ball on Passover

MONTCLAIR, N.J. (JTA) — It’s April and steel shopping carts clang and collide like bumper cars in the kosher-for-Passover aisle of my local supermarket. Even in this mob I find soul mates, shoppers who share my angst about eating many of the hechshered-for-the-holiday packaged foods. Foods made with what… Read more »

Israel’s army gears up for one of its biggest operations: Passover

IDF soldiers raise a glass at ta model Seder on their base. (IDF Spokesperson)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — With Passover nearing, the Israeli army is embarking on one of its biggest operations of the year. Whether in the field, on a base or with family living abroad, “every last soldier has everything he needs for Seder night,” asserts Capt. Ze’ev Rosens, rabbi of the… Read more »

Recently kashered kitchen gives Tucsonan peace, peek into Passover prep

Lori Riegel prepares a meal in her newly kashered kitchen.

When I was in the eighth grade, my mother decided to kasher our kitchen. Each summer, after my sister and I returned from Camp Ramah, which was our first experience with kashrut, we’d asked if we could become kosher. In 1985, we were getting ready to move into a… Read more »

Passover recipes to please the crowd and de-stress the chef

Salmon Cakes with Tropical Fruit Salsa

Passover may be the mother of all kit­chen yuntifs, but stay cool and don’t stress. Last year, 99 percent of the dishes I made for Passover weren’t actually Passover recipes. Of course they were kosher for Passover, but they didn’t require any major Passover ingredient tweaks. These recipes were… Read more »

Crafting a memorable Passover with unique ritual objects

Zoe Scheffy at her home with her knit Seder table runners, her first design for a knit Seder plate. (Penny Schwartz)

BOSTON (JTA) — To prepare for their first Passover Seders, Zoe Scheffy, Lesley Frost and Joanna Brichetto drew on their creative instincts: Scheffy pulled out her knitting needles; Frost gathered scraps of felt, braided ribbon and tacky glue; and Brichetto rounded up household items, her kids’ plastic frogs and… Read more »

Questionable behavior for after the Seder

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Why is the day after the Seder different from all other days? Is it because we are exhausted? Or our clothes no longer button? Possibly. More likely, I suspect the day after is different because of all the newly minted questions that drop into our… Read more »

New Passover children’s books: cleaning robots, Jerusalem tunnel adverntures and an Old World feud

In "Jodie's Passover Adventure," Jodie and her American cousin Zach discover ancient secrets on their exploration of Hezekiah's Tunnel in the Old City of Jerusalem. (Courtesy Kar-Ben Publishing)

BOSTON (JTA) — A vacuum-like robot that cleans the house and a spunky Israeli girl on an underground adventure in Jerusalem are among the characters featured in new children’s books for Passover. This year’s crop offers more than the typical retellings of the Exodus story. Two books have Passover… Read more »

New Haggadahs: Reform version, novelists’ take and Ethiopian flavor

Some new Haggadahs for this Passover: "Sharing the Journey," the "New American Haggadah" and "Journey to Freedom."

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (JTA) — Leading a Seder for the first time this year? There’s an app for that. Entries in the annual stream of new Haggadahs this year include a Reform version that comes in hardcover, paperback and iPad app editions. Two others  feature a gorgeously designed Haggadah… Read more »

At Passover, let my people go south

NEW YORK (JTA) — Passover celebrates the exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, their wandering in the desert for 40 years, and their ultimate deliverance to the Promised Land. But a contemporary observer might be forgiven for imagining the holiday marks a different sort of migration:… Read more »

Widen the tent of Jewish camping in America

Teddy Weinberger

Since 1993 the Jewish Agency has been running a network of summer camps in the former Soviet Union. The Agency describes these camps as “a cultural lifeline to Jewish identity.” These summer camps are supported by several Russian Jewish philanthropists and by Jewish Federations in such cities as Atlanta,… Read more »

Tucson pals shmooze over ‘bubbe breakfast’

Bubbes Marlyne Freedman and Sharon Klein enjoy breakfast at the Sunny Daze Cafe.

Breakfast is touted as the most important meal of the day. It starts us off each day on the right foot and sustains us until lunch. Marlyne Freedman, senior vice president of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, and I have taken this motto to heart and have met… Read more »

Going strong at 100, Tucsonan Brownie Ebner confides, ‘I’m just lucky’

Brownie Ebner at a party for her 100th birthday on Nov. 11, 2011 at Atria Campana del Rio. (Sheila Wilensky)

  Brownie Ebner turned 100 on Nov. 11. “Why is everybody making such a big deal? If I could take credit for curing cancer or something like that I’d brag about it. What do I have to brag about?” she asked the AJP last month, sitting in her tidy… Read more »

Financial aid boosts Jewish camp enrollments

Bills or bug juice? With the economic recovery still struggling to take hold, many American Jewish families are finding they face a difficult question as deadlines for summer camp enrollment approach: Can they both pay their bills and send their kids to Jewish overnight camp? “It’s a difficult decision,”… Read more »

Israelis seeking alternatives to traditional ceremonies

In November, Anna Melman and Ari Bronstein were planning their wedding, held in January in Israel. They had a venue and a rabbi. But they wanted to find ways of making the traditional ceremony more egalitarian. “In the wedding ceremony as it is now, the bride is inherently passive,”… Read more »

Snagging bargains for shalach manot

Discount Purim basket with a rich theme: Products purchased at a 99 Cents Only Store connect to characters in the Purim story. (Edmon J. Rodman)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Falling between the giving season of Chanukah and the getting season of tax refunds, Purim time finds households like mine searching for ways to keep holiday expenses down to earth without losing the mirth. What with the cost of fancy, professionally made kosher shalach manot… Read more »

Torah reading brings together high-flying groom and Tucson bride

Michele Goldstein and David Clementi (Shelley Wellander/She.we Studio

Michele Goldstein, daughter of Dana Goldstein and Gene Goldstein of Tucson, and David Clementi, son of Rosanne Clementi and Frank Clementi of Tampa, Fla., were married on Sept. 4, 2011 at Skyline Country Club. Rabbi Marc Sack of Tampa and Ronald Sandler of Tucson, a family friend, officiated. The… Read more »

Gift basket themes: tea time or movie time

NEW YORK (JTA) — So it’s nearly Purim and the excitement in my house is rising every day. I’m not a great one to fuss with costumes, but my mind is bubbling over with ideas for mishloach manot, the Purim gift baskets. It’s more than mere “tradition” to give… Read more »