Whether you are looking for a memorable seder gift, new recipes for Passover or a break from cleaning to salivate over what you might but will probably never prepare, enjoy sifting through this refreshing and unusual batch of recently published kosher cookbooks and books that feature kosher cuisine.
Dear Tom,
I heard you had a great trip to Saudi Arabia. In the privacy of their homes people removed their veils and expressed their true feelings. Even the crown prince, the guy who really runs Saudi Arabia, spent some time with you.
\”The Open Door: A Passover Haggadah,\” edited by Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, art by Ruth Weisberg. (CCAR Press, $19.95)
When the call went out to find an artist to work on \”The Open Door,\” a new Reform haggadah, Ruth Weisberg knew she just had to apply. Weisberg, 59, a noted artist and dean of fine arts at USC, had done a lot of research and given lectures about the Passover storybooks, and they were something that she felt passionately about.
You\’d think after serving 1,650 at the Governor\’s Ball following the Oscars, chef Wolfgang Puck would take a vacation. But four days later, on March 28, he and wife, interior designer Barbara Lazaroff, will host their 18th annual Passover seder gathering at his famed Spago Beverly Hills.
You knew this was bound to happen.\n\nJust this past Purim, The Journal reported about how hamantashen were becoming a hot food delicacy outside of Jewish circles. Now, two enterprising Los Angeles-area women are bent on doing the same for yet another holiday dessert staple — the macaroon.
Despite its air of celebration, Passover is a bittersweet remembrance, one in which the joy of liberation is marked by the pain of recollection of what we were liberated from and what we lost on the way from Egypt to Eretz Yisrael. Our seder liturgy reflects that ambivalence, although it may require hearing some unfamiliar music to remind us.
Because my ancestors were from Eastern Europe, specifically Latvia, Lithuania and Vilna, I am Ashkenazi. Just as I thought all Jews spoke Yiddish, a language I delight in because it\’s so colorful, I grew up thinking Jewish cooking was my mother\’s brisket and carrot tzimmes, my Granny Fanny\’s chopped liver and my Aunt Dorothy\’s blintzes with sour cream. That\’s not to mention the dishes my brothers and I used to giggle about because their names were so amusing — knaidlach, kreplach and knishes.
Of all our family traditions, the Passover seder is the one we look forward to the most. We all fight over who will host it, but no matter, everyone pitches in with the cooking, making sure the seder plate is appropriately filled, the multicourse table properly set. My father and brother, Dennis, share responsibilities for hiding the afikomen and rewarding the lucky child who finds it. Although my father leads the service, with Dennis by his side, all generations participate, down to my 6-year-old granddaughter, Tiara.
This week, we begin \”Vayikra,\” the first book of Leviticus, the third book of the Torah. This section of the Torah is filled with many fascinating and important Torah concepts that we can relate to, including the laws of lashon hara (the prohibitions against speaking ill of others), kashrut (keeping kosher) and the well-known phrase: \”Love your fellow as yourself.\”
Was John Nash an anti-Semite? And should it affect the Oscars?
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