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March 5, 2020

Judge Orders Deportation of Former Nazi Camp Guard

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

On March 5, a federal judge ordered a former Nazi concentration camp guard to be deported.

A Department of Justice press release states Immigration Judge Rebecca Holt concluded Friedrich Karl Berger, who has been living in the United States since 1959, served as a guard in the Neuengamme sub-concentration camp in Germany.

“The court found that Berger helped guard the prisoners during their forcible evacuation to the Neuengamme main camp – a nearly two-week trip under inhumane conditions, which claimed the lives of some 70 prisoners,” the press release states. “The decision also cited Berger’s admission that he never requested a transfer from concentration camp guard service and that he continues to receive a pension from Germany based on his employment in Germany, ‘including his wartime service.’ ”

Holt found Berger’s role as a guard put him in violation of the 1978 Holtzman Amendment of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which made it a crime for an immigrant to have provided support to the Nazis during the Holocaust.

“Berger was part of the SS machinery of oppression that kept concentration camp prisoners in atrocious conditions of confinement,” Department of Justice Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski said in a statement. “This ruling shows the Department’s continued commitment to obtaining a measure of justice, however late, for the victims of wartime Nazi persecution.”

Berger admitted to serving as a guard in the camp and that he never asked for a transfer. He currently resides in Tennessee.

Jewish groups praised the pending deportation. “We welcome @TheJusticeDept removing this Nazi concentration camp guard from the US. We are grateful that our nation is still working to find & remove Nazi War Criminals, and we appreciate this measure of justice for #Holocaust victims,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted.

The Stop Antisemitism.org watchdog similarly tweeted, “We applaud the decision of U.S. Immigration Judge Rebecca L. Holt to deport German #nazi Friedrich Karl Berger. While living in America, Berger was still receiving a German pension for his wartime efforts (i.e. overseeing the death of thousands).”

In August 2018, former concentration camp guard Jakiw Palij was deported from New York to Germany; Palij died at the age of 95 the following January.

Judge Orders Deportation of Former Nazi Camp Guard Read More »

14 Americans Stuck in Palestinian Hotel Due to Coronavirus

Leave a Comment / Israel, Online /

THE MEDIA LINE — At least 40 people have been quarantined against their will in a Palestinian hotel near Bethlehem, in the West Bank, due to an outbreak of coronavirus. They include 14 American citizens, as well as about 25 Palestinian guests and employees.

The Angel Hotel, in mostly Christian Beit Jala, just west of the city where Jesus is said to have been born, is where seven people were discovered to have the virus, making them the first known cases in the Palestinian Authority, a matter made public on Thursday morning.

“My staff and I are inside the hotel,” Maryana al-Arja, the manager, told The Media Line.

“The Americans left the hotel this morning, but the Palestinian Tourism Police brought them back because they could not secure [another lodging] place” in the Bethlehem area, she said. “The seven people who are infected or suspected of being infected are inside the hotel.”

She says that all the hotel guests are in private rooms and that PA health officials are present to make arrangements for transporting them to medical care.

“The American [guests] are aware of the situation and are in contact with their country’s embassy,” Arja continued. “Israeli authorities have asked that the Americans be quarantined for 14 days before being admitted to Israel. So far, no samples have been taken from the Americans. We call on health officials to inform us of their plan.”

The Israeli Defense Ministry ordered an end to crossings from the area until further notice.

There are currently 17 known cases of coronavirus in Israel, where harsh measures have been imposed in an effort to stop the spread.

Foreign nationals arriving from several hard-hit countries in Asia and Europe are being denied entry to Israel, while Israelis returning from those nations are immediately being sent to quarantine. So far, it is estimated that close to 100,000 people in Israel are in self-enforced quarantine.

One source at the hotel in Beit Jala told The Media Line by phone that there was a “state of panic, disorder and fear” because of a lack of information.

“No one from the [PA Health Ministry has been in touch with us; we are getting information from social media [although] the information on social media is not credible and people are worried,” the source stated.

Another person there told The Media Line that on more than one occasion, he had to warn people entering the hotel to stay away. He added that a PA police unit positioned across the street made no effort to stop people from entering the facility.

“The location is not sealed off properly,” another source at the hotel told The Media Line.

“Earlier, someone walked in to meet a friend inside the hotel who is under quarantine, How was he able to walk into the hotel without being stopped?” the source continued. “No medical supplies like face masks have been brought to us. No food has been brought to us. There are 40 people here. We were told to isolate the seven people suspected of having coronavirus in rooms by themselves. If one of us leaves the hotel, we will contaminate the entire city.”

The Media Line was able to reach Mohammad Awawdeh, a PA Health Ministry spokesman, who said the ministry was “working rapidly and as fast as it can to test everyone and provide clear answers.” Another ministry spokesman, Dr. Dhareef Ashour, issued a statement on Thursday evening that was bitterly critical of people discussing the issue on social media platforms.

“We have now on social media four million Palestinian journalists, each with their own agenda and criticism on how to manage the crisis,” Ashour said.

The PA has begun spreading disinfectant throughout Bethlehem’s Manger Square and has reportedly closed the Church of the Nativity until further notice.

The PA has also designated the Istiqlal University campus in Jericho as a quarantine location, something that has riled local residents, with dozens said to have rioted in the streets, closing off the main entrances to the city just north of the Dead Sea.

Organizers, understood by The Media Line to be from the mainstream Fatah party of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, are demanding that people confirmed to have coronavirus remain where they were diagnosed.

One of the rioters told The Media Line: “It’s the responsibility of the Health Ministry to secure a safe location for each case because transporting them presents a danger to the health of other residents.”

Abbas has declared a month-long state of emergency in all the Palestinian territories because of coronavirus.

A source in Ramallah told The Media Line that the Palestinian leadership was furious with the governor of Bethlehem for the way he has been managing the situation.

“The president [Abbas] is considering relieving the governor of his duty,” the source said.

14 Americans Stuck in Palestinian Hotel Due to Coronavirus Read More »

Ephod for Thought – a poem for Torah portion Tetzaveh

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Thus shall Aaron carry the names of the sons of Israel
in the choshen of judgment over his heart

Imagine if we commemorated the ones who
came before us by wearing their possessions.
We could start with our mother’s ring and
our father’s hat. Our grandfather’s pocket watch
trailing out of his wife’s handbag.

Our great grandparents’ monocles and snuff boxes.
Boat tickets collaged to old country vests.
Unidentifiable things long since out of fashion
hanging out of our pockets begging us to
search for fingerprints.

Generations of history visible as we fill up
out tanks and squeeze avocados at the market.
They’d see our story on every corner of our person.
And the weight alone of all these old things would
never let us forget who they were.

It doesn’t matter if they bring us joy –
These are the keepsakes of personal history.
Like Aaron, a stone for each of Jacob’s children
adorning his breastplate of judgement.
Every item was of judgement back then.

We are a time capsule of the D.N.A that
preceded us. The new things we buy, merely
an adornment for a future descendent.
We don’t judge – simply move from place to place
wearing our past like pure gold.

God Wrestler: a poem for every Torah Portion by Rick LupertLos Angeles poet Rick Lupert created the Poetry Super Highway (an online publication and resource for poets), and hosted the Cobalt Cafe weekly poetry reading for almost 21 years. He’s authored 23 collections of poetry, including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion“, “I’m a Jew, Are You” (Jewish themed poems) and “Feeding Holy Cats” (Poetry written while a staff member on the first Birthright Israel trip), and most recently “Hunka Hunka Howdee!” (Poems written in Memphis, Nashville, and Louisville – Ain’t Got No Press, May 2019) and edited the anthologies “Ekphrastia Gone Wild”, “A Poet’s Haggadah”, and “The Night Goes on All Night.” He writes the daily web comic “Cat and Banana” with fellow Los Angeles poet Brendan Constantine. He’s widely published and reads his poetry wherever they let him.

Ephod for Thought – a poem for Torah portion Tetzaveh Read More »

Queen Esther: The Heroine of Purim

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In all of history, how many people can say, “I saved the Jewish people from destruction?”

Queen Esther can, though it’s unlikely she would. She might say, “I was the vehicle through which G-d saved the Jewish people.” Or just, “I was in the right place at the right time.”

The threat faced by the Jews in Esther’s times — by the genocidal Haman (boo!) and his hapless facilitator Achashverosh (double boo?) — was total annihilation, G-d forbid. We were all under Achashveroh’s rule. There was no “America,” or “Shanghai,” to escape to.

It’s horrifying to think of what might have happened, but only by doing so can we appreciate Esther and understand the reverence in which she is held by Jewish tradition. To bring it closer to home, imagine the love for a person who managed to stop Hitler, saving the lives of millions.

But why did G-d choose Esther as the vehicle for redemption?

First a few quick facts about this most famous of Jewish queens:

    • Her mother, a widow, died during childbirth, leaving Esther a double orphan. She was raised by her cousin, the Jewish leader of the time, Mordechai.

    • Her name was also Hadassah, and the Talmudic sages debate which of the two names was her given name and which her nickname.

    • Hadassah means a myrtle, a metaphor the Torah uses for the righteous.

    • Esther means hidden, since G-d was hidden in her time and hidden in the miraculous salvation.

    • She was one of seven prophetesses in Jewish history.

    • The Scroll of Esther is not only about her but written by her.

    • By her insistence, the Scroll of Esther was included in the canon of the Bible.

The astute observer of the Purim story will note a number of Esther’s traits:

LEADERSHIP

When Mordechai convinces her to risk her life and beseech the king to rescind the decree, Esther takes the reins of leadership. She instructs Mordechai to gather the Jews to fast and pray for three days. Mordechai initially balks at this, since it impedes on the upcoming Passover holiday (no matzah ball soup?!). But Esther, whose prophetic prowess surpassed Mordechai’s, impresses upon him that there would be no Jewish people, G-d forbid, to celebrate Passover if they didn’t do the spiritual work of Return (teshuvah) through fasting and prayer.

SELF-SACRIFICE AND COURAGE

Showing tremendous courage, she approaches the king uninvited, a crime punishable by death. Remember, this is the same king who killed off Queen Vashti earlier in the story for disobeying his command. Esther is prepared to die for the sake of her people.

BRILLIANT STRATEGIST

Thankfully, the king welcomes her favorably. Yet Esther does not immediately beg for her people, she does something unexpected: she invites the king to a feast. Stranger yet, she invites Haman, the archenemy of her people, to attend as well. And at the feast, does she get to the point? Far from it. She invites them to another feast!

This is all very strange, yet also brilliant. Esther understood the psychology of these two men. By inviting Haman she achieved many things (twelve, to be exact, as per the Talmud). Primarily, she wanted to drive a wedge between the king and Haman, which worked so well that the king couldn’t sleep that night. “Why is Esther inviting Haman?” he wondered. His jealousy was provoked. So was his paranoia. “Are they plotting to kill me?”

By the time the second feast comes along, Achashverosh has raised up Mordechai and humiliated Haman. Esther has primed the situation perfectly for Haman’s demise. She makes sure that Haman will be present when the king goes ballistic, so that Haman’s demise comes quickly, before he can rally to change the fickle king’s mind.

HOW TO BE A HEROINE

So what does it take to be a heroine or hero? Esther shows us a few of the ingredients: humility, self-control, confident leadership, willingness to put herself at risk to save others, and strategic planning. But perhaps this is her most important trait: faith.

Esther is willing to try her hand at diplomacy, but only after addressing the spiritual side of things. She fasts and prays for three days. She realizes that G-d runs the world, not Achashveroshs and Hamans. Our efforts — to earn a living, find a cure, broker a deal — create a channel through which G-d’s blessing flows. But without G-d’s blessings, the channel is…empty. Like a check without funds in the bank, or a waiter bell with no waiter. Esther is the master of Divine concealment. She can see G-d’s countenance behind the deceptive mask of the natural world.

In our own lives, we face challenges and the existential concealment of the Divine. The first step to being a hero is to see beyond the surface. To unmask the facade of nature and “coincidence.” To recognize that der Aibershter firt de velt — the world has a Divine planner. We can then call upon our inner Esther to fearlessly and strategically pursue what is right and good. One mitzvah at a time, we too will bring redemption to the world.

Rabbi Yossi Marcus is the co-author a new commentary on Megillat Esther, as well as commentaries on Psalms, the Haggadah, Ethics of the Fathers. With his wife, Esther, he directs Chabad of the North Peninsula.   

Queen Esther: The Heroine of Purim Read More »

Illinois GOP Launches Ad Campaign Against ‘Neo-Nazi’ Congressional Candidate

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

The Illinois Republican Party announced on March 5 that it is launching an advertising campaign to defeat avowed Holocaust denier Arthur Jones in a congressional race.

Jones won the 2018 GOP congressional primary in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District, which encompasses the southwest side of Chicago, because the state GOP couldn’t find a candidate to oppose him in the heavily Democratic district. Jones lost in the general election to incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.).

With Jones running again in the March 17 primary, the state GOP has gone all-in on Republican candidate Mike Fricilone to ensure that Jones doesn’t win again. According to the Chicago Tribune, the party will spend nearly $250,000 in its campaign to defeat Jones.

“Arthur Jones is a neo-Nazi, an anti-Semite and a Holocaust denier,” Illinois GOP chair Tim Schneider told the Tribune. “He is not a Republican. He has no place in a civil society.”

Among the ads the party will run against Jones include ads that state “Say No to the Nazi” and “Arthur Jones Is a Nazi. Seriously. Vote No on Arthur Jones on March 17,” according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Jones’ past comments include calling the Holocaust an “overblown event” and said he was running to defeat “two-party, Jew-party, queer-party system.” When he won the 2018 primary, Jones told Politico,” I snookered [the state GOP]!”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called on Republicans at the time to oppose Jones.

“To the good people of Illinois, you have two reasonable choices: write in another candidate, or vote for the Democrat,” he tweeted. “This bigoted fool should receive ZERO votes.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted on March 5, “What a difference two years makes. Illinois Republicans take action against #Nazi candidate in 2020 #ArthurJones.”

 

Illinois GOP Launches Ad Campaign Against ‘Neo-Nazi’ Congressional Candidate Read More »

The Baker Chapter Twenty-Two: Ernie’s Lie in Pictures

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PREVIOUSLY: Ernie makes a hard confession about his one and only love.

Good and bad, Ernie’s long life is captured in scores of pictures, the now-dated photographs and mementos he keeps in scrapbooks in his kitchen.

There’s the one of his long-dead mother Sarah in her kitchen, in the good years before the war, standing amid a group of forty. 

A man carries a saxophone. A young Ernie is there in the first row. 

They’d all come together to celebrate Sarah’s cooking. 

And there’s the picture of Ernie standing with Helen on the boat as it chugs toward Israel. He’s wearing a chef’s hat and she’s squinting toward the sun. 

They look so young and in love, enough to break your heart. 

There are photos of Lucenec taken before Ernie was born, when his grandfather made his rounds among farmers with his horse-drawn cart. 

There’s even a shot of his great- grandparents, on his mother’s side.

There’s a picture of Ernie taken in 1945, right after the war, when he returned to Lucenec. 

He’d bought a blue silk shirt and white jacket from the Americans, the first time he’d had enough money to buy nice clothes. 

There’s the picture of Ernie and his famous sheet cake, topped by a replica of the Cyprus prisoner-of-war camp with barbed wire and an Israeli flag. 

There are British officers standing nearby. Everyone is marveling at the cake.

Ernie looks happy. 

There’s a snapshot Ernie took of the memorial that now hangs in Lucenec honoring the residents who died in the Nazi concentration camps, including Sarah and Alex, his mother and brother. 

There’s lettering in Hebrew, English and even Arabic. 

There’s one of the cake Ernie made in the Cyprus camp when he and Helen were married; the cake topped with the Star of David. 

There’s also a shot of the cake Ernie baked for Israeli President Ben Gurion on the Jewish state’s ninth anniversary. 

The cake has four pillars, with a glove and a map of Israel. 

Ernie has a plan for these photographs, as well as his legacy. 

After 50 years in business, he has put the bakery up for sale, along with the living quarters upstairs. A synagogue in nearby Reno says it has plans to perhaps buy the building and turn it into a museum.

“That bakery, and the place Ernie lived, should serve as a museum so people will not forget his sacrifices,” said Rabbi Mendel Cunin of the Reno Chabad. 

“It represents what generations of people have endured. But this message is not a sad one. This one has a positive ending. Ernie was scrappy and he survived into his 90s, helped by his faith.” 

As Ernie knows, once you’ve survived the Nazis, everything else is a piece of cake.

NEXT WEEK: Ernie gets a comeuppance. 

The Baker Chapter Twenty-Two: Ernie’s Lie in Pictures Read More »

Boris Johnson Tells Labour MP Her Party Engaged in Anti-Semitic ‘Bullying and Discrimination’

Leave a Comment / Online, Worldwide /

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a member of the Labour Party on the floor of Parliament on March 4 that her party engaged in anti-Semitic “bullying and discrimination.”

Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) Thangam Debbonaire was questioning Johnson about allegations that Home Secretary Priti Patel had bullied her staff during her 2016-17 tenure as international development secretary.

Johnson, who has defended Patel, said in response to Debbonaire, “I loathe bullying but I am not taking any lessons from any party that has presided over systematic bullying and discrimination against those who stick up for the Jewish community and for Israel in this country, and we’ve still yet to hear a proper apology from the Labour Party, from Labour leadership for what they’ve done.”

StandWithUs tweeted, “Thank you for standing up to #antisemitism UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson!”

In February, the Labour Party expelled 25 members over allegations of anti-Semitism; in 2019, several Labour members resigned from the party, saying that leader Jeremy Corbyn had enabled anti-Semitism to rise in the party. Corbyn stepped down as Labour leader in December after his landslide defeat to Johnson.

Johnson said in December that he plans to pass a law cracking down on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

“We will stop public bodies from taking it upon themselves to boycott goods from other countries, to develop their own pseudo-foreign policy against countries, which with nauseating frequency turns out to be Israel,” he said.

Boris Johnson Tells Labour MP Her Party Engaged in Anti-Semitic ‘Bullying and Discrimination’ Read More »

It’s Time to Talk About Australia’s Anti-Semitism Problem

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

My father flinches if you call him “Jew.”

He was traumatized by his family’s experience as Russian Jews in Stamford Hill, a neighborhood in inner London that has the largest Chasidic population in Europe. My upbringing was without mention of my family’s Sephardic life in ghettos. It was without understanding how anti-Semitism destroyed my family’s Judaism.

I was raised on a Shabbat dinner of Holocaust denial.

My family migrated from the United Kingdom in 2012 to South Australia, a state with a Holocaust denial institute — the Adelaide Institute in the state’s capital  — and synagogues being converted into night clubs. I attended a high school that featured swastikas and other anti-Semitic paraphernalia littering buildings, supervised by an administration that took no measures to police it. Naively, I assumed that universities, which are believed to be a utopia of acceptance, would be free of such anti-Semitic qualities.

But there, I was introduced to left-wing “anti-Zionism, not anti-Semitism.”

University anti-Semitism has become an epidemic. Socialist Alternative at La Trobe University in Melbourne garnered news coverage for plastering posters of Jewish students on campus, inciting violence and causing the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) to stop staging events out of fear. Recently, Honi Soit, a student-run newspaper at the University of Sydney, made a call of retribution against Jews for “killing Jesus.”

However, anti-Semitism is not limited to university campuses. Anti-Semitism is increasing Australia-wide. During 2019, Australia saw a 30% increase in anti-Semitic incidents, according to the annual report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ). That 30% hike doesn’t include anti-Semitic incidents that go unreported, and with a distressing rate of failed convictions, the number of unreported incidents could be extortionate.

Although the rise of the extremist right-wing group Antipodean Resistance poses a threat to Jews because it calls for the legalization of Jewish execution; the normalization of anti-Semitism through political parties such as the Greens presents lasting damage to the Australian Jewish community.

The normalization of anti-Semitic rhetoric is caused by the redefinition of modern discourse enabling anti-Semitic views to be considered normal. This is how anti-Zionism has entered mainstream politics.

This anti-Semitic radicalization that the modern left has adopted has its origins in the former Soviet Union’s anti-Zionism.

The Greens Party is notable for its anti-Semitism that ranges from staffers promoting the idea that Israel is committing genocide, to Greens candidates marginalizing the Holocaust, and citing Nazi Leaders. The New South Wales Greens Party has a documented history of organizational anti-Semitism against the Jewish community. Greens Party members decline to attend events arranged by the Jewish community to promote acceptance and tolerance. Although nonpolitical, Greens Party members for years have declined to attend Shabbat dinners held by the Jewish community. These dinners are designed to promote intercommunity relations that have featured guests that include Labor and Liberal politicians at the state and federal levels, councilors, leaders from the local Anglican church and leaders of the Sikh community.

The New South Wales (NSW) Young Greens members also decline to attend conferences held at NSW Parliament house by the AUJS, which Labor and Liberal students attend. This statewide boycott of Jewish events, political and nonpolitical, is textbook anti-Semitism. By declining to contribute to the dialogue, they are distancing themselves further from the Jewish community. Similar to British and American Jews, progressive Australian Jews are becoming politically homeless as their parties abandon them.

Left-wing anti-Semitism is not confined to the Greens. In 2019, former Member of Parliament Melissa Parke from Fremantle compared Israel’s settlements to China’s island-building activity in the South China Sea, denounced Israel’s influence in Australian politics, and made unverified allegations about Israel. While at a Friends of Palestine rally in Perth, Western Australia, she stated: “It is not wrong to say the Israel lobby has excessive influence in the Australian political system.” While giving her speech, a protester yelled: “But why did you cave into the Zionist lobby? We have to f—— wipe them out!” Parke withdrew her candidacy after her anti-Semitic comments were made public. Parke, an advocate of Palestinian rights, has compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa’s former system of apartheid. 

The platform that political parties are given to spread anti-Semitic rhetoric has led to the radicalization of Australians. What is concerning is that there are fewer Australians joining organizations, with more adopting hateful ideology. Adopting ideology is more complex to identify or track because there are no networks or details of members available. This anti-Semitic radicalization that the modern left has adopted has its origins in the former Soviet Union’s anti-Zionism.

Australia was deeply involved in the Soviet Jewry movement, fighting for the rights of Soviet Jews to emigrate during a time of state-sponsored anti-Semitism, so much so that 1 in 4 Australian Jews are from the Soviet bloc.

I challenge Australian anti-Zionists: find a Jew from the former Soviet Union.

Ask that person what anti-Zionism is.

Eliyahu Lann lives in Australia.

It’s Time to Talk About Australia’s Anti-Semitism Problem Read More »

Edible Cookie Dough Pioneer Rana Lustyan On Using Kosher Ingredients

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Los Angeles native Rana Lustyan is both the Founder and Chief Dough Officer of Edoughble, the pioneer of edible cookie dough for the Jewish Journal. Founded in 2013, Lustyan— a trained pastry chef—introduced a new dessert category via Edoughble, creating an edible cookie dough that was premium, all-natural, non-GMO, uses certified Kosher ingredients, and does not use raw egg or raw flour. 

For nearly seven years the brand has sold directly to consumers via wholesale and their online business, serving over one million scoops of edible cookie dough to date. Earlier this year, Lustyan took the next steps in expanding her brand by opening Edoughble’s first brick and mortar store down the street where she grew up and now lives with her husband and two young daughters at 2625 South Robertson in Beverlywood. Now, Lustyan and crew are bringing the joy of licking cookie dough off the spoon to the entire Los Angeles community.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Rana Lustyan about the past, present and future of Edoughble, as transcribed below for your reading pleasure.

Darren Paltrowitz: When and how did you first become interested in cookie dough?

Rana Lustyan: Baking cookies was basically my meditation as a child.  It was what I did with my mom and grandma any time I had a free afternoon. My favorite memories are licking the beaters, bowl and spatula and loving the gritty sugar texture in the freshly whipped buttery dough.

DP: There are a lot of cookie dough-related products on the market, but what do you feel makes yours different from others?

RL: Edoughble was conceived at the perfect moment in my professional career. After graduating from college a semester early and having already worked as a pastry cook at Spago in Beverly Hills, I decided to attend Le Cordon Bleu to turn my hobby into a formal degree. After a few more years working in amazing restaurants I decided to get my MBA at USC. At that time, I found out I had thyroid cancer and had a full thyroidectomy. A reminder that life is short.

Shortly thereafter, Nestle recalled all their cookie dough as people were hospitalized with e.coli from eating the dough raw! Do you see how this is all coming together?! Why did a snackable, safe to eat cookie dough NOT EXIST? The universe literally told me this was what I had to create.

Fast forward 11 years and I’m 6 years into building my brand, Edoughble, a ready-to-eat cookie dough dessert. We are the only brand committed to all natural, premium and non GMO cookie dough centric indulgence and our dough comes straight from the mixing bowl.

DP: Is Edoughble kosher? Kosher-related?

RL: Edoughble is certified kosher by Kosher L.A. and we have Pareve products as well online and in our retail sweet shop in L.A.

DP: How much of the greatness of Edoughble is based in the ingredients versus the recipe itself?

RL: It is truly a combination. Better ingredients though lead to better taste. Although the foundation of the grocery industry is large-scale and low-quality and we are working to get our products in grocery stores nationally, we refuse to sacrifice the quality of our ingredients. We commit to hormone-free real butter as the bulk of our dough, Belgian chocolate, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, and our cookie dough is Non-GMO-Project-verified.

DP: Has the general recipe changed over time?

RL: We do modify our recipe as we test new ingredients, and get customer feedback. One piece of feedback we got at the beginning was that the dough was so sweet. We have reduced sugar significantly where you now get the perfect balance in our dough. It is obviously sweet, it’s cookie dough, but the sweetness compliments the salt, the butterness, and brings out the vanilla and dark chocolate. It’s nostalgic and satisfying.

DP: What is coming up for Edoughble in the coming months?

RL: Now that we have opened our new Sweet Shop in L.A., we have a test kitchen at our fingertips! We launch new flavors monthly that we sell online and we are creating single batch flavors that we will sell in our storefront exclusively as one single batch and then done! We are also developing new formats for our cookie dough and growing our grocery footprint as the grow the awareness of our brand.

DP: When not busy with Edoughble, how do you usually like to spend your free time?

RL: I’m with my girls and husband! Being a mom and entrepreneur has been a true challenge. It’s tough to find the balance and there never seems to be enough time for everything. So when I’m not working, I love playing with the girls, getting to know them and creating space for quality time with my husband.

DP: What are some of your favorite restaurants in the Los Angeles area?

RL: So when I used to manage Hillstone Restaurants, I was always so impressed with our regulars. We had guests who would come and dine weekly and sometimes more frequently. I am not that kind of patron. I love trying new things! So it is rare for me to dine at a restaurant more than a few times

I am biased though, and I love Hillstone restaurants Hillstone, South Beverly Grill, Honor Bar in L.A. I do keep Kosher in that I only eat Pescatarian at restaurants — and no shellfish!. I have been into Kazu Nori for handrolls and Pasta Sisters for Penne Arrabiata with Burrata – yum!

DP: Finally, Rana, any last words for the kids?

RL: Really LOVE your product and its benefits. Why does the world need that product? And while it seems there are always thousands of things to DO, take the time to think and plan your strategy, or you can get caught up in lots of DOing and you can feel lost. Having a strong strategy will help keep you focused. And every day, try to do something that makes you feel happy.

More on Ms. Lustyan and Edoughble can be found here.

Edible Cookie Dough Pioneer Rana Lustyan On Using Kosher Ingredients Read More »

Lawsuit Filed Against N.J. High School Over Handling of Anti-Semitism

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A Jewish girl and her parents filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey high school on March 4, alleging the school did not address anti-Semitic bullying against the student.

The New York Times reported the lawsuit stems from an April 2018 incident, when students at the Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST) went on a school trip to the Jersey Shore. There, an unidentified male student took a photo of the words “I h8 Jews” written in sand and sent it to a group-texting chat. Another male student responded, “Yearbook cover”; an unidentified female student agreed and said she had sent the photo to her yearbook faculty adviser.

The Jewish girl, identified as Paige, told the Times she was part of the group chat and was infuriated at the photo, prompting her father to send a screenshot of the chat to MAST Principal Earl Moore. After Moore’s investigation of the incident, the two male students sent an apology to the group chat and they were suspended for four days. The female student was suspended for two days.

However, Moore told Paige’s classmates a female student had reported the incident, causing students to think Paige was a “snitch.” Paige’s classmates froze her out of social interaction. In June, Paige found a rock with the word “Adolf” written on it placed on top of a water cooler behind her desk.

“No one stood by me,” Paige told the Times.

Paige alleges that when she brought up how she was being socially ostracized, Moore told her to “worry less about friends at school and find friends in her synagogue.” Paige eventually dropped out of the school in 2019 and finished high school through homeschooling and community college classes. Her parents filed a complaint against the school to the state’s division of civil rights at the end of the 2018 school year.

The state division of civil rights investigation concluded in October that the school did not take adequate steps to address the students’ treatment of Paige following the beach incident, nor did the school address any prior instances of anti-Semitism that had occurred at the school. Paige alleges one such incident mentioned in the Times report was in 2016, when a teacher laughed after pronouncing a student’s last name Guiffre as “Jew-frey,” then saying, “I wouldn’t want a last name like that.”

Monmouth County Vocational School District Superintendent Timothy McCorkell told the Times they are “committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students that is free from harassment, intimidation and bullying, and all forms of bias and discrimination.” Moore declined to comment on the incident to the Times.

Former New York Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who runs the Americans Against Antisemitism watchdog organization, tweeted: “This story is horrifying and indicative of what’s happening in too many places. A child’s life ruined [because] of hate, [because] her school FAILED her! Most are too scared to come forward because of the consequences. But people need to come forward to fight hate!”

Forward Deputy Opinion Editor Batya Ungar-Sargon tweeted that anti-Semitism is emboldened through “people who hate Jews, and the g-d*** cowards who don’t want to be unpopular so they don’t say anything when they see it, who laugh at the ‘jokes’ or even encourage them to get approval.”

She added in a subsequent tweet, “You should be raising your children to stand up to hate. Instead, this entire community taught them to laugh along. And the victim paid the price.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “Truly upsetting to read. It is these stories that show not only the effects of everyday #antisemitism but the effects of silence in the face of bias. We all need to step up and take a stand. For our children especially, this culture cannot be accepted.”

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