Jewish-themed cookbooks appear in a frenzy about a month before Passover, then die off by May. Mainstream cookbooks also try to cash in on the warming weather\’s ability to make us imagine nectarine tarts and heirloom tomato salads, long before winter comes to the Chilean tomato export market.
Steve Spill\’s father was one of the first managers of the Magic Castle. Not surprisingly, growing up around the Castle cast its spell on Spill, who went on to forge a 20-year career as a professional magician.
I remember the argument like it was yesterday. There I was, a 10-year-old kid growing up in a Reform congregation in Santa Monica, arguing with my best friend (another 10-year-old from the same synagogue) about the laws of kashrut for Pesach.
Don\’t call her the \”Jewel\” of Jewish preschool.
Sure, Pearl B. sings to the accompaniment of her acoustic six-string. And she does lean professionally on her gem-like first name. But that is where any similarity to the chirpy pop star ends.
\”Once a person has died, what difference would it make to him if someone else were to live in his house, or harvest his grapes, or even marry his betrothed?\”
Back in the 1970s, Michael and Susan Strassfeld\’s \”The Jewish Catalog\” pioneered a kind of People\’s Guide to Judaism that felt comfortable and familiar to the Boomer generation.
The bad news is that the peace process is going nowhere. The good news is that the Palestinians are learning all over again how to enjoy themselves.
No Jewish cookbook of this year, or any year, for that matter, compares with Claudia Roden\’s \”The Book of Jewish Food\” (Knopf), but two new local additions to the genre have plenty of charms on their own.
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