Jewish in a Gentile World

This morning, a shooter entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and killed many people attending a service, then shot several police officers there to stop him. The story is still evolving and I am sure there are plenty of news sources better qualified to provide the details of the event. I can tell you that I do not personally know anyone who attends that synagogue, but a friend of friends is currently (8PM Saturday) unaccounted for and may have been one of the victims. In the news stories I have heard, I have noticed a lot of confusion about the service where the shooting occurred. Was it a baby naming service? Why weren't there any children there? Why did someone say that there would have been more victims if the shooter came later? I would like to clarify these issues. What kind of service was this? The service where the shooting occurred was a normal Shabbat (sabbath) service, the same kind of service that most synagogues have every Saturday morning (some synag...

Last Thursday, April 12, 2018, was Yom Ha-Shoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. But wait: Didn't we already have a Holocaust Memorial Day back in January? In 2005, the United Nations in Resolution 60/7 designated January 27  to be International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day to remember the genocide that caused deaths of 6 million Jews, 5 million Slavs, 3 million ethnic Poles, 200,000 Romani ("Gypsy") people, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people, and 9,000 homosexual men. This day was chosen because it was the anniversary of the Allies liberating the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp. Before that time, many nations had their own Holocaust Memorial Day, many of them on January 27 but many on other days. This is, as a friend of mine jokingly called it, Holocaust Memorial Day for the Goyim (gentiles). The Holocaust Memorial Day observed in Israel and by Jews around the world, is called Yom Ha-Shoah (The Day of the Dest...

After nine years of creating vegetarian and vegan recipes for Passover, I've reached the point where there are too many recipes to keep track of! I have collected all 20 of the recipes I have posted in  this PDF . I put in as many pictures as I have, but I don't have pictures for many of these recipes! There will be an improved version by the end of Passover with pictures from this year's cooking, too late for this year's use but available for year-round or for next Passover! The PDF has bookmarks to take you to each of the recipes, and also has sections in the bookmarks to take you to the recipes that are specifically vegan or gluten-free, if that is your need. There is also a section in the bookmarks for the junk food recipes. (grin). The individuals will also say V at the top if they are vegan and GF at the top if they are gluten-free (and both if they are both -- some of them are!).

Next week, I hope to post a PDF that collects all of my veggie Passover recipes in one place for your convenience, but I wanted to add one more new recipe for this year to bring the total number of recipes in the PDF to 20! I've seen a number of recipes for vegetarian "meatballs," but a lot of them don't really have a source of protein, always a key consideration for me when creating vegetarian meals for Passover. A few of them used ground almonds to provide the protein. I experimented with a few variations, and this is the one that worked. I served my first successful batch with marinara sauce, but I think during Passover I'm going to try it with the sweet and sour sauce I used to use back in the day when I used to eat real meatballs (it's similar to the sauce for my stuffed cabbage ). This recipe is gluten-free and non-gebrochts (contains no matzah products), but is not vegan (contains eggs and cheese). The cheese probably could be skipped, but I think t...