Jewish Treats

Kitniyot and Gerbrouchts…Oh You Ashkenazim

Ashkenazi or Sephardi? Hungarian, Yekke (German), Lithuanian? At no other time on the Jewish calendar is it so important to know your ancestry as it is on Passover. What one does or does…

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Jewish Treats

Turkey’s Pheasant Roots

Of all the foods that could have become the feature food of America’s Thanksgiving feast, it seems almost poetic that it would be the turkey. When one researches this most American of…

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Jewish Treats

Chanukah Yum

While Jewish holidays are known for their food (except Yom Kippur, of course), most of these foods are not known for being particularly healthy. Chanukah is no exception. Forget matzah or…

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Jewish Treats

A Chanukah Heroine

Have you ever heard of Yehudit (Judith), the daughter of Yochanan the High Priest, who saved her city, Bethulia, from destruction at the hands of the Syrian-Greek general Holofernes?As…

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Jewish Treats

Picking Up Pigskin

The Jewish dietary laws prohibit Jews from eating any food products derived from animals that do not have both split hooves and chew their cud. It is a not uncommon assumption that Jews…

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Jewish Treats

Symbolic Foods

Since Rosh Hashana is the Day of Judgment, it is customary to eat simanim,* foods with symbolic meanings that invoke God's blessing. We also recite a short prayer before eating them.…

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Jewish Treats

“Snakes, Why Did it Have to Be Snakes?”

Ophidiophobia is the fear of snakes. This is one of the most common phobias, and, in fact, it is so common and apparently instinctual that scientists have even taken to studying why this…

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Jewish Treats

Kitniyot and Gerbrouchts…Oh You Ashkenazim

Ashkenazi or Sephardi? Hungarian, Yekke (German), Lithuanian? At no other time on the Jewish calendar is it so important to know your ancestry as it is on Passover. What one does or does…

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Jewish Treats

Jewish Penicillin

There is an unusual statement in the Talmud (Berachot 44b) about the therapeutic value of particular foods: “Six things provide a permanent cure for illness: cabbage, beets, an extract of…

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Jewish Treats

Haman’s History

Purim will be celebrated on March 7/8. According to the narrative in the Book of Esther, Haman’s plot to destroy the Jewish people appears to have been instigated by the fact that…

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