Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors From My Israeli Kitchen, Adenna Sussman

Every morning, Adenna Sussman makes her way through the bustling stalls of Shuk Hacarmel, her local market in Tel Aviv, where she finds irresistibly fresh ingredients, tempting snacks, addictive street food, and delectable cheeses and olives. In Sababa, Sussman presents 125 recipes for dishes inspired by this culinary wonderland and by the wide-varying influences surrounding her in Israel.

The Betrayers, David Bezmozgis

One day in the life of Baruch Kotler, a Soviet Jewish dissident who now finds himself a disgraced Israeli politician. In 24 hours, Kotler must face the ultimate reckoning, with those who have betrayed him and with those whom he has betrayed. A powerful, haunting tale. Winner of the National Jewish Book Award.

Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality and a Deeper Connection to Life in Judaism, Sarah Hurwitz

Sarah Hurwitz spent eight years in the Obama White House writing speeches, first for the president and then, almost exclusively, for Michelle Obama. In Here All Along, she describes how she found new direction and meaning in Judaism she had all but abandoned as a teenager. Like her speeches, the book is graceful, accessible and conversational in tone.

Ancestry, the genealogy and DNA company has digitized millions of records of people who were displaced or persecuted in the Holocaust. The company has made the records accessible online at no cost.

The release includes passenger lists of millions of displaced people, who left ports and airports in Germany and other parts of Europe from 1946 to 1971. It also includes records of millions of people with non-German citizenship, who were incarcerated in camps or otherwise living in Germany and German-occupied territories from 1939 to 1947.

Fear not. The name Manischewitz can continue to grace Seder tables, but the company’s matzas and other beloved labels, like Rokeach and Mother’s, will be produced by another company. Kayco, formally known as the Kenover Marketing Corporation, has announced that it has reached an understanding with the Manischewitz Company to acquire many of its products, including its best-selling matza. Manischewitz will continue to produce its Season brand, known for sardines that are popular with nonkosher consumers.

Manischewitz was founded in 1888 in Cincinnati by Rabbi Dov Ber Manischewitz, who arrived in the United States from Prussia as part of the first wave of Eastern European immigrants seeking to escape pogroms and poverty. His company was the first to make matza on roller-coaster-like assembly lines, and they became a Passover standard.

Kayco’s roots are in Slovakia, where the Herzog family had produced wine since the middle of the 19th century. Eugene Herzog survived the Holocaust in hiding. In 1948, he reached the United States, where he went to work for a struggling wine company as a truck driver and salesman. By 1958, he was the majority stockholder, and soon established the Kedem wine brand. His youngest son, David, and grandson, Mordy, now run the company from Bayonne, NJ. Kayco distributes Yehuda matza, Empire soups, and U-bet syrups, but its profit engine is the Kedem wines division, which also makes the popular grape juice that is used on Shabbat and holidays at our shul.

[Excerpted from an essay by David Suissa, editor-in-chief
and publisher of Tribe Media Corp and Jewish Journal.]

Shabbat, of course, is a lot more than a prayer service. It is the Friday night meal with its many rituals; it is Torah study, conversation, meditation, reconnection with family and community, unplugging from our smartphones, and so on.
Shabbat delivers gifts that we need all week. If it helps us repair ourselves, it can help us repair the world. If it helps us feel gratitude, it can make us more grateful. If it helps us slow down, it can make us more thoughtful.
Shabbat is reliable. It’s not an abstract ideal that floats in the air. It is concrete, wired in, guaranteed to show up every Friday at sundown to deliver its abundant blessings. What other Jewish program has such a built-in mechanism to encourage weekly, ongoing connection with a tradition and community?
And yet, when Jewish innovators look for the big ideas that will secure the Jewish future, the Shabbat experience is often overlooked. Maybe we just take this Jewish tradition for granted. Maybe it doesn’t feel new and exciting enough.
It’s time we take a fresh look at this ancient ritual that hits the sweet spot between tradition and modernity. It’s time we invest more resources in an idea that has real potential to renew and strengthen the connection with the Jewish tradition.

[What are your ideas to strengthen the Shabbat experience in our shul? Email The Shofar at sbblazer@hotmail.com.]

According to the Wall Street Journal, “One of the largest offshore fund managers that channeled cash to Bernard Madoff will return $860 million in stolen money under a settlement with the liquidators cleaning up after his Ponzi scheme. Two British Virgin Islands funds managed by Kingate Management Ltd. Agreed to repay 93% of what they received from Madoff’s phantom investment fund, according to papers filed July 24 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.”

On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme. The investment scandal defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff is in the 10th year of a 150-year sentence at a minimum security federal correctional institution in Butner, North Carolina.