Honey Cake Cocktail
The proverbial liquor cabinet in the collective consciousness of American Jewry contains only a handful of familiar—and unquestionably eccentric, nostalgia-soaked—libations…
12
Sep
17
Mar
Slivovitz: A Plum (Brandy) Choice
For many Jews, slivovitz—the Eastern European plum brandy—is wrapped in nostalgia, evoking memories of irascible relatives downing fiery shots over Yiddish banter, or the mysterious bottle at the back of your grandmother’s pantry, revealed only during Passover seders. Over the years, slivovitz has become a distinctly Jewish beverage, one to rival Manischewitz wine, and a popular social lubricant to celebrate the good times and lament the bad.
30
Jan
Sports Moment // Wrestling with the Ghosts of Olympics Past
With the Winter Olympics set to open in Sochi, Russia, in February, Moment’s Josh Tapper talks to David Wallechinsky, author of The Complete Book of the Olympics and president of the International Society of Olympic Historians.
20
Jan
Bukharian Cuisine: A Taste of the Silk Road
By Josh Tapper
A Bukharian Friday night dinner is an elaborate affair: Plates of carp doused with garlic sauce and cilantro, garlicky fried fish and mushroom salad flecked with dill, array the Shabbat table, enveloped in the fragrant aroma of non-toqi, a broad, flat, matzoh-like cracker. Nearly always prepared by women, the dishes are exercises in over-indulgence, a relic of days when large, kosher meals were organized to feed families in insular courtyards, hidden from non-Jewish neighbors.
That was the meal one recent Friday at Arsen Abramov’s Toronto home, where several of the more than 200 known Bukharian recipes graced the Shabbat table. Once the plates of fish were cleared, Abramov’s wife, Yelena, brought out platters of lamb-filled samsi, baked puffs similar to the Indian samosa, and a triangular pastry called bichak, filled with stringy orange squash. Those...
31
Dec
Moment in Music // Michael Bloomfield
By Josh Tapper
On February 15, 1981, Michael Bloomfield’s body was discovered in a parked car on a San Francisco side street. The 37-year-old Jewish blues guitar player, one of the most influential of the 1960s, was dead of a drug overdose. The body lay, unrecognized, in the morgue for days.
In his heyday, Bloomfield, who would have turned 70 this year and is the subject of a new documentary, Sweet Blues, was the king guitarist of American blues, emulated by Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Garcia, idolized by Carlos Santana and lauded by Bob Dylan, who once called him “the best guitarist I ever heard.” In June 1965, Dylan recruited him for the famously shambolic sessions that produced Like A Rolling Stone—arguably the greatest rock song of all time—and he played with the folk singer during...
18
Dec
Q&A: Sochi 2014, Russia’s Gays and the Jewish Response
Yelena Goltsman, of RUSA LGBT, a support group for Russian-speaking gay people in the United States, on Russia’s anti-gay policies and the Sochi Olympics.
12
Dec
Q&A: Quebec Charter of Values Controversy
In the Canadian province of Quebec, religious groups have been up in arms over the past several months regarding a controversial piece of secularism legislation known as the Quebec Charter of Values, or Bill 60.
The bill, which was announced by the governing, separatist Parti Quebecois back in March, and officially proposed in September, would ban provincial civil servants from wearing “overt” religious symbols or garb in the workplace—a move that would, of course, have far-reaching consequences for the thousands of teachers, doctors, nurses, and so on, who go to work each day wearing a hijab, kippah, turban or even a large crucifix. While the Charter of Values has been condemned as xenophobic across the federal and provincial political spectrum, and lambasted as a misguided crackdown on religious observance, the PQ appears intent on carrying it...
03
Dec
Q&A: Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Friend of Pope Francis
The Argentinian rabbi talks about Jewish-Catholic relations and his longtime friendship with the current pope.
By Josh Tapper
For many years, Abraham Skorka, an Argentine rabbi, carried on an unassuming friendship with the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio. The pair co-hosted a televised Bible discussion called Bible, A Dialogue for Today, co-wrote a book of spirited theological discourse, On Heaven and Earth, even ribbed each other about the fortunes of their favorite soccer clubs.
Then, in March, Cardinal Bergoglio became Pope Francis. While Bergoglio has ascended to the top of the Catholic hierarchy, he and Skorka, a member of the Conservative movement and rector at the Buenos Aires-based Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano, remain close, emailing often about such lofty projects as the future of Jewish-Catholic relations. Skorka, 63, has already visited the pope at the Vatican and...
04
Nov
Hate Speech Goes Viral
As the Internet has expanded the frontiers of 21st-century freedom of expression, it has given rise to new opportunities for hate speech. // But what constitutes hate speech, which broadly refers to language that incites prejudice against racial, religious and ethnic groups and is legislated and regulated by governments around the world? There is no one definition.
21
Oct
Q&A: Naomi Tsur on Women in Jerusalem Politics
Naomi Tsur spent five years as a third-string deputy to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, responsible for the ancient city’s urban planning and environmental sustainability files.
But when she grew tired earlier this year of the backseat her policy initiatives were taking at male-dominated city hall, the Bristol-born 65-year-old jumped ship to start Israel’s first political party with predominately female leadership. Ometz Lev, which means “Braveness of Heart,” is running 10 candidates in Jerusalem’s October 22 municipal election on a platform of gender equality and urban sustainability. Eight of those candidates are women, and each represents a segment of the city’s religious and ethnic mosaic.
Tsur spoke to Moment recently about why Jerusalem needs women at the helm and the difficulties in reaching female voters in a highly religious electorate.
Why was it important or critical, even, to establish...