Ilan’s jewfro is approaching mine. Much better than last year’s.
PS: What is the most widely accepted English phonetic spelling for חֲנֻכָּה?
Category Archives: Falafel and more
Anything related to Israel or being Jewish.
Purim 2015
With the 10th Annual Kosher Chili Cookoff and the Purim Carnival both happening on the same day at the JCAA, we knew we had to come up with a special costume.
So after lots and lots of deliberation, Ilán and I settled on the classic crowd pleaser: The Ugly Nun and The Ugly Nun mini. Turns out Ilán has managed to put on a lot of weight since he was a week old without really growing much hair. This forced us to create a brand new The Ugly Nun costume. Fortunately, mine still fits.
Unlike every other day of his short life, Ilán decided to actually sleep in that day. That means we missed the costume contest (we were a shoe in for first prize, I mean, look at me) and missed eating chili too! (whatever, it’s kosher chili, can’t be that great).
Too bad, we’ll need to dress up the same next year. And since this blog is like Playboy and people come for the photos and not the articles, here you go:
B’nai Abraham Synagogue
I find it kind of cool and terribly impressive that full buildings can be moved from one place to another.
This happened last Friday here in Austin, as the B’nai Abraham Synagogue was moved from Brenham to Austin. This is the oldest synagogue in the state, or at least the oldest in continuous use, if you believe Wikipedia. It was built in 1893. It will now be the only orthodox synagogue in Austin.
I stopped by looking to take my mom to eat Kosher BBQ (they were sold out so the review will have to wait).
Here’s some additional reading in The New York Times and Austin Monthly.
This week in terrorism
Europe, Charlie, and Hamas
While the European Union debates whether Hamas should be in their “terrorist organization” list, France is hit by two terrorist attacks from islamic extremists.
Hamas condemns the one where Jews were not directly targeted (Jews died in both) but not the one on the kosher supermarket. But then there’s a rally in Hamas-controlled Gaza “in support of French terrorists, Islamic State”.
Later in Israel, a terrorist stabs a bunch of people in Tel Aviv. Of course Hamas praises the attack as a “heroic and courageous act.”
Keep debating, Europe.
Bonus: Did you hear about the CNN anchor quitting over his intelligent tweets on the matter?
Argentina
Over twenty years after the horrific terrorist attack in AMIA, nothing has been solved yet even though it is widely known that the attack was perpetrated by Iran and Hezbollah and there’s evidence the Argentinian government was bribed to block the investigation. Now the Argentinian Prosecutor Alberto Nisman is found dead on the eve of eve of a congressional hearing. Suicide? Yeah right. More info.
It’s inconceivable that a government would work to protect those responsible for an attack on its territory that killed over 80 Argentinian citizens. But this is exactly what’s happening. Also, this happened this week in Argentina.
Depressing.
Happy Chanukah
(Outfit courtesy of the Neila/Rossi family)
Shana Tova
I leave you with a photo of the kreplach I’m having tonight.
Happy 5775!
Matzolah
I pride myself of having introduced my family in Mexico to Quinoa as a Kosher for Passover food. The only way to top it would be to bring more innovative unleavened goods.
So I bought a case (not a can, but a full case) of Matzolah, Kosherfest’s award for Best New Passover Product of 2012. It tastes really good, like granola, but without the pesky side effects of being good for you or helping your stomach digest food. We’ll see what the reaction is.
Happy new year
Terror
1.
Yesterday marked the 18th anniversary of the AMIA bombing attack in Buenos Aires. Eighty-five people died, mostly Argentinian Jews. It is hard to imagine that any country in the world would allow an attack of this magnitude in its soil and do nothing about it other than be incompetent at best, cover it up at worse. Iran and Hezbollah were determined to be behind it.
2.
Yesterday a bus carrying Israeli tourists was bombed in Bulgaria. Netanyahu declared that Iran is believed to be behind the attack. It is unknown how Bulgaria and Israel will react.
3.
Algeria, Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States are the members of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, a group formed in 2011 under the leadership of the United States, to “provide a unique platform for senior [counterterrorism] policymakers and experts from key partners in different regions to share key insights and best practices.”
Israel is not a member, despite assurances by the U.S. that it would be included. Common sense and raw data says they should be. It’s very symbolic, but nobody wants to offend the sensibilities of some of the members.
Balkan Beat Box at Israel in the Gardens
Israel in the Gardens is a free event in San Francisco organized by the Jewish Community Federation every year. For 2012 it was two weeks ago. They brought Balkan Beat Box (seen before in The MKX®) as the main event!
Very good outdoors concert on a nice and sunny day!
