HAKOL - Homes & Gardens 2015

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APRIL 2015 NISAN/IYYAR 5775


Decor on display AT JCC GALLERY

By Karen Albert Special to HAKOL Looking for a new piece of art for your home? The Gallery at the JCC will have an opening reception for two local artists on Thursday, May 7, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Come meet the artists while enjoying the art and refreshments. Artist Nancy Bossert likes to think outside the box, using and combining materials in a unique way. She incorporates materials such as oil, acrylic, gesso, pencil, encaustic and textiles. She creates both abstract and figurative work, visual poems and a line of stoneware. She is also a

fiber artist and has a body of wearable fiber arts such as hats and wraps. She prides herself on her craftsmanship and balanced compositions. Bossert taught fine arts and art history at DeSales University from 19872012. She teaches private and semi-private classes in her studio and specializes in college portfolio preparation. Artist Deborah Slahta creates finely crafted raku and stoneware pottery. She has a studio at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem and has taught there since 1999. She also teaches ceramics classes for adults and children and participates in an afterschool enrichment program for at-risk youth. Slahta’s work displays a sense of geometry in its carefully planned divisions of space, reflecting her study of mathematics. She likes the element of surprise that can result during the firing process in the kiln. She can appreciate the “happy” accident or the occasional failure in her quest to create a thing of beauty.

Shmita

LOCAL RABBI WEIGHS IN ON By Rabbi Danielle Stillman Lehigh University

Judaism is rich with agricultural metaphors that find their roots in the actual practices of our ancestors. Our holidays align with the seasons of the year and of the field, and although we are no longer a nation of farmers, this heritage continues to offer us a meaningful rhythm for our time. This year in the Hebrew calendar, 5775, is a Shmita year. The Shmita, or sabbatical year, comes around every seven years, and its origins are in the Hebrew Bible. There we learn, in Exodus 23:10-11: “For six years you are to sow your land and to gather in its produce, but in the seventh, you are to let
 it go and to let it be, that the needy of your people may eat, and what remains, the wildlife of the field shall eat. Do thus with your vineyard, with your olive-grove.” This is a year of rest for the land. According to the Torah, it is also a year of releasing slaves, forgiving debts and setting the economy back to a more level, just, playing field for all. As Rabbi David Seidenberg writes: “Jews are not supposed to farm the land at all in the Shmita year (even to water trees), and anything that grows belongs to everyone, even to the wild animals (even to the point of leaving all fences open).” In this explanation, you begin to see the connection between letting the land rest and striving for a more just economy – while the land is resting, whatever it does produce belongs to everyone to collect. The concept of private ownership of that land is shifted, just as it is for debts owed and slaves owned. But what does all this Shmita talk mean to us, here in the United States? After all, the agricultural laws of Shmita only apply to the

land of Israel, and even in the Land, there have been many ways created to bypass those laws and still stay within the system of halakah. So why should we pay attention to it over here? We can still give our land rest? Can we equalize our social systems, release our slaves, and forgive our debt? Many Jews are taking the opportunity that the Shmita year provides to do just that. Gardeners and farmers are giving their soil a rest. Nati Passow, the director of the Philadelphia-based Jewish Farm School, spoke earlier this year about how he and his neighbor decided to take down the fence between their yards, creating a larger open space for their families to enjoy and a closer relationship between neighbors. This is part of a larger urban trend of de-fencing. People are also using Shmita as a spiritual metaphor – extending the idea of rest for the earth, to rest for the hyper-productive or commercialized parts of our lives. Some have declared a rebalancing of our use of the Internet and social media. For instance, “Fallow Lab,” a project of labshul.org, “is a year-long journey of exploring better balance between our virtual and actual lives” (albeit online, which is ironic). Others are using the year to examine the practices we all have that may be contributing to social inequalities. Even just taking a different approach to one thing in your life this year can feel like a sabbatical – whether it is becoming more sensitive to where the food we eat comes from, or letting some of the habitual pieces of our lives rest for a while. So whether you are observing Shmita of the land or of the soul this year, I wish you a sabbatical year of rest and renewal – and may the positive changes that occur through this continue for many more years to come.

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2 APRIL 2015 | HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY | HOMES & GARDENS


Understanding Shmita ISRAEL’S AGRICULTURAL SHABBAT

A Thai worker picks decorative flower leaves on the Kibbutz Sde Nitzan flower farm, near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.

By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency Called Shmita, the Torah-mandated, yearlong farming hiatus is felt across Israel, affecting its fields, supermarkets and, of course, its politics. The genesis of Shmita is Exodus, which commands the Israelites, “Plant your land and gather its produce for six years. But on the seventh let it lie fallow and it will rest …” Other biblical mandates prohibit planting, trimming or harvesting crops during Shmita, amounting to a total prohibition on farming. The Shmita takes place every seventh year, so here are seven things you should know about Israel’s sabbatical year.

WHAT IS SHMITA?

According to the Torah mandates, the Shmita year is something like an agricultural Shabbat. Just like everyone is commanded to rest for a day at the end of every week, Shmita is a chance to let the land rest for a year after six years of work. It’s easy to calculate when Shmita comes around: Start from year zero in the Jewish calendar — that would be 5,775 years ago — and count off every seven years; this is Israel’s 466th Shmita. The concept of the sabbatical year has spread to academics and clergy, many of whom receive sabbaticals to travel and study. And the root of the word “shmita” has found contemporary usage in Hebrew. Israelis use the word “mishtamet” to refer to someone who dodged mandatory military conscription.

HOW WAS SHMITA OBSERVED IN THE PAST?

Because the commandment applies only in the biblical land of Israel, it became largely theoretical once the Jews were exiled by the Roman Empire after the Bar Kochba revolt in 136 C.E. Generations of Jewish farmers in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere had no religious imperative to let the land rest. But once Jews started returning to Palestine in the 1880s and founding kibbutzim, Shmita again became relevant — and problematic. At a time when Jewish farmers were struggling just to keep their farms viable, a year of no production would have been a deathblow. To skirt that problem, rabbis in Israel created something called the “heter mechirah,” or sale permit — similar to the sale of leavened food before Passover. The permit allowed Jewish farmers to “sell” their land to local non-Jews for a token amount, then hire non-Jews to do the forbidden labor. That way, because it wasn’t “their” land, Jews could keep their farms going without sin.

HOW IS SHMITA OBSERVED IN CONTEMPORARY ISRAEL?

As Israel’s population and agricultural sector expanded, so too has the hand-wringing over Shmita. Here are some of the Jewish legal acrobatics they use to get around it. The sale permit: Israel’s Chief Rabbinate allows every farm to register for a sale permit like those allowed in the 1880s, and the Rabbinate “sells” all the land to a non-Jew for about $5,000 total, according to Rabbi Haggai Bar Giora, who oversaw Shmita for Israel’s Chief Rabbinate seven years ago. At the end of the year, the Rabbinate buys back the land on the farmers’ behalf for a similar amount. Bar Giora chose a non-Jewish buyer who observes the seven Noahide laws — the Torah’s commandments for non-Jews. Greenhouses: Shmita only applies if the crops are grown in the land itself. Therefore, growing vegetables on tables disconnected from the land steers clear of violating the commandment. Religious courts: Farmers aren’t allowed to sell their crops, but if crops began growing before Shmita started, people are allowed to take them for free. So through another legal mechanism, a Jewish religious court will hire farmers to harvest the produce and the religious court will sell it. But you won’t be paying for the produce itself; you’re only paying for the farmer’s labor. You get the produce for “free.” Wink. Nudge. Not observing Shmita: Most large-scale Israeli farmers use a sale permit in order to obtain rabbinic certification for their crops, Bar Giora says. But some small, nonreligious farmers who sell their produce independently ignore the sabbatical year completely and do not receive kosher certification.

WHAT HAPPENS TO FRUITS, VEGETABLES AND OTHER PLANTS THAT GROW ON THEIR OWN DURING SHMITA?

Just like Jewish environmentalists can connect to the idea of letting the land rest, social justice-minded Jews can appreciate that whatever grows on the land during Shmita is, in theory, supposed to be free for anyone, especially the poor. When Shmita is first mentioned in Exodus, the Torah says the crops should be for “the poor of your nation, and the rest for wild animals.” But given that almost all farmers in Israel get around Shmita in one way or another, walking onto a farm looking for a free lunch is ill advised.

HOW DOES SHMITA AFFECT YOU IF YOU’RE NOT A FARMER?

Because all kosher-certified produce cannot violate

Shmita, Israelis shopping in major grocery stores and outdoor markets don’t have to worry about Shmita. But religious Jews – and businesses – that don’t trust the legal loopholes just buy their produce from nonJewish farmers in Israel. An organization called Otzar Haaretz, or Fruit of the Land, seeks to support Jewish farmers specifically and is organizing farmers who use religious courts and the greenhouse method to sell to supermarkets in Israel. Customers who wish to buy from Otzar Haaretz can pay a monthly fee to get a discount on its produce. Shmita has an impact beyond the produce stands, too. Mickey Gitzin, founder of the religious pluralism organization Be Free Israel, says that while the “the idea that the land should rest” is a positive one, Shmita can have a negative effect on public parks. As public property, the parks cannot be sold to a non-Jew. And because they remain under Jewish ownership, some public community gardens don’t receive care during Shmita.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR JEWS OUTSIDE OF ISRAEL?

Although they’re not obligated to observe Shmita, Jews outside of Israel have found ways of commemorating the year. At Hazon, a Jewish sustainability organization, the Shmita Project aims to engage in a study of the textual sources of Shmita and develop programs to mark the year without letting the land lie completely fallow. Another group, the Shmita Association, has purchased a grid of 4-square-foot plots of land in Israel that Jews abroad can purchase for $180 and then let lie idle, enabling them to observe Shmita without being an Israeli or a farmer.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT?

Because they don’t want to buy from Jewish farmers during Shmita, some haredi Orthodox Jews buy from Palestinian West Bank farms. But during the past couple of Shmita cycles, there has been backlash against buying Palestinian-grown produce. Jerusalem Post columnist David Weinberg recently urged Israelis to avoid supporting Palestinian farms. “Primary reliance on Arab produce is neither realistic nor acceptable for health, nationalistic and religious reasons,” he wrote. During the Shmita year that began in 2007, Israel’s health and agriculture ministries said there was no elevated risk to eating produce grown in the Palestinian territories. HOMES & GARDENS | HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY | APRIL 2015 3


ISRAEL’S ANCIENT AND HISTORIC

By Michael Brown JNS.org In 2013, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) published a survey of mature trees in Jerusalem that was “the most comprehensive of the recent SPNI surveys, including some 4,000 trees,” according to the society’s marketing and communications coordinator, Danielle Berkowitz. Many of the trees identified through such surveys have rich histories and stories attached to them. In fact, hundreds of trees throughout the Jewish state illuminate fascinating aspects of Israeli history and culture.

Gethsemane Olives

Behind a high-stone wall, just outside the Old City walls, stand some of the most famous trees in Jerusalem, if not the entire country. These trees, producing the olives of Gethsemane, are set in a small grove revered by Christians because of its connection to Jesus. In 2012, the National Research Council of Italy, along with researchers from several Italian universities, investigated the eight trees at the site. Samples of wood were taken from several of the trees and carbondated to 1092, 1166, and 1198. That would make the trees at least 900 years old— ancient by any standard! It is possible that the trees could be even older. Olives will readily sprout from the roots, so if the top growth of the trees was cut down or died at some point in time, then their true age may not be accurately reflected.

Gush Etzion

The Lone Oak in Gush Etzion, located halfway between Jerusalem and Hebron, has served as an area landmark for more than 600 years. After the 1948 War of Independence, it became a symbol of Jewish return to the land. Today, Gush Etzion is a collection of kibbutzim, moshavim, and villages with more than 70,000 residents. Though the land was purchased in the 1920s, the first successful settlements there started in the early and mid-1940s. By 1947, the total population was 450 people. On November 29, 1947, life at Gush Etzion changed forever. On this date, the United Nations voted on the plan to partition Palestine. Less than two weeks later, the settlements found themselves under siege, and over the next few months they were under continuous attack. Within six months, hundreds of settlers had been massacred or taken as prisoners. Their buildings were completely destroyed, and thousands of trees were uprooted. During the 19 years the Gush Etzion area was under Jordanian control, the Lone Oak was just about the only identifiable landmark visible from the Jerusalem hills. It came to symbolize the former residents’ desire to return to their homes (and in fact today, the oak is the logo for the regional council). After the 1967 Six Day War returned Gush Etzion to Israel, the sons and daughters who had been evacuated during the siege requested permission to return to their lands. The first kibbutz there, Kfar Etzion, was reestablished in September 1967.

4 APRIL 2015 | HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY | HOMES & GARDENS

Gethsemane olive trees

Hurshat Tal

Hurshat Tal is one of the northern jewels in Israel’s national park system. Expansive lawns, together with streams and pools of clear cool water, combine to make this a particularly inviting spot. The park is dotted with hundreds of huge Mt. Tabor oaks that are among the largest in the country. According to local legend, 10 of the Prophet Mohammed’s messengers once rested in Hurshat Tal. With no trees to provide shade or hitching posts, they pounded their staffs into the ground to fasten their horses. Overnight, the staffs grew into trees, and in the morning the men awoke to find themselves in a beautiful forest.

Bahai Gardnes, Haifa

One of Israel’s major tourist destinations, and a World Heritage site to boot, the Bahai World Centre is an architectural and landscaping masterpiece. Haifa and its northern neighbor Akko have great significance for the 5 million adherents of

this 19th-century religion. The genesis of the gardens came in 1891, when Bahai religious leader Baha’u’llah ascended the Carmel mountain with his son. Together, they walked until they arrived at a small clump of cypress trees. At that point, Baha’u’llah indicated to his son that this would be the future center of Bahai. Today, the small clump of cypress trees can still be found on the grounds of the garden – little changed from how they appeared more a hundred years ago. So, next time you visit Israel and pass by a gnarled ancient tree, take a moment to reflect on the story behind the tree. Perhaps it was planted by early Jewish colonists working for the Turkish authorities, or perhaps it has outlived whole towns or villages that existed on the same spot in previous centuries. At one point, it may have been a landmark in an otherwise barren countryside now crowded with buildings and automobiles. Every tree has a story. You just have to ask.


Trends and tech FOR THE GARDEN

By Judith Rodwin www.gardenista.com While the cold winds and gorgeous, universal white of winter are gone, we are left with more muddy cold earth than usual. That means that we have to reign in our dreams of getting our hands into the soil just a bit. Friends, do not let your stored up exuberance mislead you – wait till the earth is as ready for you as you are for it. Give yourself more time for planning while you catch up on the latest gardening trends and tech. In response to increased awareness and concern over the decrease in butterfly and bee counts, gardeners are actively intervening by intentionally selecting flowering plants that are attractive to these creatures, usually nectar and pollenproducing flowers, shrubs and trees. You can easily find an extensive list at gardeners.com. One plant to highlight is milkweed. This is the Monarch Butterfly larva’s sole food source. Many of us recall catching floating milkweed seeds that

seemed so common at the end of summer. The plant’s wild habitat has been diminishing with everencroaching civilization and with it the number of Monarch butterflies. Milkweed can be grown in your garden. The Monarchs will thank you by their presence. This is in keeping with the second trend: nature-friendly gardening that brings more native species and “wild flowers” into our home gardens. They tend to be easier to grow, too. Perhaps the two biggest trends both involve human realities: millenials and seniors. Many of the former are active out of doors and have come of age with an awareness of environmental caring, the value of organically grown food, concern about pesticides and other chemicals and a desire to raise their children with the experience of joy and respect for nature. According to the National Gardening Association, there has been a five-year “trend” of using edibles in traditional ornamental gardens which has grown fastest

among millenials. These edibles may be climbing peas and beans, herbs as ground cover, seasonal salad greens and out-right flowers like nasturtiums for bee and hummingbird attraction as well as beauty and salad. A sub-set of these edibles are the medicinal (no, not what you may be thinking.) People are growing their own herbs such as chamomile, mint and rooibos for tea. They also grow or pick local plants like calendula, chickweed, St. John’s wort or plantain for old-fashioned healing. For example, if you get a mosquito bite while walking in the woods, just pick a plantain leaf, soften it by chewing a bit and rub it on your bite for fast itch relief. Use your native plant app to identify plantain. These same folks are doing what parents have done for generations with gardening projects for their children. One of the best plants for real beauty and success is the sunflower. Sunflowers come in many sizes from small to giant, are easy to germinate and give spectacular flowers. Their hardy, colorful, long-lasting flowers can be dried for the winter or left on the plant as food for birds. Check out HGTVgardens.com for a neat kid-friendly sunflower project. The second big trend acknowledges the other side of the age spectrum, we seniors. It is easy to find waist-high raised beds, versatile gardening seats and kneeling pads, longreach watering wands. If your local garden supply store doesn’t carry them, just try the catalogues such as “Gardener’s Supply Company,” “Kinsman Co.” or “Gardeners Edge.” Along the same vein, these products are now made in colors, on wheels or in manageable sizes. Other devices that make

life easier include computerized watering devices and pre-mixed organic soil varieties. Even composting has gotten creative. I bought a rotating drum composter this winter. I wanted to continue composting through the cold weather but did not want to have to snowshoe to my compost heap. This drum is just outside my back door. The instructions say you can put it together in “minutes” with just two tools. They were right about the tools. I misinterpreted “minutes” as meaning a few because it took me about 120 of them. Still, I was very proud to have done it “all by myself” as my sons used to say, and it has been just the thing for composting through this snowy winter. Alternately, you can buy compost sacks that will make 100 gallons of compost in a bag so you don’t have to shovel. You can just shlepp. Too big for you? There are “compost tea” bags. Just soak the pre-filled compost bag in two gallons of water

overnight and you’ll have rich, compost water for your plants in the morning. Check out George Weigel’s blog at georgeweigel.net for more information. There is a company, BloomPads, that sells bulbs in plantible mesh bags. Or, follow the trend of “portable gardens.” This is good for renters, busy people or folk who don’t want to do heavy digging. Just go online to footprintsplants.com to learn how to grow many flowers or vegetables on your deck or in pots in your garden. Just a brief tech word: apps. It will come as no surprise that gardening apps have proliferated. There are apps with which you take a picture and the app will identify the plant and describe its characteristics. There are apps by which you can map out your garden and design the plantings according to sun, terrain and preferences. There are no apps that will dig a hole or move a wheelbarrow full of manure. Still, it’s a wonderful world.

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In full blo On March 4, Lehigh Valley residents traveled to the 2015 Philadelphia Flower Show as part of a trip sponsored by PrimeTime at the J and Adults at the J. The theme of "Lights, Camera, BLOOM!” reflected the magic of movies and horticulture as the 186th PHS Philadelphia Flower Show celebrated the silver screen. The PHS Philadelphia Flower Show is the world’s oldest and largest indoor flower show and features large-scale gardens, elaborate landscapes and over-the-top floral creations. Those who attended were treated to fabulous design, live entertainment, culinary demonstrations, gardening how-to workshops and lectures by experts. Proceeds from the show supported PHS, particularly the City Harvest program, which feeds more than 1,200 families each week during the growing season.

Rick Mongilutz and Kelly Banach

One of the many beautiful displays at t

Above, Kelly Banach and Carole Ostfeld Below, a display inspired by Belle’s dinner table in “Beauty and the Beast”

Everyone braved the snow to travel to to see the flowers

The butterflies included species from 6 APRIL 2015 | HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY | HOMES & GARDENS


loom:

The Philadelphia Flower Show delights with cinematic creations

Above, the flower show was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center Below, daffodils in bloom

the flower show

Feeding the butterflies

o the heart of Philadelphia The Butterfly Experience, a special exhibit, was a hit

all over the world

Pam Lott, Diane Lemberg and Abby Trachtman

Carole Ostfeld feeds a Monarch butterfly HOMES & GARDENS | HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY | APRIL 2015 7


‘JEWISH FOOD MOVEMENT’ comes of age

By Michele Alperin JNS.org

FLOURISH. EXSEED.

In December 2007, leaders of the Hazon nonprofit drafted seven-year goals for what they coined as the “Jewish Food Movement,” whose emergence has led to the increased prioritization of healthy eating, sustainable agriculture, and food-related activism in the Jewish community. What do the next seven years hold in store? “One thing I would like to see happen in the next seven years is [regarding] the issue of sugar, soda and obesity, [seeing] what would it be like to rally the Jewish community to take on this issue and do something about it,” says Nigel Savage, Hazon’s founder and president. Additionally, Savage predicts that Jewish food festivals “will grow the way Jewish film festivals grew” and a generation from now “will be some of the biggest events in American Jewish life.” Hazon hosted its eighth annual Food Conference from Dec. 29 to Jan. 1 at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, Connecticut. This year’s conference focused on the theme of “Poultry, Pollinators and Policy,” exploring the topics of ethical eating, the sources of food and ecosystems, and food activism and policy. Savage notes that, so far, the Jewish Food Movement has bolstered initiatives and trends including Jewish community supported agriculture (CSA), Jewish educational farms, Jewish food education as a discrete discipline, a Jewish working

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group on the U.S. Farm Bill, new ethical practices in the kosher meat business, and serious consideration of what observance of the sabbatical (Shmita) year might mean. The annual Hazon Food Conference, Savage says, “is a celebration of everything to do with Jews, food and contemporary life, to bring people together across difference.” “Look at the people [attending the conference]: they are literally kids to 80-somethings, Orthodox rabbis, hippies, and people not involved in Jewish life,” he says. “Food is capable of separating people and also of bringing us together.” The food conferences have proven to significantly influence the career paths of many participants. Elan Margulies – the director of Teva, whose programs use experiential education to help participants develop a meaningful relationship with the natural world and deepen their connections to Jewish tradition – recalls that his immediate family members made life-changing decisions after visiting the 2007 Hazon Food Conference. His sister left her job in music administration at the Chicago Symphony to join Adamah, a three-month farming fellowship and leadership program, and his parents decided to pursue a more sustainable path for the acreage of farmland next to their family business that had been rented to a corn farmer. “They wanted to do something gentler on the earth than corn farming,”

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says Margulies. Margulies’s parents created garden plots for people in the family business and other community members, and developed a Jewish education project in Chicago as part of their farm. They brought chickens into synagogues, and at the farm had people milk goats, go on walks to gather wild edibles, make cheese and ginger beer, and “do Jewish crafts as a way of allowing Jews to develop a connection with the earth,” Margulies says. Leah Koenig, author of “The Hadassah Everyday Cookbook: Daily Meals for the Contemporary Jewish Kitchen,” defines the Jewish Food Movement as “the place where Jewish values and contemporary food ethics merge.” “In recent years food has been a rallying focal point where the environmental and justice movements intersect,” she says, adding that because Judaism has a rich agricultural history, “the connections feel exciting to make because they come from a place of authenticity.” Koenig got involved in the Jewish Food Movement while working for Hazon from 2006-09, eventually running its CSA initiative, the annual Food Conference and other food programs. She says the Food Conference serves as a time to push meaningful conversations forward, citing the slaughtering of three goats at an early conference “with the hopes of teaching about the kosher laws, animal welfare, vegetarianism and sustainable meat consumption.” This was a controversial move, even causing some people to boycott the conference, but Koenig says that for her it was “a very powerful experience” and started “some really important conversations.” Also active in the Jewish Food Movement is the Leichtag Foundation in Encinitas, California, whose mission is “igniting and inspiring vibrant Jewish life, advancing self-sufficiency and stimulating social entrepreneurship in coastal North San Diego County and Jerusalem.” Two years ago, the foundation acquired 67.5 acres of agricultural property for a community educational farm, and has already donated about 3,000 pounds of organic vegetables grown at the Jewish Food Movement Continues on page 9


Kosher center

LIKE HOME AWAY FROM HOME By Joy Miller Special to HAKOL Isabella Freedman Center, which encompasses 400 acres in the foothills of the southern Berkshires, is a perfect place for all denominations of Jews and others to learn and relax. It offers a home away from home (but even better). Kosher organic vegetables and fruits from their gardens to table are outstanding in taste and presentation. When poultry and meat is served, Kashruth is strictly followed and certified supervisors oversee everything. Guests do have to clear the table, but they do not have to do the dishes or clean up. There is a synagogue on the grounds, as well as an outdoor pool, lake, boats, hiking trails, tennis courts, basketball court, volleyball and many hiking trails just to name a few

of their amenities. There are many types of housing availabilities with private and semi-private bathrooms, multiple occupants in a room and a wide range of prices. They provide clean bedding, sheets, pillows, blankets and towels. For children three and up, there are outstanding staff and programs that are offered at the same time as adult programs. This staff is dedicated and attentive to the children and their needs, and therefore they offer a diverse set of programs, from arts and crafts activities to adventures at the farm and activities with the various animals and more. When my husband Bob and I went there in August of 2014 for five days, we brought our skills as artist and writer to share with the other 75 participants of all ages, and

Jewish Food Movement Continues on page 9

farm to the local food bank. Leichtag also seeks to educate people from disadvantaged communities on basic gardening and cooking skills. “Our work is about breaking that cycle of poverty and helping people reach a higher level to maintain jobs, family and food security, looking at the systems and organizations that are addressing some of the root causes,” says Naomi Rabkin, the foundation’s director of strategic initiatives. Rabkin got her start in the Jewish Food Movement at the first Hazon Food Conference and chaired the gathering in 2010. The first conference “really opened my eyes to the way that sustainable agriculture and food could bring together a community,” she says. Rabbi Andy Kastner, former director of the Jewish Food Justice Fellowship, points to the Jewish Food Movement’s connection of sacred and agricultural rhythms, which he says enables communities “to put dirt back under their fingernails and engage in a Jewish life that is active, doing and reactive” to agricultural practices. Shamu Sadeh, co-founder of the Adamah fellowship and an environmental educator for 25 years, takes people into the forest and the mountains to try to connect them “to hemlock trees, salamanders, the life out there.” That is often “a leap for a lot of people, especially in this culture,” says Sadeh. “Entering into the gateway of food is more immediate,” he says. “It gives you a connection to the world, how your action affects a hundred different people … It is a perfect nexus. The Jewish Food Movement is about bringing people together who are somewhere in that web of food issues and Judaism.” Anna Hanau – a former Adamah participant and Hazon staffer, and cofounder with her husband of an ethics-focused kosher meat business called Grow and Behold – claims to be the only person who has attended every Hazon Food Conference. She says a critical aspect of the conference is combining hands-on activities with the exploration of ideas, citing a bread class on using a sour-

A wooden sculpture created by Bob Miller and provided to the Isabella Freedman Center.

indeed everyone was encouraged to share their interests. Bob brought and shared his wooden sculptures along with the participants practicing their woodworking skills, and under his guidance they had a chance to practice on a piece of wood. I, on the other hand, had

a discussion group about when does man listen to God and when does God listen to man in Torah. The other topics offered that week ranged from belly dancing, yoga and making challah to juicing, intellectual discussions on various topics, learning to sing and more, all

based on interests of the group that week. Isabella Freedman Center has many other more formal topics by different professionals during the whole year. You can contact them via their website hazon.org/isabella-freedman or call 860-824-5991.

dough starter that went beyond the practical details to examine the “slow food” movement, which uses traditional approaches to make food that might take longer but can be healthier. “The Food Conference was the place where these two things were coming together: exploring and doing/making,” she says. Hanau and her husband, who she met at Adamah and who is trained in shechita, first thought they would be organic vegetable farmers—but they revised that idea when they started to think about the costs and feasibility of sending their kids to Jewish day school. “We got married in 2009. That winter we realized there are a lot of organic vegetable farms, but what there is a lack of is sustainable kosher meat, raised outdoors with room to move around,” Anna Hanau says. In 2010, the couple started Grow and Behold, which originally only provided kosher chicken but later added beef, lamb, turkey and duck. The business works with farmers to give chickens access to the outdoors, so that their manure fertilizes the ground rather than polluting streams. The Hanaus are also committed to raising meat near slaughterhouses, limiting gas usage and reducing stress hormones in the animals during shipping. Grow and Behold tries to help its customers understand that while its meat is more labor-intensive and therefore pricier, it is also “better for you, for the earth and for farmers,” says Hanau. Becca Weaver, the farm and sustainability director at the Boulder JCC in Colorado, is behind the ongoing project to build a community farm next to the JCC’s new facility. The site is a former agricultural property that includes goat and chicken coops in outbuildings. Though the farm is still in the idea stage, it has set at least one concrete goal. “We will grow enough food to be able to donate and make an impact on food insecurity in Boulder,” Weaver says. The JCC’s resident goats, meanwhile, have already been a hit with the synagogue across the street. “Last Purim, one of the goats was giving birth during the party. Almost every single kid got to leave the synagogue and watch the goat being born,” says Weaver. Fittingly, the newborn goat was named Vashti, after the first wife of the Purim story’s King Ahasuerus. HOMES & GARDENS | HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY | APRIL 2015 9


Japanese culinary curiosity GIVES HUMMUS MOMENT IN THE RISING SUN

By Cnaan Liphshiz Jewish Telegraphic Agency At the end of his 13-hour workday, Hidehiko Egata takes a seat at the bar at his regular eatery in this city's upscale Shibuya neighborhood. A senior adviser at a local financial firm, Egata sips sake and nibbles on traditional Japanese pickles as he chats with the owner in Japanese. Then he orders his usual dish: hummus topped with warm chickpeas, tahini and olive oil. “I first ate hummus a few years ago on the other side of town,” said Egata, a slender man in his 50s who keeps fit by practicing Japanese martial arts daily. “I found that it was more healthy than my usual dinners then. It was filling, but it didn’t make me tired the way a noodle dish would. When this place opened, it became my regular spot.” This place is Ta-im, an intimate 16-seater that is one of no fewer than eight Israeli restaurants to open in Japan in the past five years, serving up hummus and other Middle Eastern staples to the novelty-oriented and health-obsessed urban elite. In January, the Chabad House in Tokyo joined the trend when it opened Chana’s Place – the capital’s only kosher certified restaurant – serving hummus, shakshuka, matbucha and other popular Israeli dishes. “The urban population in Japan only recently became exposed to real international cuisine beyond the obvious dishes like spaghetti, pizza and hamburgers,” said the Israeli businessman Dan Zuckerman, 54, who moved to Tokyo in 1985 and ran a deli before he opened Ta-im in 2011. “Now they are discovering the more exotic foods like Mexican, Portuguese, Spanish and Greek.” As new foreign restaurants open in Japan – Taco Bell announced its entry to the island

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nation in January – Israeli and Arab food enjoys an advantage because of its reliance on fresh vegetables and other lean substances, according to Rabbi Binyomin Edery, a Tokyo-based Chabad rabbi who supervises King Falafel, the city's only certified kosher food stand. “In a city where the population is so health conscious that about a third of them regularly wear surgeon masks whenever they go out, a lean, fiber-rich food that’s full of vitamins is going to have a serious advantage compared to fat-dripping tacos,” Edery said. “Israeli food is becoming super trendy in this country, and hummus is leading the charge because people here are already used to the idea of bean paste from their local food. It just fits.” Chana’s Place, housed in the Tokyo Chabad center and run by the movement’s envoy to Japan, Rabbi Mendy Sudakevich, is small, accommodating only 14 diners at a time. The restaurant's profits are used to fund activities for Tokyo’s Jewish community of a few hundred people. “If this restaurant is to succeed, it needs to appeal to the Japanese public,” Sudakevich told JTA. “The Jewish, kosherobserving community is too small to sustain this business.” Unlike Zuckerman’s Ta-im, which feels like a typical Tel

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Aviv hummus bar, complete with the Israeli pop radio station Galgalatz playing in the background, Chana’s Place fuses Middle Eastern cuisine with a local Japanese design, including a miniature Japanese garden. Sudakevich says he realized he would need to adapt hummus for the Japanese after he served the dish at an event he catered for an Israeli firm in Tokyo. Hummus is consumed typically by wiping the paste from a plate with pita bread, but the Japanese cut the bread into pieces and made tiny hummus sandwiches. “The Japanese marry an almost impossible mix of hunger for new stuff with a deep conservatism,” Sudakevich said. “If you want to serve them something new, you need to make sure you do it in familiar ways.” Roy Somech, a 33-year-old Israeli who last year opened his second restaurant in Sendai, 220 miles north of Tokyo, takes a different approach. Somech believes in totally immersing his patrons not only in the Israeli experience, but that of the entire Middle East. “When you come to our restaurants you find three flags: Israel, Turkey and Tunisia,” Somech said. “There’s Arab and Israeli music, there’s hookahs – all the fun stuff of the Middle East and Israel that many Japanese don’t know because they only hear of terrorism and bombs from that part of the world.” Somech says he receives approximately 200 patrons daily at his two restaurants in Sendai and that 70 percent of them are returning customers. The Israeli restaurants are able to supply their patrons with fresh pita thanks to the only bakery in the country that produces the flatbread, an operation set up a decade ago by the Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Agasy. But white tahini, the sesame spread that is a key ingredient of hummus, must be specially imported — a constraint that has 3 1/2 ounces of hummus selling in Japan for about $6. “There’s demand for hummus, sure,” said Somech, who opened his first restaurant, Middle Mix, five years ago. But, he added, in a country where even cheap street food is expected to meet strict standards, and whose capital city has more Michelin stars than Paris, “competition is very, very tough.”


Leave the past behind with pita bread

By Dahlia Abraham-Klein Jewist Telegraphic Agency In the ancient world, bread was usually made by using a type of sourdough starter. A little bit of raw dough was set aside, unbaked, in a cool, shaded place. This dough was then used as the leavening agent for the next week’s bake. Preparing leavened bread required the use of old matter; a bacterial culture that was continuously fermenting in an unbroken chain of bread baking with no beginning and no end. Perhaps this is why God demands that our cleansing each spring be total; we need to break all the chains that fetter us to the past. We must clear all the old from the house to make way for the new. The ancient Hebrew word for leaven, or yeast, is se’or. There are no coincidences in the Hebrew language, and often there are multiple meanings within one word. The root of the word lehash’ir, which means to leave behind, is se’or. We can see this as an allusion to the Passover theme of leaving the past behind to start a new beginning. The “chain” of sourdough starter that was used constantly can be seen as a metaphor for the chains of slavery. The plainness and simplicity of matzah can be reinterpreted as a clean slate, the new beginning of the freed slave. Use your leftover flour in preparation for cleaning out last year’s chains to the past to make pita, a type of round flatbread. Although pita is leavened, as a flatbread, it is similar to the Yemenite and Iraqi matzah, which is soft rather than crisp like typical Ashkenazi and Sephardic matzah. The circular shape can serve as an illustration of renewal, as we move through the cycle of the year to re-enter the spring season once more and, with it, the beginning of the Jewish year.

aside. Sift the remaining flour and salt into the bowl. With a spatula, combine the ingredients. Once the ingredients come together as dough, it is time to knead. At this point, you can remove the dough from the bowl and knead on the kitchen counter if it’s easier for you, or directly in the bowl. To knead the dough: Grab the side of the dough furthest away from you and fold it toward yourself. Fold the dough in half and use your body weight to push the dough into itself. If you find that the dough is sticking too much to the surface and preventing you from kneading properly, dust some flour on the dough. Give the dough a quarter turn (90 degrees). Grab the other side and fold it in half. Again, with a lot of weight behind it, push the newly folded half into itself. Repeat this process for 10-15 minutes or until the dough is smooth, silky, elastic and does not stick to the surface. After the dough is thor-

oughly prepared, grease the large bowl with a fine layer of oil, turning the dough in the oil several times so that the dough is greased lightly on all sides. Cover the bowl with a large plastic garbage bag or kitchen towel and allow it to rise for 40 minutes. Knead the dough again for a few more minutes and then divide the dough into 30 balls. Use the remaining flour for the surface area and hands to prevent sticking. Roll each piece into a 6-inch pancake. Cover with kitchen towel and let them rise again in a warm place for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 500°F with a cookie sheet on the oven’s bottom rack. The hot cookie sheet will facilitate the pita baking process. Place approximately 6 pitas on the hot cookie sheet, separating each pita by 2 inches. Bake on the bottom rack for 3-4 minutes, flip over and then bake for another 2 minutes. You want the pitas puffed and lightly colored, not browned. Continue this process in batches until all pitas are baked. If the pita puffs up once out of the oven, gently pierce it with a fork. Wrap the pitas in a towel till they are cool, then store in plastic bags until ready for use. You can store in the freezer for up to 2 months to retain freshness.

HOMEMADE NUTELLA BY SANDI TEPLITZ Try this all-natural delicious topping on your scoop of vanilla ice cream when the weather becomes spring-like. It is delicious! INGREDIENTS: 2 c. hazelnuts, toasted, cooled and skins removed 1/4 c. sugar 1 lb. milk or semisweet chocolate chips 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

1 T. pure vanilla extract 1/4 t. sea salt 1 c. heavy cream TECHNIQUE: Mix hazelnuts with sugar in a food processor until a paste forms. Set aside. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Mix in cream and sea salt. Add hazelnut paste and mix vigorously. Chill in glass jar. Spoon over your favorite ice cream or pound cake.

The Nosher food blog offers a dazzling array of new and classic Jewish recipes and food news, from Europe to Yemen, from challah to shakshuka and beyond. Check it out at www.TheNosher.com.

This recipe appears in Dahlia’s new book Spiritual Kneading Through the Jewish Months: Building the Sacred Through Challah.

Homemade pita bread INGREDIENTS: 4 Tbsp active dry yeast 4 cups warm water 2 Tbsp sugar 5 pounds (2.25 kg) flour 2 Tbsp sea salt 2/3 cup neutral tasting oil, such as safflower oil PREPARATION: In a large bowl, combine the yeast with the 2 tablespoons of sugar and the warm water. Cover the bowl and allow the mixture to start activating. Yeast activation should take about 10 minutes; it will be bubbling and foamy. Set 1 cup (125 g) of flour HOMES & GARDENS | HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY | APRIL 2015 11



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