Est Gezunterheit - The Forward's Yiddish Chefs Make Homemade Noodles With Cottage Cheese

Our favorite Yiddish chefs, Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Yochnowitz from the Jewish Daily Forward are back with their two recipes for homemade noodles with cottage cheese, one with fried onions and one without.

We've been publishing most of their videos featuring Yiddish-flecked banter while they cook traditional dishes.

Since their Est Gezunterheit series started four years ago, we've published 21 of their recipes and mini-glossaries of funny-sounding Yiddish words connected to the recipes. (Look for Est Gezunterheit in the Keywords list in the left column to catch up on any that you've missed.)

Here are some of the Yiddish words that we picked up during this episode:

Leffel = tablespoon
Leffeleh = teaspoon
Grate = ready
Gringer = easier
Bashits = sprinkle
Katchets ois = roll out
Loksh = noodle
Zeedendick = boiling
Tzeekleiben = sticking
Tsforech = cottage cheese
Smeteneh = sour cream

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - A Centipede Goes to Shul

It's another Monday, and time for another Joke to Start the Week.

Today's jokester is Alan Sharkis, a 74-year-old retired teacher whom we met a few weeks ago at the annual Camp Hazak week in the Catskills.

The camp, which was held at the newly refurbished Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, New York (formerly The Granit), attracted about 140 seniors, mostly from Hazak groups at Conservative synagogues from up and down the east coast.

Here's the setup: Shloimie walks into a pet shop and he's looking for something unusual. And he tells the man behind the counter "I don't want a dog, I don't want a cat. I'm looking for something unusual." The pet shop owner says "I have just the right thing for you." And then...

Enjoy!

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"Stand With Us" Collects Photos Showing Worldwide Support for Israel

StandWithUs is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to informing the public about Israel and to combating the extremism and anti-Semitism that often distorts the issues. 

Its core belief is that knowledge of the facts will correct common prejudices about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and will promote discussions and policies that can help promote peace in the region. 

Through print materials, speakers, programs, conferences, missions to Israel, campaigns, and internet resources, it ensures that the story of Israel's achievements and ongoing challenges is told on campuses and in communities, the media, libraries, and churches around the world. 

Based in Los Angeles, StandWithUs has offices and chapters in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Davis, Denver, Detroit, Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Canada, France, the UK, Australia, and Israel.

This month the organization asked people to submit photos showing their support for Israel. In just one week it received over 400 photos from countries all over the world, including the United States, Czech Republic, Australia, the United Kingdom, El Salvador, Colombia, Germany, Paraguay, Canada, Nigeria and of course, Israel, just to name a few.

StandWithUs is still soliciting photos like the ones shown above and in the video below. They can be submitted to social@standwithus.com to be featured in its Facebook album.

Am Israel Chai.

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(A tip of the kippah to Judith Berger for bringing the Stand With Us website to our attention.)

Unexpected Traces in Jewish Places: Charlie Daniels Plays Hatikvah in Israel Concert

Despite the constant criticism and bashing from many in the US entertainment industry, it's good to know that Israel does have friends among Country and Western entertainers and in Christian communities.

Charlie Daniels, who you may remember from his big hit Devil Went Down to Georgia, performed Hatikvah and I'll Fly Away at a Feast of Tabernacles event in Ein Gedi during Sukkot last October, sponsored by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.

The baseball cap he wore was embroidered with the words Super Dvora MKIII, the name of an Israeli patrol boat, and a picture of the boat.

The Super Dvora MKIII, the latest water jet-powered fast patrol craft, is a successor to the Dabur, Dvora, Shapirit, and Super Dvora Mark-1 and Mark-2 boats manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries.. The new multi-mission patrol and attack boat was first used by Israeli Navy in 2008.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

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Israeli Kindergarteners Sing and Dance to Cope With Rocket Attacks

Seeking shelter from rocket attacks is nothing new to the children of Sderot, which has been a major target of Hamas since 2000. 

We've been following the news these past few weeks, especially since sirens have been sounding their 15 second warnings beyond Sderot to Ashkelon, Ashdod, and even as far north as Tel Aviv and Herzliya.

How are kindergarten children supposed to behave in such a situation? In previous attacks, studies have shown that 90% of children between the ages of 4-18 show signs of post-traumatic stress syndrome. 

Because the missiles fall daily, the Israeli government developed a warning system called ‘Code Red’ or Tzeva Adom. When a rocket is launched, a voice comes over the loudspeakers throughout the region saying “Tzeva Adom, Tzeva Adom”, “Code Red, Code Red”. At this point people know they have fifteen seconds to seek shelter. Fifteen seconds to stop whatever they are doing and find a place to protect themselves.

In order to help children cope with this constant tension, the Joint Distribution Committee’s Ashalim division, a partnership between JDC, the Israeli Government and the UJA Federation of New York working on behalf of children in Israel, developed a series of therapies, including the Code Red Song. This song, first written in 2010 and posted on YouTube in 2012, teaches the children what to do when the alarm goes off, but also helps them deal with their emotional reactions to the sound and the situation. Sderot teacher and art therapist Shachar Bar is credited for composing the song, which has become very popular on YouTube this week.

The song combines lyrics that allow the children to express their anxiety and fear with hand and body movements that help distract their minds to something more positive.

JDC distributed CDs of this uplifting children’s song to parents and teachers. The song is taught and used in the schools and has quickly become a source of comfort for the children living in the Southern confrontation zone.

The children have learned that song, dance, and laughter can be helpful in coping with a dangerous situation. We hope that they will very soon be able to resume their normal singing, dancing, and laughing to their favorite songs without the warning sirens warbling in the background.

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(A tip of the kippah to Phoebe Weisbrot for bringing this video to our attention.)

A Comedy Classic Flashback: Jack Carter at The Friars Club Back to Brooklyn Night

Jack Carter, now 91 years old, was one of the most prolific stand-up comedians in television history. Born Jack Chakrin in Brooklyn,  he had a long-running comedy act similar to fellow rapid-paced contemporaries, Milton Berle and Morey Amsterdam. 

Twenty-two years ago, Carter was the featured stand-up comic at a special Friars Club Welcome Back to Brooklyn dinner. We found a seven-minute-long video clip of him delivering a series of jokes and a monologue describing life among the condominium dwellers of south Florida. It's classic Carter.

And he's still doing it! Below you'll find a current video clip of Jack Carter that's included in the documentary film When Jews Were Funny.

Enjoy!

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Missing the Old Catskills Hotels on the 17th Day of Tammuz

 

Today is the Seventeenth day of Tammuz, the start of a three week period that ends with the Ninth day of Av (this year, on August 6). During this period Jews worldwide lament the destruction of the Holy Temples in Jerusalem so many years ago.

It's hard for us to feel the sadness and desolation of the destruction because we never personally felt the joy of experiencing the celebrations and rituals that took place in the Temples.

But we have a modern counterpart of sorts that we can relate to by recognizing the desolation that has come to the hundreds of once-regal Catskills hotels that brought pleasure and recreation to American Jews in the 1960s through the 1990s.

Not that we're comparing the hotels to the Temples, but in a sense the hotels were temples of Jewish life in their heydey. Now with the razing of Kutsher's Resort in Monticello, only two hotels are left to  cater to Jewish summertime vacationers.

Here's a nostalgic video made up of postcards showing the facades of many of the older Catskills hotels, some of which you may remember visiting, or at least seeing the directional signs posted at highway exits. The music in the background is the Yiddish song Vus is geven, is geven, un nit do (What was, was, and can never be again.)

 

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Dating Advice"

Another Monday, another Joke to Start the Week. Today we're bringing you the second of a series of jokes that we recorded on site in New York's Catskill Mountains while we were entertaining a group of 150 adults at a Camp Hazak summer retreat.

Today's joke teller is 82-year-old Lenny Sherman, a retired designer for Westinghouse. Here's the background for the joke:

Sarah and Sadie live in the same apartment house. Morris recently moved into the apartment house and asked Sarah for a date. After the date, Sadie knocks on Sarah's door and asks her how it went because Morris has just asked Sadie for a date. So Sarah tells Sadie about the date and then...

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"I Could Be Jewish For You" - From "Songs by Ridiculously Talented Composers"

Not all songs composed for Broadway and off-Broadway find their way into actual shows. Sometimes writers and lyricists write songs that stand on their own without being integrated into full-scale productions.

For the last eight years, the works of Ridiculously Talented Composers and Lyricists You Probably Don't Know but Should have been performed in concerts at 54 Below in New York City.

Originating at Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the Ridiculously Talented concert series has become a hallmark of BSC's Musical Theatre Lab.

Last year's performance included a song titled I Could be Jewish for You with music and lyrics by Nikko Benson and performed by Alysha Umphress. It's easy to visualize a setting for the song, with a non-Jewish girl trying to win the affection of a Jewish boy by promising to adopt just about every Jewish stereotype in the book.

We think it's a bit corny, but cute.

Enjoy!

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Rhode Island Temple Has An All-Broadway Musical Shabbat Service

When you attend a Shabbat service, whether it's Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform, it's likely that the structure, flow, liturgy, and melodies will have a lot in common. 

Sure, some will use more English in the service, some will have instrumental music and use a microphone, and others will chant the traditional melodies a cappella. But the basics will be recognizable to any Jew who attends.

If you happened to walk into the Temple Sinai Friday night service in Cranston, Rhode Island on May 30, you might have thought that you were not in a synagogue but in the middle of a Broadway musical.  Not only one musical, but twelve of them. On that night, which marked the retirement of Cantor Remmie Brown and the debut of Cantor Wendy Siegel, most of the elements of the Friday night service were fitted to the tunes of Broadway shows.

We have a video of the entire hour-long service to share with you, but recognizing that a whole hour is a bit much to watch in one sitting, we've prepared a guide to the service to let you fast forward to a favorite song and see how Shalom Aleichem, Lecha Dodi, and Adon Olam sound under the influence of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the Sherman brothers.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

0:00          The Music of the Night (Shabbat) from Phantom of the Opera
6:30           Candle Lighting (Sabbath Prayer from Fiddler on the Roof)
12:00         Lecha Dodi (Edelweiss from The Sound of Music)
15:04         Shalom Aleichem (Close Every Door from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)   
19:03         Borchu (Try to Remember from The Fantasticks)
21:20         Ahavat Olam (Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music)
24:00         Sh'ma (Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) 
27:50         Mi Komocho (Summertime from Porgy and Bess)
31:00         Hashkiveinu (Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les Miserables)
34:05         Veshamru (Climb Every Mountain from The Sound of Music)
40:30         Retzeh (Ol' Man River from Showboat)
43:12          Shalom Rav (Shalom from Milk and Honey)
45:44          Yehi Ratzon (Bali Ha'i from South Pacific)
59:17          Adon Olam (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins)    

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