More in ‘kashrut’

Utopia Bagels in Queens is known for its bacon-flecked egg bagel. In Manhattan, the restaurant JoeDoe boasts a sandwich called the “Conflicted Jew”—a concoction made with a bacon, challah and chopped liver. During Hanukkah, the website YumSugar suggested frying latkes in bacon fat. And, last year Top Chef winner Ilan Hall opened his Los Angeles ...

• President Barack Obama sent a video to Israel to commemorate the 14th anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination; Haaretz calls the move a “bid to woo Israelis.” [Haaretz]
• Iran has officially responded to the International Atomic Energy Organization on the U.N. nuclear plan for the country, to which it seeks “major revisions.” [Haaretz]
• ...

• The folks at Vos iz Neias are pretty excited about what they turned up at Kosherfest, a trade show that took place this week in New Jersey; the site’s photo gallery gushes over the first kosher sangria, an “oil bottle with an extra-long spout,” and a package of raw mystery meat inexplicably labeled “beautiful.” ...

When I ordered the blackened redfish at a North Carolina restaurant in August, I hadn’t eaten any meat or fish in more than 13 years. Being a vegetarian had been easy, and I’d rarely been tempted to stray. Sure, certain cooking aromas—a roasting turkey, chicken soup simmering on the stove top—could still make me ...

• A synagogue in Maryland canceled High Holiday services because it’s down to one remaining member. “Most of our funds are donations (in memory) of people who have died. When that’s your biggest fundraiser, that’s not a good thing,” he says. [AP]
• As the cost of sending kids to Jewish day school grows, a drop ...

• In a state-of-the-industry article about Jewish journalism, one editor flatters his readers—“the most incredible, literate, active, involved demographic”—perhaps hoping to keep them hooked. (Let us know if it works.) [JPost]
• Anyone tired of being indignant about President Obama’s selection of Mary Robinson for the Freedom Medal can turn their ire on Australia, which has ...

“The food we have today is a result of life in exile, a life of cold and suffering. But this is not true Judaism,” says Miriam Glazer, a rabbi who spoke at a recent study day held by The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies on the subject of “Jewish Women Maintaining a Healthy Soul,” along ...

• Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said he is committed to establishing a Palestinian state within two years, and implored opposing groups to come together toward the goal, saying: “There is no pluralism in security.” [WP]
• Unfortunately, his plea comes as fighting between rival factions Hamas and Fatah escalates. [NPR]
• Meanwhile, Abdel Aziz Duaik, Hamas ...

Whenever I need a housewarming gift, I go to my local farmer’s market for two dozen crackling, salt-encrusted, handmade pretzels. It is my riff on a medieval custom still observed by Russians, Eastern Europeans, some Middle Easterners, and the Jews whose ancestors lived among them: bread and salt comprise the proper gift for anyone in ...

Aaron and I lingered at the buffet table, enormous bowls of pasta salad and vegetables spread out in front of us. Our minyan was celebrating the purchase of a pre-World War II Torah that had been recently rescued from its hiding spot in the basement of an old synagogue in Romania.
“It’s funny, that guy ...