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Category: Life
Burger with a side of Elvis anyone?
Uri Yoeli, left, at the Elvis Inn, his restaurant/convenience store/gas station in Neve Ilan. (photo by Deborah Fineblum Schabb)
To appreciate how much Israelis love Elvis Presley, you just have to hear three generations of the Mizrachi family of Rehovot crooning, “Wise men say only fools rush in … but I can’t help falling in love with you.”
The Mizrachis – mom Aliza, sons Asaf and Yehoram, and granddaughter Kahila – had just downed some American-style burgers at the Elvis Inn, a restaurant, convenience store and gas station that proudly claims to be the only Israeli institution devoted to “the King.” And they were busy inspecting the impressive Elvis memorabilia and tchotchke collection on the premises.
Drivers passing through this corner of the hills surrounding Jerusalem often do a double take from the car window when they spot not one, but two way-more-than-life-sized statues of Elvis. Unless, of course, they’re among those who, like the Mizrachis, make a special pilgrimage to the Elvis Inn, located in the small hillside town of Neve Ilan.
Where else can Israelis hear all Elvis, all the time, piped into a 1950s-style diner while they feast on burgers and fries? Where else can they purchase an Elvis mini-alarm clock, a platter-sized “Elvis in Jerusalem” plate, or a postcard with Elvis wearing tefillin in front of the Western Wall? (The latter souvenir comes thanks to Photoshop, since the King was never in Israel – the closest he got was Germany, and there is no evidence that he ever wore tefillin.) Better yet, buy a cup of coffee for 15 shekels (about $5 Cdn) and you get the ceramic Elvis mug to take home as a souvenir.
But nothing of this Elvis sanctuary was in the picture when Uri Yoeli was a 12-year-old growing up in Jerusalem, the seventh generation of his family to do so. The year was 1958 and the Israeli preteen had a girlfriend who was a hardcore fan.
“She gave me a picture of a man and said it was someone named Elvis,” he recalled. “The next week she gave me a small record – One Night with You.” Back then, his family owned one of just a handful of gramophones in all of Jerusalem, and being willing to repeatedly play the Elvis record instantly made Yoeli one of the most popular kids in the neighborhood.
“I didn’t understand one word of English but I knew this was great music,” he said nearly six decades later. So began a lifelong devotion to the King, punctuated with trips to Graceland (Elvis’ Memphis shrine) and an impressive collection of Elvis memorabilia, much of it now on display at Yoeli’s Elvis Inn.
Even during his years of Israel Defence Forces service, Yoeli’s Elvis fascination continued; he bought whatever posters and records he could get his hands on. In 1974, when he had the chance to open a gas station in Neve Ilan, he put a few of the Elvis pictures on the wall behind the cash register.
“That’s when I saw people’s reaction: ‘Wow, Elvis!’” he said. Thus, the Elvis Inn was born.
Over the years, the venue has grown, adding the two oversized statues – the brass one is a towering 16 feet high – and attracting not only Israelis, but plenty of Americans on vacation looking for some old-fashioned home cooking. (Note: any Elvis fans who keep kosher will have to pass on the food at the inn.)
To read more, visit jns.org.
Tips for holiday fasting
Judaism requires men and women to fast at specific times throughout the year. On Yom Kippur, the holiest of days, fasting – no food or drink – from sunset to sunset, is part of our path to achieve atonement.
By not putting food or drink into our mouth, we no longer stimulate the salivary glands and thereby prevent them from producing saliva. This can produce bad breath, among other things. Saliva aids digestion because it contains enzymes and chemicals that begin the initial breakdown of the many components in our foods; as well, it maintains the balance in our mouth between harmful and helpful bacteria. Here are 10 tips for the upcoming fast.
- Drink 64 to 80 ounces of water during the 24-hour period before the fast begins to replenish the saliva. On a typical day, we use up to 50 ounces of saliva and fasting may increase this amount.
- Avoid all alcohol during the 24-hour period before the fast begins. As well, note that most mouthwashes can contain up to 27% alcohol and, therefore, create a dry mouth, making our breath worse, not better.
- Use an alcohol-free, oxygen-rich mouthwash, which can increase saliva by four percent.
- Avoid toothpaste containing sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), scientific term for soap, before and after the fast. SLS, an ingredient put into most toothpaste formulas to create a foaming action, is a severe drying agent. According to recent studies, SLS can lead to canker sores.
- Avoid breath mints and gum that contain sugar, before and after the fast. Sugar feeds all types of bacteria, especially those that create bad breath, gum disease and tooth decay.
- Avoid acidic vegetables, such as tomatoes, and fruits, such as grapefruits, oranges and their juices, during the 24-hour period before the past begins. These acids remain on the tooth surface and, due to the lack of saliva during the fast, they cannot be naturally neutralized.
- Eat lots of fruits and vegetables that contain a lot of liquid, such as apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, watermelon, celery and carrots. As an aside, eating parsley won’t help!
- Take all medications – primarily antihistamines, high blood pressure meds and antidepressants – immediately before the fast begins with lots of water. More than 75% of prescription medications have dry mouth syndrome as a side effect.
- Do not skip breakfast or any meal during the 24-hour period before the fast begins.
- Do not schedule a medical procedure that requires avoidance of food and drink during the 24-hour period before the fast begins.
For more information, visit therabreath.com.
This week’s cartoon … Sept. 11/15
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We need less awe, more action
“Day of Atonement” by Isidor Kaufmann, circa 1900. “We cannot afford the luxury that accompanies the perception of atonement as an end unto itself. We must look at every facet of our lives, internal and external, collective and individual, and challenge ourselves to think anew,” argues Donniel Hartman. (photo from commons.wikimedia.org)
There are those who believe that the goal of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), as its name attests, is to merely attain atonement for our sins, to recalibrate our standing before God. These are called the Days of Awe, for our destiny stands in the balance: who will live and who will die. To achieve this atonement, we fast and pray for forgiveness.
The problem with this approach, however, is that, beyond fidelity to the laws and practices of the holy days, it does not make any other demands upon us. Instead of striving to change our behavior, we are satisfied with the yearning for atonement. The old year fades out and a new one approaches, and everything stays as it was.
There is much experience of awe in the Days of Awe, but there is little action. Instead of serving as a catalyst for change, the High Holidays often remain a line of defence for the status quo, a defence achieved by the idea of atonement itself. Isaiah’s critique against his generation, who complained before God, “Why, when we fasted, did You not see? When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?” (Isaiah 58:3), continues to reverberate and have new significance.
What is the cause for this continuing failure? I believe that it may be found in the fact that the idea of atonement has two distinct meanings and we, unfortunately, give preference to the more convenient and easy one. Atonement can be viewed as an end unto itself or as a means that enables a new beginning. As an end unto itself, its goal is to change the consequences of past behavior and not to change the behavior itself. God is the one who atones for past mistakes and erases them from the equation. Yom Kippur has a goal to recalibrate the world, a form of restart button. However, as an end unto itself, it enables the human being to start over from the same place and to wait again for the next Yom Kippur with its promised “new beginning.”
On the other hand, atonement can be viewed as a means. Its importance is derived precisely from the fact that it has the capacity to enable and serve as a catalyst for change and renewal.
One of the major stumbling blocks that prevents us from changing our behavior is the difficulty in believing that we are capable of it. We are shackled to mediocrity and the status quo, for we often believe that we are ruled by the past and that it defines us in the present and will continue to do so in the future. The idea of atonement can serve as the ally of the status quo or as the vehicle of liberation from it. A human being who achieves atonement can squander this moment of grace by repeating the mistakes of the past, or he or she can use atonement to establish the belief that the past does not necessarily define who we will be in the future. One who receives the gift of atonement is given a chance to reshape one’s life; the critical question is whether we use this gift or waste it by believing that atonement as an end unto itself is sufficient.
The rabbinic tradition understood both the challenge and danger embedded in the idea of atonement. It consequently ruled that Yom Kippur atones only when it is accompanied by tshuva (Mishnah Yoma 8:8). The days are truly Days of Awe, for they are days of reckoning, not merely with God, but primarily with ourselves and regarding our lives. This notion of a day of reckoning requires us to go beyond the experience of the awe that accompanies these days and to act and challenge ourselves to embark on new directions for our lives. To do so, however, we must not merely pray, but must internalize the central category that fulfils a key role throughout the rituals of the Days of Awe – hattanu – we have sinned.
The purpose of the ritual of confession, the Al Het, is not to remove our sins from the eyes of God, but to establish them in front of our eyes. It is only a human being who recognizes his or her limitations and who strips away the aura of self-righteousness who can recognize both the need and responsibility to change.
It is not simple to be a Jew, for we are obligated to strive for excellence and to see in a life of mediocrity a contradiction to our identity. We cannot afford the luxury that accompanies the perception of atonement as an end unto itself. We must look at every facet of our lives, internal and external, collective and individual, and challenge ourselves to think anew. We must reconnect to our values and ideals, and find new ways to allow them to guide our individual and national lives.
May these Days of Awe serve as a spiritual foundation and moral anchor for the renewal of our people. May we truly believe in our potential for renewal and may this belief give birth to new levels of aspirations, dreaming and action. May this year be a year of health, happiness and peace. Shana tova.
Donniel Hartman is president of Shalom Hartman Institute and director of the Engaging Israel Project. He contributes a regular column to Times of Israel and writes for many other publications on a regular basis. This article can be found on the Shalom Hartman Institute website, hartman.org.il, and is reprinted with permission.
Make the New Year sweeter
Apples and honey are essential at Rosh Hashana’s festive table. An old tradition of eating apples dipped in honey reflects our hopes for “sweet” and prosperous New Year. Shall we try and make this treat together?
1. Take a toothpick and a few pieces of modeling clay (or Plasticine) in green, yellow, red and white colors.
2. Mix well a piece of green and a small amount of yellow modeling clay. Make a ball out of this mixture and, using the toothpick, make a hole in the bottom of the ball.
3. Next, you can make a stem for your apple by sticking a small brown piece of clay in the hole that you made. Your apple is ready!
4. Mix well a piece of red modeling clay and a small amount of yellow. Follow the procedure in Step 2 and make a red apple. Don’t forget about giving your apple a “tail” and a “nose” using brown clay.
5. It is time to make some apple slices. Take white modeling clay and mix it with yellow. Shape the mixture into a crescent. Make the skin of an apple from green modeling clay.
6. Combine the crescent shape with the skin and your apple slice is ready. Make a few such slices.
7. We still need to make a pot of honey. For that, we use brown and blue modeling clay. First, make a brown pot, and then add a blue rim to it. Also attach a little handle to the side of your pot. “Fill” your pot with honey by putting a little oval made from yellow modeling clay on top.
8. Now we only need to make a dipper. Take brown modeling clay and roll it into a stick shape. It has to be thinner on one end and wider on another, resembling a hammer. To create the illusion of carving, typical for a dipper, encircle the wide part of it with few horizontal stripes made from orange clay.
Remember, you can use the toothpick to refine all your pieces of art. As well, before you start working with a new color, wipe your hands with a napkin to prevent the unwanted mixing of colors. And, most important of all – use your imagination! There are no strict rules when it comes to creativity. Don’t be afraid to experiment with colors.
Once you’ve finished your creations, if you put together all the pieces that you have made and take a picture, you will have a wonderful and unique Rosh Hashana greeting card.
Sweet and prosperous Rosh Hashana wishes to all the artists and all the Jewish Independent readers!
Lana Lagoonca is a graphic designer, author and illustrator. At curlyorli.com, there are more free lessons, along with information about Curly Orli merchandise.
A warm Penzance welcome
The writer and her husband, Ted Ramsay, hiking along a coastal path near St. Ives. (photo by Karen Ginsberg)
A trip this spring to Cornwall in southwest England gave my husband and me the opportunity to experience the unique treasures in this part of the world. In addition to beautiful landscapes and breathtaking coastal hikes, we visited the Eden Project, Minack Theatre, Land’s End and the towns of St. Ives, St. Just and Mousehole. It was in Penzance, however, that we enjoyed the warmest of welcomes from representatives of the Council of Cornish Jews, otherwise known as Kehillat Kernow, when we stopped for a day to visit.
We were greeted by Kehillat Kernow chair Harvey Kurzfield, public relations chair Jeremy Jacobson, and Patricia and Leslie Lipert. Patricia serves both as a lay leader for the community, as well as editor of the community’s newsletter and website. Her husband Leslie is the Kehillat treasurer and, for the past several years, he has spearheaded a drive to raise the monies needed for repairs at two Jewish cemeteries, in Penzance and in Falmouth, which is about 50 kilometres away. The name Kehillat Kernow represents both their Jewish and Cornish roots, kehila meaning community in Hebrew, and Kernow, in Cornish, meaning Cornish.
Keith Pearce, a Kehillat member, co-edited a collection of essays called The Lost Jews of Cornwall, which details the history of Cornish Jews. He has also written The Jews of Cornwall: History, Tradition and Settlement to 1913, which paints an intriguing picture of the first Jews who lived in the Penzance and Falmouth areas of the county since the 1740s and documents how much of their legacy remains. Falmouth, by the way, derives from the nearby River Fal and is an English translation of the Cornish Avber Fal.
The first Jews to settle in the Penzance/Falmouth area were from Bavaria, Bohemia and the Netherlands. They came, in part, to supply the tin mining industry, which was one of the major economic activities in the area at the time. Some were jewellers and clockmakers; they chose Cornwall because they felt it would be a safe haven for Jews.
Alexander Moses, a silversmith, was the first Jew known to settle in Falmouth, with his wife Phoebe in 1740. He became known as Zender Falmouth: Zender was a common diminutive among Jews, as was taking as a surname the name of their hometown. Surnames were not commonly used then.
Looking to the future, Zender built a building in 1766 along the seafront in Falmouth to be used as a synagogue when more Jews settled there. One of the stories told about him is that he had other peddlers in his employ whom he paid if they would come to Sabbath services and ensure a minyan. Later, another synagogue was built in Penzance. Despite Zender’s forward-looking vision, in time and with the coming of the industrial revolution, many people, including Jews who had settled in the area, moved from the rural and small-town settings to the cities. By 1913, the synagogue in Penzance was closed. Today, the building that housed that synagogue is a pub.
Another interesting aspect of the history of the Jews in Cornwall concerns the arrival in Penzance in the 18th century of the Hart family. The most famous member, Asher Laemle ben Eleazar, known later as Lemon Hart, was a distiller and a spirits merchant. Hart earned a national reputation as one of the first suppliers to the Royal Navy after it began giving each seaman a daily ration of blended rum.
Harvey told us that, when he first moved to Cornwall from London in 1971, there was no formal organizational life for Jews and there had not been for quite a long time. He recalled that he slowly began to make the acquaintance of other Jews with whom he and his family could share simchot but that the distances between the small towns in the county and the lack of a formal structure worked against people easily coming together.
That changed when, by happenchance, in 1996, the Cornwall county council appointed David Hampshire as the religious educator, a sort of advisor on all aspects of the religious studies that were part of the required curriculum among county schools. Hampshire was a former monk who had converted from Christianity to Judaism. In the course of his work, he encountered other Jewish families, and a “critical mass” of Jews who knew each other and were interested in meeting together to celebrate Judaism developed.
Kehillat Kernow’s beginnings were modest. There were 40 separate households within the Kehillat and they held Shabbat services in the Baptist church in the small town of Truro.
Today’s Jewish Council of Cornwall now enjoys the use of two Torah scrolls. One of the scrolls is on loan from a synagogue in Exeter; the second was acquired from the Royal Institution of Cornwall after years of negotiation. This latter Torah scroll is thought to be more than 350 years old and to have come from Bohemia in the early 18th century when the first settlers came to Falmouth. It has been refurbished for its use by this special community of Jews.
Kehillat Kernow has ongoing relationships with both the Movement for Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue (Modern Orthodox), both of which have departments that deal with smaller Jewish communities in England. Its current membership is just shy of 60 family units, totaling about 105 individuals. There are six to seven children enrolled in cheder and, last year, the community celebrated three b’nai mitzvot.
Services – which are held every two weeks – are lay led in a local school building and rotate among two women and three men as leaders. Services are held for all holidays and festivals; there are Hebrew classes, as well as classes in Shabbat cooking and in storytelling; and occasionally there are musical concerts. Conversions are done with local leaders but then formally carried out by a Reform bet din (religious court) in London. Lay leadership officiates at weddings and funerals.
While there is an abundance of fresh fish in local markets, kosher meat is available only from London or Manchester. The community newsletter, published monthly, and the Kehillat’s website are important communications tools to keep everyone up to date. After spending an afternoon with Pat and her colleagues, her description of this Jewish community rings very true: “What has evolved is like an extended family – we look after each other – we take care when we hear about someone needing something.”
Kehillat Kernow is an active participant in an interfaith forum in Cornwall. This forum has been working towards a dor kemmyn, Cornish for interfaith community building. In time, the building would be available for use by the Kehillat, as well as the other religious groups in the forum.
Kehillat Kernow is clearly held in high regard by other religious communities in the area. This is exemplified by the invitations they have received recently from various churches to be part of the churches’ international Holocaust remembrance services. Yet another interfaith group, Friends of Israel, recently invited Kehillat representatives to attend a film about the aftermath of the Shoah and the plight of Jews who were expelled from their home countries with the emergence of the state of Israel, and to say Kaddish within their midst at Holocaust remembrance services.
One of the Cornwall Jewish community’s most ambitious projects is the restoration of the cemeteries in Penzance and Falmouth. The Penzance Cemetery, which dates to the 1700s, is thought to be the finest example of the 25 Georgian Jewish cemeteries that exist outside of London. The work on it is being funded jointly by money raised from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and organizations and individuals in the Jewish community, including descendants of those buried in the graveyard. The Penzance Cemetery has a rare grave – that of an infant buried on a Shabbat because of a cholera epidemic.
In response to a question about what the community’s aspirations are for itself, Harvey’s response tells you everything a traveler might want to know about how you would be greeted, should you find your way to Cornwall. He said, “Continue as we are, attract more people to the Kehillat and its activities, be able to offer more Jewish educational opportunities and, especially, for more Jews from other parts of the world to make a point of visiting with us when they pass through Cornwall.”
Should your travels take you to Cornwall, you are invited to contact Harvey Kurzfield ([email protected]), Pat and Leslie Lipert ([email protected]) and Jeremy Jacobson ([email protected]) and to view the schedule of Kehillat Kernow’s activities in their newsletter at kehillatkernow.com.
Karen Ginsberg is an Ottawa-based Jewish travel writer.
Enjoy sunsets, blintzes, more
Some of the most stunning sunsets can be seen right from the Pierside Restaurant while eating dinner. (photo by Baila Lazarus)
As a realtor with more than two decades of experience, Joel Korn knows the golden rule that location is everything. That’s one of the reasons he and his wife have started frequenting a new getaway just south of the border.
Semiahmoo Resort, located across Semiahmoo Bay from White Rock, is just an hour’s drive from downtown Vancouver (with a Nexus pass), making it the closest resort of its kind outside of the Vancouver area.
“I always knew the resort was there,” said Korn. “Mostly I knew about the golf course.” It’s so close (approximately 55 kilometres), he said, they can make it a day trip. Even the hotel manager lives in downtown Vancouver.
Located on a spit of land a short tugboat ride away from Blaine, Wash., the 212-room resort features a pool, full-service spa and diverse restaurants.
The sheer area it covers is impressive. It’s so large, it has a racquetball court (with plans for a second), tennis court, and full-size exercise centre and yoga room that rivals any fitness club. Enormous outdoor spaces on the beach and the restaurant patio serve as great meeting spaces, especially for events like weddings. Just a short drive away are two acclaimed public golf courses: Semiahmoo Golf and Country Club, and Loomis Trail Golf Club.
“We love the spa,” said Korn, who raves about the hot rock massage. “It’s great just to go down and stay all day in the spa. We love the saltwater whirlpool and the steam rooms.”
Being on a peninsula means a large portion of the building (one quarter of the rooms), including the main restaurant and sports bar, have stunning water views. (Squint your eyes a bit and you can see the white rock on the Canadian side of the border.) And, because of the spaciousness, even when many of the rooms are taken, there’s never a crowded feeling.
The mostly flat surrounding land, bordered by water, makes for great family activities like biking, kayaking, clamming, sand sculpting, kite flying, picnicking or just strolling lazily through the mud flats when the tide is out. The hotel has bikes, croquet or badminton sets you can rent for the day. For the indoor-inclined, there are free fitness and yoga classes daily.
Visitors with pets can book ground-floor rooms that exit directly onto the beach.
Weekends in the summer, guests can participate in outdoor barbecues and marshmallow roasts and take a tugboat called the Plover, which has been running since 1944, across to Blaine for pizza, ice cream, Thai or Mexican food.
Birdwatchers will have an especially enjoyable time as the region’s tide pools and waterways attract thousands of geese, ducks, gulls, loons and shorebirds. The area has made the Audubon Society’s list as one of Washington State’s top birding destinations, and Drayton Harbor attracts endangered species such as bald eagles and peregrine falcons.
For those looking to stimulate their palates, the kitchen of French-born culinary director Chef Eric Truglas creates heavenly plates, such as melt-in-your mouth branzino (European sea bass), pecorino cream risotto, minted pea soup and watermelon salad. For breakfast, the orange-zest blintzes and smoked salmon are to die for. The restaurant also boasts an extensive wine list. For more casual dining, Packers sports bar is right on the water with patio seating. Both eateries are perfect spots to catch a sunset.
Semiahmoo Resort has gone through growing pains in the last decade. It was owned for 25 years by the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, which closed it at the end of 2012, due to low occupancy, blamed partially on the 2008 recession. It was then bought by Seattle-based Wright Hotels in mid-2013 and remained closed as it underwent a $10 million facelift. The new owners gave it a major renewal with interior upgrades that included new furniture and carpeting, improvements to the restaurants, spa and fitness facility and a completely new image.
The changes have been noticed – the hotel was declared the Northwest’s best resort in the Best of 2014 Readers’ Choice Award in Seattle Magazine.
And, if all this isn’t enough to put the resort on your bucket list, it is so close to Canada that Rogers customers never lose their wifi connection.
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer and media trainer in Vancouver. Her consulting work can be seen at phase2coaching.com.
Bulgaria: more than cheese
The roof of Sofia’s synagogue. (photo by Deborah Rubin Fields)
Until recently, if someone had asked me what I knew about Bulgaria, I would have said, “Isn’t that the name of a cheese?” Now having visited Bulgaria, I realize how limited was my perspective.
Bulgaria’s colorful Jewish history dates back to antiquity. According to Elko Hazan’s comprehensive 2012 book The Concise Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities and their Synagogues in Bulgaria, over the centuries Jews had a presence in some 40 Bulgarian cities and towns.
For example, near Plovdiv’s Maria Luiza Boulevard, archeologists uncovered a third-century CE synagogue. Its proximity to ancient Philippopolis’ Roman forum suggests that wealthy Jews in good standing with the Romans built the structure. The accomplishment of these well-placed Jews is all the more remarkable when you consider that Philippopolis had an estimated population of 100,000. Archeologists discovered two mosaic synagogue floors, one over another. The stunning mosaic featured both the Four Species (lulav, etrog, myrtle, willow) and a menorah. The second floor may have had geometric patterns. That more than one floor was found probably indicates the synagogue was renovated in the fifth century and destroyed in the sixth century. (See The Jewish-Greek Tradition in Antiquity and the Byzantine Empire, edited by James K. Aitken.)
Greek inscriptions commended the synagogue’s donors or founders. The east and west mosaic panel read: “‘From the gifts of Providence … Cosmianus, also called Joseph, executed the decoration (of the building). Blessing to all!” The central panel read: “From the gifts of Providence … El … also called Isaac made decoration of 120 feet (mosaic).” The adoption of a Roman-sounding second name attests to adaptation by Jews to the Greek and Roman culture. (See Negotiating Diaspora: Jewish Strategies in the Roman Empire, edited by John M.G. Barclay.) Ironically, as the synagogue remains are in storage, the only way to get a sense of how grand the floor was is to visit the impressive new museum of the (fifth-century) Small Basilica.
But Plovdiv’s charming Zion Synagogue (13 Tsar Kaloyan St.) is still up and functioning (one of two still active in Bulgaria). It was first built in 1886-1887. In 2003, the extensive five-year renovation of the starry-sky ceiling and the colorful geometric-paneled walls was completed. The building is only open for Kabbalat Shabbat prayers, so visitors should contact Eva Mezan (at +359-87-944-8675) to verify hours.
Although there is seating for 250 worshippers, some 20 local men and women attend this service. The second floor ezrat nashim (women’s section) is not used. Instead, an invisible mechitza (divider) has men sitting on one side of the aisle, women on the other. The congregation’s lay cantor leads services from the raised bima adjacent to the aron ha-kodesh (Torah ark). The congregation uses a Bulgarian-Hebrew siddur. Vocal congregants despair over the sad state of their community, with its high rate of intermarriage.
Plovdiv’s small Jewish community likewise has difficulty managing the graves in the Jewish section of the municipal cemetery (73 Knyaginya Maria Louisa Blvd.). While there is upkeep of “new” graves, headstones laid as recently as 1923 are somewhat neglected. Near the corner of the Sixth of September and Russki boulevards, Plovdiv’s Jews, however, do maintain a Bulgarian/Hebrew/English thanksgiving monument to the Bulgarian people for their help during the Second World War.
Sofia’s opulent 1,170-seat, 100-year-old Central Synagogue (16 Ekzarh Joseph St.) is also struggling, with barely enough people to hold daily morning prayers. The small on-site Jewish nursery school and the tiny, underdeveloped Jewish museum strikingly contrast with the enormous octagonal-shaped synagogue sanctuary. (Note: museum hours are limited, and not necessarily in accordance with posted times.)
Within walking distance of the synagogue, visitors may see (upon receiving special written permission from Dr. Lyudmil Vagalinski, [email protected]) another example of Bulgaria’s ancient Jewish history in the National Institute of Archeology with Museum’s (2 Saborna St.) lapidarium. A Latin marble pedestal from Oescus – a first- to fifth-century CE Roman town near the Danube – mentions the lay synagogue head Archisinagogus, according to Hazan.
Sofia’s 131-year-old Doctors’ Garden (located close to the National Library and Sofia University) memorializes the 531 fallen medics of the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), most of whom died in battles at Pleven, Plovdiv, Mechka or Shipka. A good number of these Russian medical personnel were Jewish, a credit to the reforms established by Russian Emperor Alexander II.
A few blocks away is the street named after biochemist Asen Zlaratov. The street plaque mentions he helped to set up the Committee for the Protection of Jews. Even beforehand, Zlaratov published a newspaper article critical of Germany’s book burning.
More than 51,000 Jewish Bulgarians (most of the community) moved to Israel in the mid- to late-1940s. Between 1967 and 1990, Communist Bulgaria had no diplomatic relations with Israel. Today, estimates are that 5,000 Jews live in Bulgaria. Chabad Rabbi Yosef Salamon and Rabbi Yossi Halprin and their spouses supervise Jewish educational, social and religious functions for the small remaining Bulgarian Jewish population. According to the Hebrew language Chabad Bulgaria website, Bulgaria has more than 15 organized Jewish community centres or Shalom organization representation. In Sofia, Chabad runs King David, a kosher restaurant offering take-outs and hotel deliveries.
Over the centuries, Bulgarian Jews have influenced both their own community and the larger non-Jewish community. Here are some of the “big names”:
- For his second wife, Tsar Ivan Alexander married the formerly Jewish Sarah (born in Tarnovgrad in the early 1300s). As the Empress Theodora, she was an ardent supporter of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. She provided for many churches. Unfortunately, her religious zeal may have motivated her to set up a church council against her former coreligionists.
- Rabbi Joseph Caro (1488-1575), author of the Shulchan Aruch, considered the standard legal code in Judaism, lived in Nikopol for 13 years before eventually settling in Safed. Nikopol has a monument dedicated to Caro, as well as a permanent exhibit in its city museum, notes Hazan in his encyclopedia.
- Nikopol-born Eva Frank and her father Jacob Frank tried to pass themselves off as messiahs in the late 1700s.
- Modernist painter Jules Pascin (1885-1930) was the son of a Bulgarian Sephardi father. Ernest Hemingway recounts his relation with the sociable, but depression-driven, painter in A Moveable Feast.
- Nobel Prize-winning writer Elias Canetti (1905-1994) was a Bulgarian-born Sephardi Jew. In his book The Tongue Set Free, Canetti describes his early Jewish home life in pre-First World War Bulgaria. In his Ruse birthplace, there is a square named after him, and the Technical Institute has a commemorative plaque.
- Andrei Luka-nov was one of the few communist Jews to hold a central position of power. He served as Bulgaria’s prime minister from February 1990 to December 1990, resigning when the country’s economy went into a tailspin. He was the son of another Bulgarian communist, Carlo Lukanov, a Russian Jew who was Bulgaria’s foreign minister from the late 1950s to the beginning of the 1960s. In 1992, he was held in custody for allegedly taking money from public coffers. No charges were filed against him. He went on to head up the Russian-Bulgarian gas company Topenergy. Mysteriously, he left the company shortly before his Oct. 2, 1996, assassination by unknown assailants. At the time of his murder, the media reported that “Red Baron” was supposedly the eighth richest man in Europe.Apropos, thousands of other Bulgarians who fell out of Communist favor ended up in 100 internal forced labor camps. For a taste of this period, visit Sofia’s Museum of Soviet Art (7 Lachezar Stanchev St.).
- Solomon Passy, PhD, was Bulgaria’s foreign minister in the early 2000s. Today, he is president of Bulgaria’s Atlantic Club. Passy campaigns for public access to wifi for the whole European Union, an option he regards as a universal human right and the EU “fifth freedom.”
Many more signs of the once vibrant Jewish community still exist, but it takes experts like Elko Hazan to guide us to them.
Deborah Rubin Fields is an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of Take a Peek Inside: A Child’s Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
Some additional facts
- The Bulgarian equivalent to Israeli-made Bulgarian cheese is “sirene,” a dairy product usually derived from cow’s milk, but may also be made from sheep or goat’s milk. Unlike Israeli-made Bulgarian cheese, it does not have a salty taste.
- While for many years Bulgaria was an agricultural country, today it is the world’s ninth “most preferred” outsourcing destination in consultancy. Experts, however, contend that Bulgaria must make it easier to hire foreigners, stop a brain drain, attract natives who graduated abroad and improve quality of life. (Financial Times of London)
- Several years ago, the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture attempted to find funding to refurbish the once beautiful, abandoned Vidin synagogue, but apparently nothing came of these efforts.
- King Boris III (whose heart is interred at the famous Rila Monastery), the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (including Archbishop Stefan of Sofia and bishops Neofit of Vidin and Kyril of Plovdiv) and several brave Bulgarian parliamentarians (such as Dimitar Peshev) saved the country’s Jewish population from deportation to Nazi death camps. Yet, 11,343 Jews from Serbian Pirot, Greek Thrace and Yugoslavian Macedonia – countries Nazi Germany ceded to the Bulgarian government – were brutally hauled off to Treblinka. (See ushmm.org and yadvashem.org.)
- For more on Bulgaria during the Holocaust, read “The little country that defied Hitler” by Anna Levy.
- For more information about Bulgarian Jewish cemeteries, see the 2011 online report of the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
Add holiday sweetness
When my husband opened the package with Modern Jewish Cooking: Recipes and Customs for Today’s Kitchen by Leah Koenig (Chronicle Books, 2015) in it, he remarked, “This one you’re going to like!” And he was right.
Koenig is a writer and the author of The Hadassah Everyday Cookbook. When she is not living in Brooklyn, she is traveling around the country leading cooking demonstrations. Her philosophy is keeping a “loving eye on tradition … infusing history with … a sense of innovation … making the Jewish kitchen vibrant, exciting and ever-evolving.” She has written Modern Jewish Cooking “for the next generation of Jewish cooks.”
After an introduction on Jewish cuisine and keeping kosher, Koenig suggests how you should stock your kitchen and provides some how-tos. Then, she dives in with 11 chapters, from breakfast to dinner and desserts – 167 recipes – plus holiday essays and menus. These are enhanced by 57 color photographs and 11 essays. As well, Koenig includes all three elements I love in a cookbook: anecdotes or stories about each recipe, ingredients in bold or standing out in some way, and numbered directions.
The subtitle is “Recipes and Customs for Today’s Kitchen.” This is exhibited in the recipes’ wide variety of origins, including North Africa, Spain, Eastern Europe (including Ashkenazi), Ethiopia, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Bukharia, Romania, Egypt, Israel, Sweden, Iraq, Persia and the Mediterranean. For Rosh Hashana, I highlight three of Koenig’s recipes:
APPLE AND HONEY GRANOLA
(six to eight servings, suggested for an Ashkenazi menu)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1/2 cup roughly chopped unsalted almonds
1 cup chopped dried apples
1/2 cup golden raisins
- Preheat oven to 375˚F. Line a large rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the honey, vegetable oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a small bowl.
- Combine the oats, walnuts and almonds in a large bowl. Drizzle with the honey mixture and stir to completely coat.
- Spread the granola on the prepared baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally until deep golden brown and tasty smelling, 20-25 minutes.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven, add the apples and raisins and stir to combine. Set the baking sheet on a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.
RED WINE AND HONEY BRISKET
(serves eight to 10, suggested for a Sephardi menu. Moroccan Jews customarily serve couscous topped with seven vegetables on Rosh Hashana, as the holiday falls in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar)
4- to 5-pound brisket
salt and ground black pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 large thinly sliced yellow onions
8 sprigs fresh thyme
8 thinly sliced garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 cup chicken broth
- Preheat oven to 325˚F. Generously sprinkle both sides of brisket with salt and pepper.
- Heat vegetable oil in Dutch oven or large pot. Add brisket and cook over medium heat, turning once until browned on both sides, eight to 10 minutes total.
- Remove brisket and set aside. Add onions, thyme, garlic, bay leaves, 1/2 cup wine and the vinegar. Cook until onions soften slightly, about five minutes.
- Whisk together one cup wine with honey, onion powder, garlic powder, broth and one teaspoon salt in a bowl. If using a Dutch oven, lay brisket atop onions. If using a pot, transfer onion mixture to a roasting pan and top with brisket. Pour wine mixture over the top. Cover tightly with foil and transfer to oven.
- Cook for two hours. Remove from oven, uncover and turn meat to other side. Re-cover and continue cooking two to 2.5 hours more, until meat is fork tender.
- Remove from oven, transfer to cutting board. Cover with foil and let rest 10-15 minutes. Slice brisket, remove thyme and bay leaves. Remove onions and arrange around brisket. Spoon pan juices over brisket and serve hot.
COUSCOUS WITH WINTER SQUASH AND CHICKPEAS
(serves six to eight)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 thinly sliced yellow onions
4 cored, seeded, chopped ripe plum tomatoes
2 finely chopped garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
15 ounces drained chickpeas
3 cups cubed, peeled butternut squash
2 peeled 1/2-inch chunked carrots
1/4 cup golden raisins
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 1/2 cups water
2 cups couscous
roughly chopped fresh cilantro or flat leaf parsley
- Heat olive oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until lightly browned, seven to 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook until soft, about five minutes. Add garlic, cinnamon, ginger, cumin, coriander, paprika and red pepper flakes, and cook one to two minutes.
- Add chickpeas, squash, carrots, raisins, broth and one teaspoon salt. Turn heat to low, cover and simmer about 15 minutes. Uncover and continue simmering, stirring occasionally until very slightly thickened, about five minutes.
- Bring water to boil in saucepan on high heat. Turn off heat and stir in couscous. Cover pan and let stand five to 10 minutes, until liquid is absorbed.
- Uncover couscous and fluff with a fork. Mount couscous onto a large platter. Make a well in the centre and fill with vegetables and chickpeas. Spoon a generous amount of liquid over couscous and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve immediately.
Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly walks in English in Jerusalem’s market.