First, Esser Agaroth did a great Elections Edition Haveil Havalim.
Now for our featured attraction, a beautiful article written by a Highland Park teen:
Seven years ago my mother decided it was high time we children had a dacha, a summer cottage, just like she did in Ukraine…And so we found a private bungalow in the Catskill Mountains — just around the corner from the lake and crowded Russian colonies, giving us both a social life and some relative privacy. The rather spacious two-bedroom cottage, which we would return to every year, with a large kitchen and lovely deck to the side, at first seemed small, compared to the suburban proportions we were used to.
And it wasn’t just the bungalow that was strange; at first we felt like we were dropped onto an alien planet. We had seen these loud babushkas and their Gucci-parading daughters on trips to Brighton Beach, but never in such large doses. Mornings, we were awakened by the eccentric Russian sculptor’s rooster crowing from across the street. Evenings were spent gossiping over tea and sunflower seeds and listening to the latest imported pop from Moscow.
Read the whole thing, on her mom’s blog or in the Jewish Week.
I took these photos yesterday in various spots around our little borough of Highland Park, New Jersey. The above photo is looking down North Fifth Avenue.
This one was taken outside the supermarket. Hard to believe we had snow here on Tuesday.
The flag is flying high above the Highland Park Public Library.
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The snow in October, unusual for Central New Jersey, inspired me to take these photos. It’s my neighbor’s tree; most probably a “burning bush” (thanks, EG Wow and Carletta). The yellow-leafed plants with green “sticks” are what’s left of my hostas.
My son just called and told me it is RAINING in northern New Jersey.
For more photos with a little red or a LOT of red, visit Mary the Teach at http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/.
Riva Ben-Ezra started Dulce Catering as a means of serving the smaller events in people’s lives – Shabbat dinners, birthday parties, Sheva brachot*, and other small gatherings. Based in Hashmonaim, Israel, Dulce Catering makes mouth-watering meals for small groups, artistic dessert platters, and eye-catching birthday cakes for your special occasion. All food is strictly kosher. Dulce also packages gift baskets for Purim and all year round.
For the past year Riva has run the first and second grade Beit Yeladim on Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, cooking and baking with them as an extension of their informal education process. She believes that teaching children to cook gives them independence, self-satisfaction, and is an excellent way to express their creativity.
Before moving to Israel, Riva and her family lived in Highland Park, New Jersey.
How did you get started in catering? I love to cook, and especially to bake. Someone has to eat all that food! Seriously, after the birth of Renatya (my second child), I wanted to find a more flexible work schedule, something that would keep me at home more and would be the creative outlet I felt was lacking in my present profession (veterinarian).
What types of catering do you do? I am not interested in giant cookie cutter affairs (pardon the pun) – I like to see the expressions on people’s faces when they eat my food, and I like to give people the feeling of being spoiled by receiving a scrumptious meal as a gift. For that reason, I prefer to do family dinners, sheva brachot, and other parties of less than 50 people. I also make designer birthday cakes and Purim baskets customized to your theme. My newest venture is children’s baking workshops and birthday parties for lower-elementary-school-aged children. Those are a lot of fun. I sell homemade ricotta cheese as well.
Where would you like to see your business in five years? I would love to have my own kitchen storefront to sell takeout and baked goods and a web site where people can order meals for their friends and family overseas. I would also like to expand to personal chef work.
What would you recommend to someone interested in catering? It isn’t just making good food. You need a strong business sense, willingness to put in a lot of unpaid/unrecognized hours, and you have to be a real people person. You must also be a stickler for detail, and be an extremely organized person. As Ina Garten says, it doesn’t matter how good the cake is if they don’t have forks to eat it with.
Visit the Dulce Catering Facebook Group
*Sheva Brachot are celebration meals the week after a wedding (literally, “seven blessings”)
I took these photos of the same area of sky, looking southwest from my house, in late September and early October. If you click on the little thumbnails, you will be taken to my Flickr account. It was my first experiment with using Flickr. It helped me organize this post.
This one is my favorite:
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The New Jersey Jewish News reports:
Iran protest held outside Mennonite-affiliated store
Denomination was among the hosts of Ahmadinejad dinner
Some 200 members of the Jewish community demonstrated against a Highland Park store [Ten Thousand Villages] whose parent company was part of a group that hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that same night.
Ahmadinejad has drawn the wrath of many for his Holocaust denials and his vow to destroy Israel and America.
“While they’re having dinner, we are here protesting,” Jeffrey Schreiber of Highland Park told NJJN. “We want people to know that if they buy from this store they are buying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dinner.”
Read the whole article.
I know some of the people mentioned in the article (Andrew Getraer, Michael Gordon and Doniel Sherman), and I can now say I am proud to know them. Doniel also spoke in New York City, along with Elie Wiesel and Natan Sharansky.
This is where I was for about two hours this morning, at the Friends of the Highland Park Library Book Sale. I volunteered for a little over an hour taking the money from the sales, and then I came back with my daughter to buy some books. Despite the pouring rain, patrons were coming in and buying books. Those running the sale told me that the sale has been a success (they have made over $3000). In the middle of the photo is Mort, who spent a lot of his time this past week putting together the sale, and on the right is George, another sale organizer.
So, what did we buy? I bought a biography of the Rema, the story of Rabbi Moshe Isserles. It says in the introduction that certain liberties where made with re-creating his life, but I think I will get a feel for what life was like in 16th century Cracow. My daughter selected a Mother Goose book (we already own one, but this one has different illustrations), a Berenstains Bears book, and Meet Samantha, an American Girl book. I also threw in a copy of the Princess and the Goblin, thinking at some point my daughter will enjoy this classic.
I’m currently reading Mary Poppins, the original book by P.L. Travers. It is delightful, and one can see how it inspired the producers of the more famous movie. I hope to post excerpts from the book in the next week. But now I need to get back to my holiday preparations.
Received in a synagogue announcement late last night:
This Thursday, September 25 at 7:30 there will be a rally at the corner
of 3rd & Raritan Avenues. The purpose of the rally is to express our
disappointment that the Mennonite Central Committee, the parent
organization of the 10 Thousand Villages store, is hosting the
president of Iran for dinner while he is in New York, and to protest
Ahmadinejad’s calls for genocide against Israel.
Ahmadinejad is basically a modern day Haman. He has threatened to destroy Israel and has held a Holocaust-denial conference. One of the hosts is someone named Penny Pritzker. I’ll let you do the research.
Better late than never —
Photos from the art reception of the students of Jill Caporlingua at the Highland Park Public Library two weeks ago:
The week following a wedding Orthodox Jews celebrate by hosting the bride and groom at Sheva Brachot (means 7 blessings, referring to the seven blessings one says to wish the bride and groom well). Last night, the chasan (groom) and kallah (bride) were running late; she had an early evening faculty meeting, and then they both got stuck in traffic. So while we were waiting for the party to begin, I stood on the hosts’ porch and took these sunset photos.
You can learn more about the wedding from MalkaEsther.
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