The Vicious Babushka

Flax/Chia Vegan Challah

Since our previous post, 1 year ago, we made another attempt at Vegan Challah with pretty good results. This one uses flax meal and chia seeds instead of eggs. 

INGREDIENTS

7 c. bread flour
1 c. whole wheat flour 
1 Tbsp. salt 
2 3/4 c. hot tap water 
2 pkg rapid rise yeast 
1/2 c. agave syrup 
1/3 c. olive oil 
2 Tbsp. flax meal 
2 Tbsp. chia seeds 
Almond milk

Combine the bread and whole wheat flour. Add in the yeast. In another bowl, mix together 3/4 c. warm water, olive oil, agave, flax and chia. Pour the rest of the water into mixer bowl. With dough hook, slowly add half the flour. Add in the oil and seed mixture, then the remaining flour one cup at a time. Knead until the dough is completely combined and no longer sticky.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel, and let rise for 1 hr. Stretch and fold the dough, cover and let rise again. Repeat every hour for 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 375°

Uncover and divide the dough. This recipe makes 2 large, or 4 medium, or 8 small challahs, or 16 individual rolls. If you are making regular egg challah but have some vegan guests it is best to make individual rolls and bag them separately.

Braid the loaves as you normally would. Let rise for 45 min - 1 hr. Brush the loaves with almond milk with a few drops of agave and sprinkle with poppy, sesame or chia seed. Again if you are also baking regular egg challah use a different seed topping.

Bake at 375° for 30 minutes.

Actually this is so good you can double the recipe and not even bother to make the regular egg challah!

Vegan Maple Challah

OK it's been a while since The Vicious Babushka has added anything to this blog.

No, we haven't gone "full Vegan" or even "Vegetarian." We love our chicken & burgers & pizza too much. But we do have a loved one who is Vegan and whenever this person comes to visit we want them to be happy.

OK we just found out that Our Vegan is unable to join us for the upcoming holiday, but we already baked the challah so here is the recipe:

2 pkg. instant yeast
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 c. warm water

Combine yeast, sugar & warm water in a small bowl. Allow to ferment (about 10 min)

2 1/2 c. warm water
4 c. bread flour
4 c. whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1/2 c. light olive oil
1/2 c. maple syrup (NOT "Log Cabin" or any other crap high fructose corn pancake syrup! Use the real stuff from Maple Trees!)
150 gr. sourdough starter OR (if you're not a sourdough fan like I am & don't have a bunch of this stuff on hand at all times)
4 Tbsp baking soda + 4 Tbsp white vinegar

Mix water and 4 c. bread flour in mixer with the dough hook. Let rest for 25 minutes. Then add:

Whole wheat flour, salt, yeast mixture, oil & maple syrup, and (sourdough starter OR baking soda/vinegar mix).

Knead with dough hook for 10-12 minutes.

Place dough into a large bowl sprayed with nonstick spray. Cover with sprayed plastic wrap and a towel. Let rise for 1 hour.

Punch (or fold) dough and let rise for 1 more hour, then punch & rise again for another hour.

Preheat oven to 375°

Punch down dough. Place on a floured bread board. Cut dough into 2 pieces, shape into balls and let rest for 15 minutes.

This recipe will make 2 large challahs, 4 medium, 8 small or 16 individual rolls. Shape or braid as your prefer.

Instead of egg wash (this is Vegan!) brush the loaves with olive oil or maple syrup. Sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds.

Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

LOVE!

The Babushka.

Happy New Year, Have Some Strudel!

INGREDIENTS
1 package of frozen croissant dough (hey I’m in a wheelchair!)
1/2 c. breadcrumbs
1/2 c. (1/2 stick) butter or margarine
8 Apples (4 Granny Smith & 4 Honeycrisp)
1/2 c. dried Montmorency cherries (optional)
2 Tbsp rum or kirschwasser (optional)
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. honey
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Soak the cherries in the liqueur for 30 minutes.

Melt the butter in a small pan. Add the breadcrumbs and stir until coated and breadcrumbs are golden brown. Set aside.

Peel & core the apples. Cut up into slices and put into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, honey, spices and cornstarch. Add the cherries (do not drain the liqueur)

Let the apple mix sit for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400°

Drain the apples. Save the liquid in a small saucepan. Cook the liquid on the stove over medium heat, stirring with a whisk, until thickened. Set aside.

Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

On a baking board (or table or countertop) roll out a sheet of dough and stretch until it is 11” x 15”. The frozen dough should contain two sheets, so prepare the second sheet in the same way.

Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the dough.

Pour the thickened liquid (save about 1/2 c. for glaze) back into the apple mix. Carefully pile up the apple mix along one side of the dough sheet and roll up. Repeat for second sheet of dough.

Cut decorative slices in the rolled-up dough, and brush the rest of the glaze on top.

Bake the strudels for 35 minutes or until golden brown on top.

ENJOY!

SHANAH TOVAH!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Happy Hanukkah! King of Bahrain Joins Menorah Lighting Ceremony

 

Times of Israel reports:

The small Muslim monarchy of Bahrain hosted a ceremony to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, and the resulting video of kaffiyeh-wearing sheikhs dancing with Orthodox Jews to Hasidic music has been going viral on Facebook.

On Saturday night, the kingdom, ruled by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, held a candle-lighting ceremony in which Jews, businesspeople and other Bahraini people took part.

Bahrain, a group of islands in Persian gulf with a population of 1.4 million, is the only Arab gulf state that has a synagogue. The country had a Jewish population of some 1,500 Jews in 1948. However, after the declaration of the State of Israel many left, and almost all those who remained followed suit after 1967’s Six Day War. Today there are less than 50 Jews in the country.

The kingdom is also unique in that its ambassador to the US from 2008-2010 was Houda Nonoo, a Jewish woman who had formerly served in the nation’s parliament.

Read More.

With Indigenous Grapes, Israel Breaks New Ground in Wine Industry

New York Times Reports:

HEFER VALLEY, Israel — The new crisp, acidic and mineral white from a high-end Israeli winery was aged for eight months — or, depending on how you look at it, at least 1,800 years.

The wine, called marawi and released last month by Recanati Winery, is the first commercially produced by Israel’s growing modern industry from indigenous grapes. It grew out of a groundbreaking project at Ariel University in the occupied West Bank that aims to identify, through DNA testing — and recreate — ancient wines drunk by the likes of King David and Jesus Christ.

Eliyashiv Drori, the Ariel oenologist who heads the research, traces marawi—also called hamdani—and jandali grapes to A.D. 220 based on a reference in the Babylonian Talmud.

“All our scriptures are full with wine and with grapes — before the French were even thinking about making wine, we were exporting wine,” he said. “We have a very ancient identity, and for me, reconstructing this identity is very important. For me, it’s a matter of national pride.”

The redevelopment of local varietals, however — like so many things in this contested land — is not free of political friction. It comes alongside contentious new labeling guidelines by the European Union requiring that wines from the West Bank and Golan Heights carry a label saying they were made in settlements. And, perhaps predictably, Palestinians have their own ownership claims on these grapes.

For Israeli winemakers, the search for old-new varietals is an opportunity to distinguish their wares in a competitive global marketplace where they harbor little hope of improving on, say, chardonnay from France. Archaeologists and geneticists are testing new methods for analyzing charred ancient seeds. In the endless struggle between Israelis and Palestinians, it is a quest to underscore Jewish roots in the holy land.

But Recanati is not the first to sell wine from these grapes. Cremisan, a small winery near Bethlehem where Palestinians partner with Italian monks, has been using hamdani, jandali and other local fruit since 2008.

Read more at New York Times

Black & Jewish World War I Heroes Receive Medal of Honor 97 Years After Their Service

Sgt. William Shemin & Pvt. Henry Johnson

Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Declaring it's never too late to make things right, President Barack Obama posthumously bestowed the Medal of Honor on two World War I veterans whose heroic acts nearly 100 years ago went unrecognized in an age of discrimination.

 

In a tearful, joyful East Room ceremony recalling the battlefield triumphs as well as the prejudices of 20th century America, Sgt. William Shemin and Pvt. Henry Johnson were recognized with the nation's highest military decoration for saving their comrades on French front lines. Shemin was Jewish and Johnson was black.

"It has taken a long time for Henry Johnson and William Shemin to receive the recognition they deserve, and there are surely others whose heroism is still unacknowledged and uncelebrated," Obama said.

"The least we can do is to say we know who you are, we know what you did for us, we are forever grateful," he said.

Obama applauded the tireless efforts of their advocates, who led Congress to pass an exemption from Medal of Honor rules specifying that heroic actions have to have taken place within five years to be considered.

Shemin's daughters were full of emotion as Obama handed them the star-shaped medal hanging from a blue silk ribbon that they felt was long denied their father because of anti-Semitism. Ina Bass, 83, thrust the audience a thumbs up and planted a kiss on the president's cheek, while 86-year-old Elsie Shemin-Roth smiled through her tears.

Veterans of Johnson's New York National Guard regiment, the 369th known as "Harlem Hellfighters," watched stoically as Obama described how he died destitute in his early 30s after his injuries left him crippled and unable to work.

"America can't change what happened to Henry Johnson," Obama said. "We can't change what happened to too many soldiers like him, who went uncelebrated because our nation judged them by the color of their skin and not the content of their character. But we can do our best to make it right."

Obama described how Johnson and a fellow soldier came under attack by at least a dozen German soldiers while on night sentry duty on May 15, 1918. Both were injured, but Johnson single-handedly beat back the invading party and rescued his unconscious brother in arms, armed with just his Bolo knife after his rifle jammed.

Obama said Johnson became famous — feted at a victory parade down Fifth Avenue, his picture printed on recruitment posters and President Teddy Roosevelt writing that he was one of the bravest men in the war. The French, who commanded his unit because U.S. armed forces were segregated at the time, gave him the country's highest award for valor. A statue of Johnson is displayed in his hometown of Albany, N.Y.

"But his own nation didn't award him anything, not even the Purple Heart, though he had been wounded 21 times. Nothing for his bravery, though he had saved a fellow soldier at great risk to himself," Obama said before presenting the award to New York National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Louis Wilson.

Obama said it similarly took too long for America to properly honor Shemin, who was 19 when his platoon was involved in a bloody fight on the western front beginning on Aug. 7, 1918. Obama said over the course of three days, Shemin repeatedly raced through heavy machine gun fire to rescue fallen comrades. "Eventually, the platoon's leadership broke down. Too many officers had become casualties. So William stepped up and took command," Obama said.

Read more at Associated Press.

It's Pie Day! Michigan Cherry Pie

Michigan Cherry Pie

Preheat oven to 425°

Crust:

2 1/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
14 Tbsp Crisco shortening, frozen
2 Tbsp ultrafine sugar
10 Tbsp ice water

Combine flour, sugar and salt in food processor.
Cut shortening into dice-sized cubes. 
Pulse shortening with flour until mixture resembles coarse sand.
Add ice water 3 Tbsp at a time, pulsing each time.

Dough should be somewhat crumbly.
Form into 2 balls and flatten until they resemble hockey pucks.
Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Filling:

2 24-oz packages Friske® Montmorency Frozen Cherries
1 1/2 c. sugar
6 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. almond extract

In large mixing bowl, combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch and almond extract. Mix well until all cherries are coated. Place in a 4-qt saucepan and bring mixture to a boil. (This may take a while since the cherries are frozen!) Boil, stirring all the time, for about 1 minute until liquid has thickened and becomes translucent. Turn off heat and let cool.

Roll out bottom pie crust and line a 9.5" pie pan. Pour in cherry filling. Roll out top crust and cut into strips for a lattice-weave top.

Bake at 425° for 50-60 minutes. Cover the edges with a pie shield or foil after 30 minutes to prevent crust burning.

President Obama Welcomes Chabad Shluchim to the White House

Chabad shluchim meet with President Obama

The White House reports:

On Monday, April 27, President Obama welcomed a delegation from Chabad-Lubavitch into the Oval Office to commemorate Education and Sharing Day, USA. Established by Congress in 1978 to honor the life’s work of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson (1902-1994), the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Education and Sharing Day provides an opportunity to focus on education's importance and recognize the contributions Rabbi Schneerson made during his lifetime in the fields of education and morality, ethics and justice.

Since the establishment of Education and Sharing Day, which occurs on the Rebbe’s birthday, every President has issued an annual Proclamation marking "Education and Sharing Day, USA". This year’s Education and Sharing Day Proclamation acknowledges the emphasis Rabbi Schneerson placed on the education of girls, noting: “In an era where a woman's education was not valued the same as a man's, the Rebbe worked to tear down barriers that stood in the way of girls who wanted to learn.”

In addition to issuing an annual proclamation, every President since the establishment of Education and Sharing Day has invited a delegation from the Chabad-Lubavitch movement into the Oval Office. The delegation included the leadership of American Friends of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbis Abraham and Levi Shemtov; Rabbi Yossy Gordon from Chabad on Campus; Rebbetzin Chave Hecht, a pioneers in girls' education who has been teaching for more than 70 years; and Menachem Benjaminson and Chaya Goldstein, two children who are leaders in Chabad-Lubavitch children’s service organization, the Jewish Children’s Corps.

President Obama presented the nine-person delegation with a framed, commemorative copy of this year’s proclamation, which was signed on March 31, 2015, noting his appreciation for the Rebbe’s lifetime of work and recognizing that education is among many shared Jewish and American values – values that have shaped and strengthened his own connection to the Jewish community.

The President called combating rising anti-Semitism a moral obligation and emphasized that he will continue to raise the issue with other world leaders.

Finally, the delegation recited the blessing typically made upon meeting a head of state and presented the President with a menorah bearing an inscription, which reads in part:

Mr. President, you represent the middle flame, which stands on a higher plane, dedicated in service to others and the greater good, carrying the dreams and aspirations of an entire nation upon your shoulders.

Whitehouse.gov

Chabad Center in Nepal a Crisis Hub After Massive Earthquake

Tourists bunked everywhere

Chabad.org reports:

Hundreds of Israeli backpackers and tourists took refuge at the Chabad center in Kathmandu, Nepal, after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated the capital city shortly before noon on Saturday. Some were given emergency medical treatment there as emissaries and volunteers worked frantically to help locate the missing, and to provide food and shelter to the stranded. More than 2,200 people have been confirmed killed thus far, with thousands more injured and missing.

The quake’s damage reached Mount Everest and beyond, setting off landslides that killed at least 18 mountain-climbers, and trapped hikers and backpackers at the start of the climbing season. There are currently no known Israeli deaths from the catastrophe, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Chabad emissaries there, though as many as 150 remain unaccounted for as the death toll continues to climb. Fatalaties have also been reported in China and India.

Chani Lifshitz, who co-directs Chabad of Nepal with her husband, Rabbi Chezki Lifshitz, said in a video posted to their Facebook page that a few hundred people had taken refuge at the center, which was slightly damaged by the quake. She tried to reassure loved ones in Israel and abroad. Thousands of Israeli backpackers and foreign tourists—many of them in their 20s—pass through Nepal and the Chabad House each year.

“We’re trying to calm everyone,” she said, noting that they were experiencing aftershocks even as she was recording the video.

“We’re still gathering the names of the missing, and we’re trying to get in touch with everyone as urgently as possible,” she said. “Until now, we’ve taken care of a number of injured on the couches of the Chabad House. The main work now is to gather all the names of the people—the people who are in Katmandu, the people who are in the mountains. We hope to report only good news.”

Working closely with the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Nepal, emergency medical treatment to the injured was given at the Chabad House by backpackers who served as medics in the Israel Defense Forces and from local volunteers. The injured were later moved to the Israeli embassy, which is working to provide Israelis in Nepal with a means to return home. From Israel, planes were flying medics and others to the embattled area to help with search and rescue.

Read more at Chabad.org

Contribute to the rescue operations.

Cappuccino Cheesecake Pie With Toffee Crunch Topping

Preheat oven to 350°

Crust:

14 chocolate graham crackers
1/2 c. butter or margarine, melted
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. black coffee

Crush the graham crackers with a rolling pin or in food processor until fine. Mix with sugar, then add melted butter and coffee, mix well. Press into the bottom and sides of a pie pan.

Filling:

2 8-oz packs cream cheese
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/4 c. black coffee
1 Tbsp Kahlua
2 Tbsp cornstarch

In mixer, combine cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs and mix well at medium speed. Add coffee, Kahlua and cornstarch and mix for 2 minutes.

Pour into the pie crust.

Topping:

4 pieces "Viennese Crunch" of "Heath Bar" toffee candies

Crush with a rolling pin and sprinkle over the pie filling.

Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Refrigerate after completely cool.

Can be topped with whipped cream.

When a black German woman discovered her grandfather was the Nazi villain of 'Schindler's List'

 

Haaretz reports:

In the mid-1990s, near the end of the period during which she lived in Israel, Jennifer Teege watched Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List.” She hadn’t seen the film in a movie theater, and watched it in her rented room in Tel Aviv when it was broadcast on television.

“It was a moving experience for me, but I didn’t learn much about the Holocaust from it,” she tells me by phone from her home in Hamburg, mostly in English with a sprinkling of Hebrew. “I’d learned and read a great deal about the Holocaust before that. At the time I thought the film was important mainly because it heightened international awareness of the Holocaust, but I didn’t think I had a personal connection to it.”

Indeed, it was not until years later that Teege, a German-born black woman who was given up for adoption as a child, discovered that one of the central characters in the film, Amon Goeth, was her grandfather. Many viewers recall the figure of Goeth, the brutal commander of the Plaszow concentration camp in Poland – played in the film by Ralph Fiennes – from the scenes in which he shoots Jewish inmates from the porch of his home. But Teege, who had not been in touch with either her biological mother or biological grandmother for years, had no idea about the identity of her grandfather.

The discovery came like a bolt from the blue in the summer of 2008, when she was 38 years old, as she relates in the memoir “Amon,” which was published in German in 2013 (co-authored with the German journalist Nikola Sellmair), and is due out in English this April under the title “My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past.”

Teege is scheduled to visit Israel next week to take part in events marking the book’s publication in Hebrew (from Sifriat Poalim), at the International Book Fair in Jerusalem, the University of Haifa and the Goethe Institute in Tel Aviv.

She opens her book by describing the 2008 visit to a library in Hamburg to look for material on coping with depression. While there, she happened to notice a book with a cover photograph of a familiar figure: her biological mother, Monika Hertwig (née Goeth). She immediately withdrew the book, titled “I Have to Love My Father, Right?,” and which was based on an interview with her mother.

“The first shock was the sheer discovery of a book about my mother and my family, which had information about me and my identity that had been kept hidden from me,” Teege says. “I knew almost nothing about the life of my biological mother, nor did my adoptive family. I hoped to find answers to questions that had disturbed me and to the depression I had suffered from. The second shock was the information about my grandfather’s deeds.”

Read more.

DOOFUS OF THE DAY: "Hyper Frum" Paper Photoshops Women Out Of Paris March, Hopes No One Notices

Photo with Angela Merkel & other women removed

The original photo

Vos iz Neias reports:

Paris – A Haredi newspaper removed the image of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel and the Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt from a picture of global leaders marching in Paris.

The women were both taken out of the photograph but Netanyahu remained.

The newspaper, called “HaMvaser,” is published by MK Meir Porush of United Torah Judaism. It reworked the image to remove the women in following with Haredi spiritual rules that ban publishing pictures of women, since it considers the female body to be immodest.

Some Haredi newspapers also refrain from publishing the names of women.

A similar Photoshop disappearance was committed several years ago, when then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and another woman were digitally removed from the iconic "Situation Room" photo of the Osama Bin Laden assassination operation.

There is no basis in halacha (Jewish law) for removing female figures from images, this is yet another example of ignorant fanatics running amuck. At least they are using Photoshop and not machetes or machine guns.

At the very least, these stupid people could have chosen to not include any photograph at all, and spare the rest of the the embarrassment of their idiocy.

Muslim Hero Saved Hostages at Hyper Cacher Store During Seige

Lassana Bathily, employee at Hyper Cacher in Paris

Associated Press reports:

PARIS (AP) — At a kosher supermarket in Paris, a quick-thinking Muslim employee hides several Jewish shoppers in the basement before sneaking out to brief police on the hostage-taker upstairs. In the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, a poker-faced businessman fools a pair of gunmen into believing they're alone in the building before being allowed to leave unharmed.

In the days after the bloody end of twin French hostage crises Friday, stories of life-saving courage are beginning to filter out. One of the most striking is the story of Lassana Bathily, a young immigrant from Mali who literally provided police with the key to ending the hostage crisis at the supermarket.

Bathily was in the store's underground stockroom when gunman Amedy Coulibaly burst in upstairs, according to accounts given to French media and to a friend of Bathily's who spoke to The Associated Press. Bathily turned off the stockroom's freezer and hid a group of frightened shoppers inside before sneaking out through a fire escape to speak to police. Initially confused for the attacker, he was forced to the ground and handcuffed.
Once police realized their mistake, he provided them with the key they needed to open the supermarket's metal blinds and mount their assault.

"The guy was so courageous," said Mohammed Amine, a 33-year-old friend and former coworker of Bathily's who spoke to him about the assault on Saturday.
Witnesses and authorities have corroborated Bathily's account.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk on the record, explained that the key Bathily gave police allowed them to storm the supermarket without having to punch their way through the shutters.

About 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the northeast, another hostage's cool head helped keep a bad day from getting worse. Businessman Michel Catalano was waiting on a supplier at his office in Dammartin-en-Goele when he saw brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi approaching with Kalashnikov rifles. As his colleague, a 26-year-old he identified only as Lilian, ran to hide, he distracted the gunmen. He offered them coffee and — after a brief exchange of fire with authorities outside — bandaged one of the brother's necks.

"I stayed an hour with them," Catalano told AP. "I was never scared, because I had only one idea in my head: 'They should not go to the end (of the hallway) to see Lilian, that's all.' That's what kept me calm."

Eventually, Catalano was released by the hostages as police swapped text messages with Lilian inside. Just before dusk, the brothers ran outside, guns blazing. They died in a hail of return fire.

Back at the kosher supermarket, police used Bathily's key to mount their assault, killing Coulibaly and freeing 15 hostages.

Amid the bravery, there was also tragedy.

Police found four hostages dead inside the supermarket, apparently shot by Coulibaly when he entered the store.
Among them was Yohan Cohen, a 22-year-old who Amine said was "someone amazing, friendly, who likes (and) who respects people."

"I'm Muslim and he's Jewish," said Amine, an immigrant from Morocco. "But there's such respect between us. We're like brothers.

"They took my best friend."

Read More.

Happy Hanukkah Around The World

WASHINGTON DC:

BERLIN:

 

DETROIT:

WARSAW:

JERUSALEM:

CHICAGO:

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN NY: WORLD'S LARGEST MENORAH

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING LIT UP FOR HANUKKAH

Crown Heights: Man Attacked Inside A Synagogue By Assailant Screaming "Kill The Jews!"

 

Vos Is Neias reports:

Crown Heights, NY - A knife-wielding man stabbed an Israeli student in the head inside a Brooklyn synagogue early Tuesday before being fatally shot by police after he refused to drop the knife, authorities said.

The man stormed into the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic world headquarters in Crown Heights at about 1:40 a.m. and attacked Levi Rosenblat, who was studying inside the synagogue, spokesman Motti Seligson said. He said there were other people inside at the time.

According to witnesses, the attacker was heard saying repeatedly “Kill the Jews,” said Chaim Landa, another spokesman for Chabad-Lubavitch. Several other people immediately intervened, he said.

A witness flagged down a patrol officer, who confronted the 49-year-old man and told him to put the knife down. He initially put it down, but picked it up again, police said. More officers responded and repeatedly ordered the man to drop the knife.

He refused and, with the knife in his hand, charged at one of the officers, who fired once, striking the man in the torso, police said.

Police said no other officers discharged their weapons.

The man was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was not immediately identified, but police said he was from New York City and had a criminal history.

The 22-year-old Rosenblat was in stable condition, officials said.

Assemblyman Dov Hikind condemned the attack.

“I’m told that the attacker came earlier that evening, too. He was stalking the scene. Thank God he didn’t inflict more harm nor do more damage to more people,” Hikind said in an email statement.

He said while a motive for the attack was not yet known, greater security was needed for Jewish institutions.

A 9-inch knife, with a 4 ½-inch blade, was recovered at the scene, police said.

“We commend the heroic efforts of the individuals who were present and took immediate action. If not for their intervention the outcome could have been, God forbid far worse,” said Landa.

“While we are very pained by everything that has unfolded, we are very grateful to the police for their quick response and are working closely with the authorities in their ongoing investigation,” he added.

Police said the investigation is continuing.

More at Vos Is Neias.

Rabbi in Mississippi Orders Greek Salad, Bigotry Ensues

 

WAPT reports:

Rabbi Ted Riter of Beth Israel said he went to Wraps on Northside Drive for lunch.

Riter said he tried to order a Greek salad, and an employee used an anti-Semitic slur and eventually threw him out of the business.

The business owner denied Riter's claim.

"He said, 'You know Jews are small and cheap? Everyone knows that,' and I said to him, 'Did you really just say that to me?' And he said, 'Are you Jewish?' I said, 'Yes,'" Riter said.

"He didn't know exactly what he wanted, and we offered him our services, and that's the extent of it. Like I said, I have no animosity. I have good Jewish friends," a restaurant representative said.

Riter said he has visited the business a couple of times and had no previous problems.

JACKSON, Miss. —The day after a Jackson rabbi said he was thrown out of a restaurant because of his religion, the restaurant owner says it was all a misunderstanding over a "Jewish Salad."

Beth Israel Rabbi Ted Riter said he's still stunned by what happened to him Tuesday at Wraps on Northside Drive.

"I asked the owner if I could have a Greek salad to go and he said, 'The regular size or the Jewish size?'" Riter said. "He just goes into a tirade, throwing out all these expletives, 'Get out of here.'"

Wraps owner John Ellis said he doesn't have a problem with anyone.

"The guy said he didn't want to do any business with us. He was probably offended because we offer different salads -- that's all," said Wraps owner John Ellis. "I said, 'Greek salad or Jew?' We have different salads. We have Carlito's Way Salad. We have Grecian Salad. We have Jewish Salad. We have Greek Salad. We have Cesar Salad -- we have a lot of salads. Names of salads derive from people; they don't derive from the sky."

Neither the menu at the restaurant nor online made any mention of a Jewish salad, 16 WAPT's Hadas Brown reported. Ellis said a Jewish salad contains French-fried potatoes, feta cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, flat-leaf parsley and mint.

"He said, 'You know Jews are small and cheap? Everyone knows that,' and I said to him, 'Did you really just say that to me?' And he said, 'Are you Jewish?' I said, 'Yes,'" Riter said on Tuesday.

Ellis said he never called Riter cheap.

"I said it was a smaller salad than the larger salad," Riter said. "Again, it's misunderstood. I didn't know the man. I didn't know if he was Jewish."

Riter, who has only been in Jackson about three months, said he doesn't plan to take legal action against Ellis.

"I don't want to cause a further rift between the store owner and the larger Jackson community," Riter said.

Ellis, too, wants to make amends. 

"If the rabbi would like, I will name a salad after him. I will gladly name a Riter Salad," Ellis said.

Ellis said he's trying to make a living and doesn't discriminate against anyone.

Read more: http://www.wapt.com/news/central-mississippi/jackson/jewish-salad-sparks-misunderstanding-restaurant-owner-says/28229806#ixzz3EeSVmvXF

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/25/jewish-salad-rabbi_n_5883280.html?cps=gravity

Personally Babushka would not have even entered that restaurant, Babushka only eats at restaurants that are strictly kosher. It would appear this menu item was kosher, that is, it contained only vegetarian ingredients but it may have come into contact with non-kosher ingredients while it was being prepared. However that was not the cause of the dispute. The cause of the dispute was that the restaurant owner is a bigoted asshole.

That said, Babushka hopes the rabbi & his friends never enter that restaurant ever again.

President Obama's Greetings For Rosh Hashanah

 

Wishing You a Sweet, Happy, and Healthy New Year

Shanah Tovah from the White House! On Wednesday evening, Jews in the United States and around the world will begin celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

The High Holidays offer the Jewish community a moment of pause, a time to reflect on the previous year and recommit to the unending task of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. Together, working with people of all faiths, we can bring greater peace and prosperity to the world in 5775.

In his 2014 video message for the High Holidays, President Obama extends his wishes for a sweet new year and discusses why this time of year is so significant.

Hello. As Jews across America, Israel, and the world gather together for the High Holidays, Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes to you and your families for a sweet and happy new year.

My good friend Elie Wiesel once said that God gave human beings a secret, and that secret was not how to begin but how to begin again. These days of awe are a chance to celebrate that gift, to give thanks for the secret, the miracle of renewal.

In synagogues and homes over the coming days, Jews will reflect on a year that carried its shares of challenges. We’ve been reminded many times that our world still needs repair. So here at home we continue the hard work of rebuilding our economy and restoring our American dream of opportunity for all. Around the world, we continue to stand for the dignity of every human being, and against the scourge of anti-Semitism, and we reaffirm the friendships and bonds that keep us strong, including our unshakeable alliance with the State of Israel.

So let’s approach this new year with new confidence and new hope. Let’s recommit ourselves to living out the values we share as individuals and as a country. Above all, let’s embrace this God-given miracle of renewal, this extraordinary opportunity to begin again in pursuit of justice, prosperity, and peace. From my family to yours, shanah tovah.

Whitehouse.gov

Group Urges Name Change for Town Called "Death To The Jews"

Asia One reports:

PARIS - Prominent Jewish group the Simon Wiesenthal Centre has sent a letter to France's interior minister to demand that a tiny hamlet south of Paris called "Death to Jews" be renamed.

The group's director of international affairs, Shimon Samuels, wrote to Bernard Cazeneuve saying he was "shocked to discover the existence of a village in France officially called 'Death to Jews'."

"It is extremely shocking that this name has slipped under the radar in the 70 years that have passed since France was liberated from Nazism and the (pro-Nazi) Vichy regime," he wrote.

However, the deputy mayor of the village of Courtemaux - population 289 - which has jurisdiction over the hamlet located around 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Paris, dismissed the concerns.

"It's ridiculous. This name has always existed," Marie-Elizabeth Secretand told AFP.

"No one has anything against the Jews, of course. It doesn't surprise me that this is coming up again," she added.

Changing the name would require a decision by the municipal council, which Secretand deemed unlikely.

"Why change a name that goes back to the Middle Ages or even further? We should respect these old names." "A previous municipal council, at least 20 years ago, already refused to change the name of this hamlet, which consists of a farm and two houses," she explained.

In May, residents of a village in Spain with a similarly unfortunate name, Castrillo Matajudios ("Castrillo Kill Jews"), voted to change the name.

In a tight referendum, the citizens opted for the less offensive, older name for the town, Mota de Judios, or "Hill of the Jews".

More at Asia One.

First Jewish Refugee Camp Opens in Ukraine; Many Still Trapped in East

Jewish refugees from Lugansk and surrounding towns arrive at a family refugee camp in the western city of Zhitomer, organized by Rabbi Sholom Gopin, Lugansk’s rabbi and the director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Lugansk.

Chabad.org reports:

When Tatyana fled the beleaguered eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk late last week, she felt relieved just to have made it out alive.

“It was a horror. We boarded the train under heavy bombing,” explains Tatyana, 50, who escaped together with her daughter, son-in-law and 7-year-old grandson. “It was relatively calm until July 13; there was some transport around the city, some stores were open. But then the real fighting began, and everyone ran to buy tickets to leave the city; we were lucky to purchase tickets for July 24. Anyone still there can no longer leave because the central train station was bombed, and trains cannot leave the city. People are dying in Lugansk, and it is getting worse each day.”

Tatyana, who declined to give her last name, and her family, are among the more than 250 Jewish refugees from Lugansk and surrounding towns slowly recuperating at the first Jewish refugee camp established in Ukraine. The site was secured on campgrounds owned by Chabad-Lubavitch of Zhitomer and is being organized by Rabbi Sholom Gopin, Lugansk’s rabbi and the director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Lugansk.

Since early July, when Ukrainian armed forces began closing in on the pro-Russian separatists who control Lugansk, the border city has been transformed into a virtual war zone. With artillery explosions and gruesome death quickly becoming a daily part of life, thousands of Lugansk’s citizens have fled, and together with them, an estimated 1,000 members of the Jewish community.

“This is the biggest Jewish refugee crisis in Ukraine since World War II,” exclaims Gopin, speaking to Chabad.org from Zhitomer, where he is directing the camp as he attempts to help community members resettle, at least temporarily. Like so many of their neighbors in embattled eastern Ukraine, “the Jews of our community left everything behind,” he says. “They have no homes, no jobs, no money. Many still have family stuck in Lugansk. This week, five elderly people were killed in an explosion at an old-age home adjacent to our Simcha Jewish Orphanage, where close to 40 Jews are now staying.”

Read more at Chabad.org.

Fallen Israeli Soldier Mourned in Texas Home Town

Sean Nissim Carmeli and Asher Hects

Chabad.org reports:

The Jewish community of South Padre Island, Texas, is mourning the loss of native-born Sgt. Sean Carmeli, one of 13 soldiers from the Golani brigade who died in battle overnight in the Shejaiyah section of Gaza City.

Sean, known in Hebrew as Nissim, was born to Israeli parents—Alon and Dalya Carmeli—who had moved to the island in pursuit of business opportunities. Over time, along with his parents and two sisters, he reconnected with his Jewish roots and began living a Torah lifestyle.

“Sean was a gentle kind boy,” says Rabbi Asher Hecht, co-director of Chabad of the Rio Grande Valley, who met the boy in summer of 2006 when he and a friend ran a day camp for local Jewish children. “He was the oldest of the local boys in our camp, and was a sweet and kind example to everyone else.”

"He was my older brother, my best friend, my everything,” Hecht reports being told by a community youth, who continued to say, “I need Sean now more then ever now.”

The Carmelis were leaders in the religious awakening that took place in the community during the first decade of the millennium. Within a few years, community members constructed a synagogue, hired a rabbi, and almost all of the members of the tight-knit community observe Torah and mitzvot.

Alon Carmeli purchased the community’s first Torah scroll and dedicated the synagogue in memory of his father-in-law, Nissim Buganim, after whom his son was named.

After spending his summers in the Chabad day and overnight camps, Sean’s parents saw that their children were growing up without many Jewish friends and made the decision to move back to Israel, said Hecht. Sean, who held dual U.S and Israeli citizenship, completed high school in Ra’anana and went on to join the army where he served with honor and distinction in the Golani brigade.

Read more at Chabad.org.

Also: The Fall of a Lone Soldier from the Lone Star State.