Events

Planting Seeds for the New Jewish Food Movement

The Hazon Food Conference: Planting Seeds for the New Jewish Food Movement

December 6^th- 9^th, 2007 / Shabbat Chanukah

Jewish food traditions are rich and ancient. Today growing numbers of Jewish people are beginning to think in new ways about food. The Hazon Food Conference brings together educators, rabbis, farmers, nutritionists, chefs, food writers, and families who share a passion for learning about and celebrating food. At the 2^nd Annual Hazon Food Conference you will:

• Learn where your food comes from and about the role of sustainable agriculture
• Discover a distinctly Jewish flavor to healthy eating and better nutrition
• Explore the connection between food justice and the choices we make about food
• Delve into historical and contemporary Jewish culinary traditions from around the world

Please join us for inspiring lectures and discussions, hands-on cooking sessions, family-friendly activities, an inclusive Shabbat and Chanukah celebration, andelicious, consciously prepared food.

“The Hazon Food Conference opened the door for me - my cooking and personal food choices have changed and I view these issues more passionately than I ever imagined.” – Sharon Lebewhol, The 2^nd Avenue Deli Cookbook

For more info: www.hazon.org/foodconference - 212.644.2332 - Judith@hazon.org

As a foodie who also happens to be a graduate student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, I suppose it's no surprise that I often combine my passions for Judaism and food. Memories of the Great Synagogue in Florence, Italy are paired with recollections of a nearby trattoria, with images of horseshoe-arched entrances living alongside equally potent memories of truffled pasta. A similar melding occurs when I teach, and of course, when I write on my blog, where Jewish history finds its way into posts about beignets or whatever else is cooking in my kitchen.

The latest manifestation of this habit? A cookbook raffle intended to raise money for the 2007 Jewish Environmental Bike Ride. The ride is sponsored by Hazon whose food team I joined this past May, and proceeds from the ride are used to fund a wide array of worthy projects: 10 organic farms around the US, an organic farming initiative in Israel, and a food curriculum for Jewish day schools, which teaches children about a vast array of important topics surrounding Judaism, nutrition and the environment. These are just a few of the initiatives funded by the ride and I wanted to contribute to the cause - but what could I do?

70 Prizes. One Amazing Cause.That's when a crazy idea hit me. As a foodblogger who has reviewed cookbooks on her site, I've been in touch with publishing houses like Hyperion and HarperCollins - what if I asked them to donate books to a raffle that would raise funds for the NY Ride? I wasn't sure they would go for it but it never hurts to ask, so I shot a few emails their way and, to my surprise, they were eager to support the cause. Now thanks to donations from Hyperion, HarperCollins, Ten Speed Press, Penguin and Chronicle Books I'm holding a cookbook raffle on my site, Baking and Books, with more than 70 prizes for raffle participants to win. Tickets cost only $5 with free tickets being thrown into the mix for donations of $25 (1 free ticket) and $50 (2 free tickets). The raffle is a fun way to support Jewish education while also increasing awareness about the environment and important food issues. Check it out.

I shall be your guest editor this week.

For those of you in Brooklyn, I hereby invite you to a comedy show tonight featuring one Mr. Yisrael Campbell, Orthodox comic on tour from Israel, and fresh off something called the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour. An interview of Mr. Campbell on Haaretz.com remarked that comedy in Israel used to be entirely centered around Purim, but has now expanded into a practice of listening to funny people more frequently.

Monday, July 16th
Pete's Candy Store
709 Lorimer St. in Williamsburg
(L train to Lorimer)
(718) 302-3770
7:30pm
Free

Sincerely,
Jennifer Dziura
comedian

At tonight’s theatre opening, producer Ken Davenport is offering free tickets to virgins to his new off-Broadway comedy, “My First Time.” That’s right, gratis for the chaste, no dough for the cherried. Davenport has hired a hypnotist to cruise the lines and evaluate whether the professed virgins are indeed untouched.

The show is based on a decade-old Web site that invites people to anonymously share their stories about losing their virginity.

The human lie detector, Sebastian Black, describes himself as a mind reader and a psychic hypnotist. "He's a master of body language and tone of voice," Davenport said.

Davenport could not say how many actual virgins were likely to be admitted to the theater for Thursday night's opening.

"There are a limited number of 'virgin tickets' available," he said. "However, there are not that many virgins in New York City."

Since the prospect of virgins in the next life seem to be a source of a whole lot of global chaos, it’s awfully nice that someone is determined to gather all the virgins in one place for those of us still in THIS life.

Dear Readers,

Jewcy contributor Steven Beeber will be leading a panel discussion about Jews and Punk tonight at 11 at Mo Pitkin’s in the East Village, 34 Avenue A. Check back to the Shvitz in the coming weeks where Steven will be blogging on Israeli punk.

Panel participants tonight include “coolest guy in the room” Danny Fields, who discovered The Ramones and managed Iggy Pop; “legendary left-field guitarist” Gary Lucas; American Hardcore author Steven Blush; and Sic F*ck “Spanish Bar Mitzvah” composer Russell Wolinsky. Also on the panel, acclaimed writer and editor Steven Lee Beeber, author of The Heebie Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk. Mo Pitkin’s gives more in-depth on each of the panelists, whose resumes are a veritable anthology of punk know-how. Cost ya a whole 5 bucks to see these punk pioneers hash it out.

Happy Thursday night,

The Jewcy Staff

The 25th Annual Mermaid Parade hits the Coney Island streets tomorrow.

Watch the THE BITCHIN BELLYFISH OF BROOKLYN, six groovy bellydancers and their dashing men-of-war, take on the parade. Join these shimmying jelly heroines on their adventure of love, jelloshots, banner bitches and dances straight outta a gypsied-out Sir Mix-a-Lot video.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War, the Tel Aviv Cinemateque is exhibiting clips from the film Encounter Point, a film about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Details: 

Today, Tuesday June 5th, 4 pm until midnight - an event at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque sponsored by Machsom Watch, Combatants for Peace,  IPCRI, Yesh Din and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. Clips of Encounter Point will be screened between 7:30 and 9:45 pm.

On June 8th and 9th, Encounter Point will be screening at  IPCRI's "June 5th Initiative" event in Tantur, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Producer Joline Makhlouf will attend along with members of the Bereaved Families Forum. These two days will include participation by the Sulha Peace Project, a concert with David Broza,  Combatants for Peace and many more. Visit  www.june5.org for details.
Also, as you know, for the last few years Just Vision has been publishing interviews with nonviolent peace builders online at  Justvision.org. Every few weeks we add another in-depth portrait in order to inform audiences about the challenges, opportunities and lessons learned by a wide array of courageous civilians from both societies who are working to move their peoples in the direction of peace. Please visit our site to read the latest online interviews, with David Lisbona of  Middleway,  Gisha and The People's Voice; Michal Eskenazi of the  Young Israeli Forum for Cooperation; and  Majed Tbeileh of the Nablus Youth Federation and The Future Generation Hands Committee.

There are lots of Jewcy readers in Chicago, not least of whom our Gallic contributor Francois Blumenfeld-Kouchner. He's expressed interest in organizing a Chicago-area Jewcy get-together. How do I know this? Because he emailed me:

I'm trying to organise a Chicago-area Jewcy get-together, any idea of how to advertise it on the site (I put it in my events, but I don't think that people will find it unless they're specifically looking for it)? 

While we beat Craig with a sand-filled sock to get him to simplify our events module, I figured I'd throw out an open challenge on the Shvitz to get you people to make nice with each other in person. You know who you are, ashprintzen, abnobel, etc.

So go get in touch, take pictures, cabal it up Leo Strauss-style, and report back to us. We'll even Flickr-ize the excitement vicariously for you.