Jewish News Passover march 23, 2015

r e v o s s a P Supplement to Jewish News March 23, 2015 jewishnewsva.org | Passover | March 23, 2015 | Jewish News | 23

Passover

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24 | Jewish News | March 23, 2015 | Passover | jewishnewsva.org

Passover begins this year on Friday evening, April 3. Nineteen years ago, the first seder also took place on April 3. Why do I remember? My daughter, who will be 19 on April 4, was letting me know in her own gentle way that she was ready to make her very first appearance. We did get through that seder, but the following evening, instead of a second seder, we were all at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Nineteen years later and after nearly a full academic year of advanced Hebrew, she’ll probably be leading our seder when we pick up our Haggadahs at sunset this April 3. Our challenge now, of course, is to make a palatable Pesadich birthday cake!

As with all holidays, we each have our own thoughts, memories of and perhaps challenges related to Passover.

For Streit’s Matzo, for example, the challenge is closing its 90-year-old Lower East Side factory. It’ll be a sad day for the neighborhood this Spring.

Rabbi Michael Panitz created his own challenge by offering to track down information on community seders in Tidewater.

Ultimately, his advice is to go to websites and make some calls. His friend, Elie Bar Adon, turned his information into Guess Who’s Coming to Seder? on page 33.

Another rabbi, Rabbi Sharon Forman (yes, Norfolk’s own), was challenged by her Little League-loving son to find a baseball-themed Haggadah, which she couldn’t.

So, not to disappoint, she created one. I’m already a big fan. Check out the review on page 40.

We also feature a married rabbi couple that met the challenge of creating a totally vegetarian menu for Passover. If not for the seder, the dishes look inviting for anytime of year.

A writer for Kveller took on the challenge of finding 10 ways to include women in the seder. The article, with some interesting tips, is on page 26.

And, please remember, if anyone has a suggestion for that birthday cake, let me know. It’s an ongoing challenge!

May the matzah eating begin!

Terri

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Passover At Streit’s 90-year-old Lower East Side factory, ‘the men’ turn out their last matzah batch

by Gabe Friedman

NEW YORK (JTA)—Seated in his Lower East Side office, in front of a large portrait of company patriarch Aron Streit, Alan Adler avoids becoming too nostalgic.

“It’s like I tell my family members: none of you own a car from 1935, why do you think a matzah factory from 1935 is what we should be using today?” says Adler, one of Streit’s Matzos’ 11 co-owners.

This is the line of thought behind the imminent closing of the Streit’s matzah factory, a longtime Jewish fixture in a city neighborhood that once was home to one of the highest concentration of Jews in the country.

Streit’s, the last family-owned matzah company in the United States, announced in December that it would be permanently closing its 90-year-old factory after this Passover season because of longstanding mechanical problems and subsequent economic concerns. Sometime in April, the company will shift its matzah production either to its other factory across the river in northern New Jersey, where several other products such as macaroons and wafers are made, or to another non-Manhattan location.

The greatly gentrified Lower East Side has seen its real estate values skyrocket in recent decades. Although Streit’s has not yet identified a buyer for its landmark building on Rivington Street, the property was estimated to be worth $25 million in 2008, when the company first considered shuttering the factory.

“We should’ve been out of here five or 10 years ago,” says Adler, 63, who oversees the company’s day-to-day operations along with two cousins. “But we feel committed to the men [who work here] and we feel committed to the neighborhood, so we tried to keep this place afloat as long as we could. We probably could’ve stayed here

even longer if I could’ve found somebody to work on the ovens.”

The ovens, identified only by “Springfield, Mass” on their side, date back to the 1930s. They are 75 feet long and are continuously fed a thin sheet of dough that emerges from the convection heat in perfect crisp form. Streit’s does not disclose its official production numbers, but Adler says the factory churns out millions of pounds of matzah each year.

However, Adler also estimates that the ovens are now about 25 percent slower than they used to be and he cannot find a mechanic willing to fix them. The slower pace decreases matzah output and affects the product’s flavor.

But the ovens aren’t the only outdated element of the factory. Except for a few electrical parts added to the machinery over the years, nearly all of the other equipment is more than 70 years old. As a result, employees’ tasks have barely changed in over half a century—from mixing the flour in small batches (in under 18 minutes to satisfy kosher requirements) to separating the matzah sheets into pieces that then travel up to higher floors on a conveyor belt.

“Nothing changes at Streit’s,” says Rabbi Mayer Kirshner, who oversees the factory’s kosher certification.

However, plenty has changed in the matzah business since Adler’s childhood in the 1950s and ’60s, when he liked to spend time picking fresh matzah out of the ovens. Back in the “heyday,” as Adler calls it, of the 1930s through the 1960s, there were four matzah factories in the New York metropolitan area: Horowitz-Margareten and Goodman’s in Queens, Manischewitz in New Jersey and Streit’s in Manhattan.

Horowitz-Margareten and Goodman’s were sold to Manischewitz, which was bought by the private equity firm Kohlberg and Company in 1990. (Today it is owned

by Bain Capital, Mitt Romney’s former investment firm.)

The Streit’s factory also used to boast a vibrant storefront with lines that spilled outside and around the corner. Today there is still a retail counter, but often it is left unmanned.

“Families have moved on, the Lower East Side has changed, so now we’ve sort of transitioned from a local bakery where people would stop by and pick up their matzah hot out of the oven in 1925 to now where 99.9 percent of our sales are wholesale to distributors who resell,” Adler says.

While his cousins helped at the retail counter, Adler, who joined the company 18 years ago after a law career, says he was always more comfortable working behind the scenes. In the factory’s freight elevator he has clearly ridden in innumerable times, he cracks a rare joke.

“You couldn’t build an elevator like this today,” he says. “It’s passed every safety law from 1925 and not one since.”

Adler says the 30 factory employees were shocked by the news in December but are taking it “surprisingly well.” The company has told them that there are many jobs available at the New Jersey facility, but only three employees have taken the company up on the offer.

Many of “the men,” as Adler calls the employees, live in Queens and take public transportation to work, meaning that a potential commute to New Jersey would be difficult. Streit’s is working with the New York Department of Labor to help them find new jobs.

Anthony Zapata, who has worked at Streit’s for 33 years, and who Adler says does everything from packing matzah to putting out fires (“literally, not figuratively”), says

that he is very depressed about the factory’s closing. He says the increased transportation costs of traveling to New Jersey would be too much for him.

“I’m going to miss this place, and I’m going to miss everyone in it,” Zapata says.

“I’ve never had a modern job to know what’s old, and what’s different between modern and old.”

Zapata, 53, says that all the employees are friends and have barbecues together around the city in the warmer months.

“We’ll remain tight,” he says.

Adler does not betray many emotions on the matter, but he offers a bittersweet anecdote on the neighborhood’s evolution.

Shortly before the company first thought of selling the property in 2008, a man living in one of the condos adjacent to the factory complained to Adler about the noise and flour dust coming out of the building.

Adler responded to his requests by blocking in and sealing several factory walls, and when he saw the man months later, he told him what he thought would be “good news” about the factory’s potential closing.

“He said, ‘Oh, God, I don’t want condos—there won’t be enough parking on this street!’” Adler recalls. “All of a sudden he liked my noise and my flour dust.

“I don’t know what they’ll do with this building now,” he adds, “but people don’t like change.”

jewishnewsva.org | Passover | March 23, 2015 | Jewish News | 25

Passover 10 ways to add some girl power to your seder

by Avital Norman Nathman

(Kveller via JTA)—Whether you weave in one, a few, or all 10 of these tips, consider honoring the matriarchal roots of Judaism this Passover with a little girl power fun at your seder this year.

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Happy Passover!

1. Add an orange and coffee bean to your seder plate The orange represents both inclusion and solidarity with women and the LGBT community. The new tradition was started

by Professor Susannah Heschel, who was inspired by women at Oberlin College in 1984 who made space on their seder plate to represent all who were not explicitly present in the Passover story.

The coffee bean represents and honors both the bitterness and strength of juggling your work life and family life – something we’re pretty sure you can relate to.

2. Miriam’s Cup In addition to the traditional cup of Elijah, include Miriam’s Cup and begin your seder by filling it up together. It serves as the symbol of Miriam’s Well—the source of water for the Israelites in the desert. Pass the cup around the table and let each guest add a bit of water from his or her own cup, establishing that the seder is an inclusive and participatory one. Remind your guests that while we may enjoy drinking our four cups of wine, water is just as important.

Like Miriam’s Well, water sustains and nourishes us (and prevents hangovers).

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26 | Jewish News | March 23, 2015 | Passover | jewishnewsva.org

3. Lighting candles Candle lighting has traditionally fallen to women in Jewish practice. Honor this by recognizing that the lighting of candles helps usher light into the darkness and allows us to begin our holidays peacefully. This poem, written by Hannah Senesch, is an excellent way to help usher in that feeling: Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.

Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.

Blessed is the heart with the strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake.

Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.

4. The four mothers Speaking of those four cups of wine, you can note during your seder that some scholars connect the four cups of wine with the four mothers: Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah. After all, the only thing better than one Jewish mother is four.

5. Honor the women in your life The four cups of wine are also excellent opportunities to honor the women in your own life, both past and present. With each glass of wine, take a moment to dedicate it to a woman who has impacted your life in some way. (Pro tip: If your own mom is in attendance, you might want to go ahead and include her.)

6. The four daughters While we’re familiar with the story of the four sons from the traditional Haggadah, why not also give a nod to the four biblical daughters, a wonderful addition from “A Night To Remember: The Haggadah of Contemporary Voices,” by Mishael and Noam Zion. The reading shares wisdom from Miriam, Tamar, Ruth and The Beautiful Captive.

7. Four alternative questions After reciting the Ma Nishtanah, the traditional Four Questions, take the time to ask four alternative questions, ones that feel relevant to you and your family and ignite discussion. Here’s one example to get you started: What still enslaves us as Jewish women today, and how do we seek freedom from our own Pharaohs (or Sheryl Sandbergs, if you will)?

8. Add to the story!

There are many women who play crucial roles in the Exodus story, yet they’re usually left out of the retelling. Take some time to sing their praises: Shifra and Puah: These two midwives

Passover were respected members of their community. Despite risk of punishment, they defied the Pharaoh’s orders and continued to help deliver baby boys for Jewish women in Egypt.

Yocheved: Having gone into labor early, Yocheved kept her secret from the Egyptians, saving Moses’ life. She then made the ultimate mother’s sacrifice by sending him down the river—her only hope in saving him from otherwise certain death. Now there’s a birth story to remember.

Batya: Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses in the reeds of the Nile and decided to raise him as her own, knowingly going against her father’s decree to kill all male Jewish babies. Without her defiance and bravery, our Passover story might have looked very different.

Miriam: One of the most well-known women in the Bible, Miriam was the brave young woman who ensured Moses was safe during his journey down the Nile River.

She also was the one to bring Yocheved to Batya to be used as a nursemaid, ensuring that mother and son were never far apart.

We don’t hear much about Miriam again until the exodus from Egypt, but when we do, it is her strength and song that stick with us, which brings us to…

Judaica Gifts & Jewelry —Avital Norman Nathman is a freelance writer whose work has been featured in The Guardian UK, CNN.com, Ms. Magazine,The Frisky and more. You can catch her musing online about motherhood and feminism on Twitter and at her blog, The Mamafesto, which was named a Top 25 Political Blog by Circle of Moms.

(This piece was originally published on Kveller, a 70 Faces Media property.)

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Best wishes for a Passover season of renewed joy and freedom

9. Miriam’s Song One of Debbie Friedman’s most joyful songs, Miriam’s Song is rooted in the Exodus verse describing how Miriam led the Israelite women in song and dance after they crossed the Red Sea. “…Miriam the Prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand and all the women went after her with timbrels, dancing. And Miriam called to them: Sing to God…” 10. Wise women Many songs, poems and stories written by women are a perfect match for Passover; include them in your seder along the way.

Some of my favorites: • Marge Piercy’s poem Season of the Egg • R abbi Rachel Berenblat (aka “The Velveteen Rabbi”) has a poem about what happens after the seder.

• R abbi Jill Hammer’s Orah Hi, a feminist version of the traditional end of seder song Adir Hu.

Create a

As we gather around the Seder table to share the Passover story, we celebrate our personal and communal journeys. Let this year be even more meaningful by creating your Jewish Legacy for future generations to enjoy.

jewishnewsva.org | Passover | March 23, 2015 | Jewish News | 27

Passover First-ever Canadian Haggadah has a distinctly north-of-the-border vibe

by Ron Csillag

TORONTO (JTA)—In this rendition of the Passover story, the Children of Israel do not play ice hockey or drink kosher l’Pesach maple syrup.

But the first-ever Canadian Haggadah does have a distinctly Canuck vibe.

For one thing the Canadian Haggadah Canadienne is in three languages—English, French and Hebrew.

And instead of the standard illustrations of the Israelites building the pyramids or Moses parting the Red Sea, it features archival photographs that trace the history of Canada’s Jewish community, the world’s fourth largest.

The volume offers “a Canadian perspective on our timeless story of freedom—our Jewish history as seen through Canadian eyes,” states its introduction.

Compiled by Rabbi Adam Scheier of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal and Richard Marceau, general counsel and political adviser at the Ottawabased Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the hefty (168-page) Haggadah aims “to deepen the Canadian Jewish identity by presenting something that’s uniquely Canadian,” Scheir says. “It’s never been done.”

A unique Canadian gestalt has been brought into sharper focus for Scheier since he’s an American who came north 11 years ago. Marceau, a French Quebecer who converted to Judaism in 2004, claims a similar cultural awareness, because he was raised “on the border” between English-speaking and Francophone Canada.

28 | Jewish News | March 23, 2015 | Passover | jewishnewsva.org

“When you have people around the table who speak different languages, even though they understand the other, they are not comfortable enough.”

The two talked and concluded, “Maybe we’re the ones who should be on that bridge, making sure that Canadian Jews can celebrate together,” Marceau said.

Interspersed with commentary from 20 rabbis across Canada, spanning all denominations, are some 100 archival pictures of Jewish life from every region of the country: William Goldbloom stands proudly before his fur-and-hide store in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, in 1921; Grizzled Jewish prospector Marco Zimmerman stakes his claim in the Yukon Territory circa 1920; a doe-eyed immigrant boy arrives from Lisbon just days before Passover 1944; visiting Israeli dignitaries are all smiles in a meeting with Canadian leaders; Canadian Jews demonstrate on behalf of Soviet Jewry in the 1970s.

The Haggadah cover shows a gaggle of children munching on matzah at the 1948 opening of a matzah factory in Montreal.

And, of course, there’s an obligatory hockey moment among the book’s photos: Current Prime Minister Stephen Harper hoists a Team Israel jersey on his visit there last year.

“There so much flavor and so much that should start a conversation about what it means to live as a Jew in Canada and how deep our roots are,” Scheier says.

The Haggadahs are on sale for $20 each at Judaica stores in Toronto and Montreal and at Amazon.ca.

Passover In eastern Ukraine, a unique matzah factory puts food on Jewish tables

by Cnaan Liphshiz

DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine ( JTA)— With one eye on a digital countdown timer, Binyamin Vestrikov jumps up and down while slamming a heavy rolling pin into a piece of dough.

Aware of his comical appearance to the journalist watching, he exaggerates his movements to draw laughs from a dozen colleagues at the kneading station of Tiferet Hamatzot—a factory believed to be Europe’s only permanently open bakery for handmade matzah, or shmurah matzah.

But Vestrikov’s urgency is not just for entertainment.

Rather it is designed to meet the production standards that have allowed this unique bakery in eastern Ukraine to provide the Jewish world with a specialty product at affordable prices. The factory here also offers job security to about 50 Jews living in a war-ravaged region with a weakened economy and high unemployment.

Each time Vestrikov and his coworkers receive a new chunk of dough, the timers over their work stations give them only minutes to turn it into a 2-pound package of fully baked matzah—a constraint meant to satisfy even the strictest religious requirements for the unleavened crackers that Jews consume on Passover to commemorate their ancestors’ hurried flight out of Egypt.

“The faster the process, the more certain we are that no extra water came into contact with the dough and that it did not have any chance of leavening,” says Rabbi Shmuel Liberman, one of two kashrut supervisors who ensure that the factory’s monthly production of approximately eight tons complies with kosher standards for shmurah matzah.

The time limitation means the entire production line has only 18 minutes to transform flour and water into fully baked and packaged matzah.

Still, the workers are not complaining. They are happy to have a steady,

dollar-adjusted income in a country whose currency is now worth a third of its February 2014 value—the result of a civil war between government troops and pro-Russian separatists that has paralyzed Ukraine’s industrial heart and flooded the job market with hundreds of thousands of refugees from the battle zones.

“It’s hard work, sure, but I am very happy to be doing it,” Vestrikov says. “I don’t need to worry about how to feed my family. There is very little hiring going on, and every job has dozens of takers because all the refugees from the east are here.”

Rolling up a sleeve over a throbbing bicep, he adds, “Besides, this way I don’t need to go to the gym.”

Despite working under pressure in a hectic and overheated environment—the ovens at Tiferet Hamatzot remain heated for days, preventing the building from ever cooling off even at the height of the harsh Ukrainian winter—the factory’s workers form a tight community whose social currency is made up of jokes and lively banter, mostly on cigarette breaks.

Workers like Vestrikov say they receive good wages, but production costs and taxes in Ukraine are so low that the factory can still afford to charge customers significantly less than its competitors in the West, says Stella Umanskaya, a member of the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community and the factory’s administrational manager.

A 2-pound box of Tiferet Hamatzot costs approximately $10 locally and $15 abroad compared to more than double that price for shmurah matzah produced in bakeries in Western Europe, such as the Neymann matzah bakery in France, or those operating in Israel and the United States.

Shmurah matzah, Hebrew for “guarded matzah,” is more expensive than regular matzah because it requires manual labor by people whose task is to guard that it does not become leavened bread—a concept derived from a verse in the book of Exodus that states “You shall guard the

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Have a Good and Healthy Passover matzot.” Some consider it a mitzvah to consume shmurah matzah because it upholds that commandment of devoting special attention or effort to guarding the matzah.

For this reason, traditional Jewish law requires that the handling of matzah and its ingredients be done by Jews only. But the factory also employs more than a dozen non-Jews who perform other tasks, including distribution.

To Rabbi Meir Stambler, the owner of Tiferet Hamatzot, this means the bakery “not only puts matzah shmurah on Jewish tables, but also helps build bridges and do

mitzvot with non-Jews.”

Stambler, an Israeli Chabad rabbi who lives in Dnepropetrovsk and opened the factory 12 years ago, says his father used to bake shmurah matzah in secrecy in Tashkent, when the Uzbek capital was still part of the Soviet Union and subject to its anti-religious policies.

“Back then, matzah used to be smuggled from Israel into the Soviet Union before its collapse in 1990,” he says. “It’s just unbelievable that now, some years later, we bake matzah in Ukraine and send it all over the whole world.”

jewishnewsva.org | Passover | March 23, 2015 | Jewish News | 29

FOR YOUR

PASSOVER

CELEBRATION

Passover For Passover, a clergy couple’s vegetarian seder menu

by Marshall Weiss

(The Dayton Jewish Observer/JTA)—Vegetarian food brought Cantor Jenna Greenberg and Rabbi Josh Ginsberg together. The two met as students at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, when a classmate organized a singles dinner at a kosher vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown.

Greenberg had become a vegetarian in her teens, Ginsberg in his 20s.

Now married, the two settled in Dayton, Ohio, two years ago. Ginsberg is the rabbi at Beth Abraham Synagogue, Dayton’s only Conservative congregation, while Greenberg leads the music program at Hillel Academy, the city’s Jewish day school, and teaches high school Judaic classes at the Miami Valley School, a nondenominational private prep school.

Ginsberg says he neither encourages his congregants to become vegetarians nor discourages them from eating meat.

“People know I’m a vegetarian, but I don’t engage in proselytizing vegetarianism,” he says. “Jewish tradition allows that one can eat meat. I really applaud the trend of some who are trying to create ethical, eco-kashrut and small-scale slaughtering where animals are fed a better diet and treated better.”

A few times a year, Greenberg and Ginsberg have prepared vegetarian entrees alongside meat dishes for Shabbat dinners at the synagogue. They’ve received rave reviews from congregants, many of whom hadn’t tried tofu as a meat substitute before.

At home, they turn out creative vegetarian meals for their boys—ages seven, five, and eight months. Greenberg says their recipes come from experimentation, some guidance from cookbooks and online recipes, along with suggestions from friends and family.

Here, they offer a kosher-for-Passover seder menu that suits their fast-paced, vegetarian lifestyle—and keeps their children happy. All recipes yield approximately 8-10 servings:

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Chopped liver • Herford & Prime Beef Briskets Stuffed cabbage rolls Plump Roasting Chickens (antibiotic & hormone free)

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30 | Jewish News | March 23, 2015 | Passover | jewishnewsva.org

Roman Soup with Passover Dumplings (developed by the couple’s friend Susan K. Finston, author of Dining in the Garden of Eden) This is a tasty spring alternative to the traditional matzah ball soup.

Ingredients 3–4 Tbs of extra-virgin olive oil or other vegetable oil 1 small onion, chopped 1 medium carrot, small dice 1 celery stalk, chopped 6 cups chopped mixed greens: Swiss chard, spinach, kale, butter lettuce, Savoy cabbage or other seasonally available greens 6 cups vegetable broth or water salt and pepper to taste parmesan cheese

Instructions • Sauté chopped onion in oil until translucent over medium-low heat • Add carrot and celery and cook until vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally • Stir in 6 cups of mixed chopped greens (described above) • When vegetables are wilted, add soup stock • Bring to a boil and then simmer for 45 minutes Add salt and pepper to taste • Add 1–2 tablespoons Passover dumplings per serving • Serve with fresh grated parmesan cheese

Passover Passover soup dumplings Ingredients 2 cups mashed potatoes 2 eggs, lightly beaten ¼ cup Passover cake meal Optional: 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley or basil Reserve: 1–2 teaspoons of extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions • Mix all ingredients, adding additional cake meal to form a dough that is pliable and not too sticky • Bring water to a boil in a 2–3 quart pot • Form small balls out of the dough and carefully slide them into the water to bring them to a boil • Use a slotted spoon to remove the dumplings from the pot as they rise to the top and transfer to a container, adding 1–2 tsp of extra-virgin olive oil

Caprese Salad

This preface to the main course tastes best when the tomatoes are ripe and sweet, and the basil is very fresh.

Instructions Ingredients • On a large platter 2 pounds vine-ripened arrange tomato and tomatoes mozzarella slices and (about 4 large), sliced basil leaves, alternating ¼ inch thick and overlapping them.

1 pound fresh mozzaSprinkle salad with rella, oregano and arugula, sliced ¼ inch thick and drizzle with oil. ¼ cup packed fresh basil Season salad with salt 3 to 4 tablespoons and pepper. extra-virgin olive oil fine sea salt to taste freshly ground black pepper to taste

Potato Spinach Gnocchi

This delicious dish, also from Susan K. Finston, is a creative pasta alternative for Pesach.

Ingredients 2 pounds potatoes 1½ cups potato starch 1 egg, lightly beaten 2 teaspoons salt 1 pound cooked, finely chopped spinach (frozen or fresh) ½ teaspoon nutmeg Optional: 1 Cup ricotta cheese for richer gnocchi Reserve: ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions • Peel, boil and mash potatoes • Add remaining ingredients to create the gnocchi dough, adding additional potato starch in case the dough is too sticky • Fill a 4–6 quart pot with cold water and bring water to a boil • While the water is heating, form small patties out of the gnocchi and then carefully slide them one at a time into the boiling water • When the gnocchi rise to the top of the pot, they are ready—use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pot and place them in an oiled baking dish • Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and bake at 375 degrees for 10–15 minutes to melt the cheese. continued on page 32 jewishnewsva.org | Passover | March 23, 2015 | Jewish News | 31

Passover continued from page 31

Tomato Sauce for Gnocchi Ingredients 2–3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or other cooking oil ½ cup chopped onion 1–2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped ¼ cup of parsley, chopped 1 bay leaf 26-oz jar of crushed or stewed tomatoes 1 small can tomato paste

Instructions • Heat oil in saute pan, add onion and garlic and cook on low heat until translucent • Add parsley, bay leaf, tomatoes and tomato paste • Bring to a low boil and then turn heat down and simmer for 20–30 minutes.

Eggplant Parmesan This is a favorite dish year-round, even with matzah meal as the breading!

Ingredients 2 large eggplants, sliced lengthwise into ½-inch-thick pieces salt, for sweating eggplants 4 eggs, beaten with a fork 3 cups matzah meal 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 26-oz jar pasta sauce (any variety) 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

FIRST

SEDER 2015 NISSAN 5775 IS FRIDAY, APRIL 3 NIGHT OF

Instructions • Preheat oven to 350°F. Sweat eggplant slices, sprinkling salt, allowing time for the moisture to come out; rinse and wipe the eggplant slices. Coat eggplant slices with beaten egg, then bread with matza meal. Sauté coated eggplant slices in oil until lightly brown on both sides.

• In a 9x11 ovenproof dish, layer pasta sauce, then eggplant and top with cheeses. Repeat, finishing with cheese.

Bake until the cheese melts and turns golden in spots, about 30 minutes.

Mushroom Quinoa Pilaf

A hearty side dish for mushroom lovers that can be served either warm or cold.

PLEASE

GO TO

Ingredients 1 cup red, black, or mixed quinoa 2 cups water vegetable soup broth OR salt to taste medley of 3 varieties of fresh mushrooms: portabella, cremini, white mushrooms olive oil for cooking splash of balsamic vinegar 4 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed

WWW.BETHSHOLOMVILLAGE.COM

TO ACCESS THE MENU AND ORDERING INFORMATION.

The last day to order your Passover Seder meals from the Village Caterers is Monday, March 30.

First available pickup date: Thursday, April 2 after 12 pm.

Last available pickup date: Friday, April 3 before 12 pm.

Happy Passover!

32 | Jewish News | March 23, 2015 | Passover | jewishnewsva.org

Melon Salad

Instructions • R inse quinoa. Sauté quinoa in nonstick pan for 5 minutes, tossing regularly to avoid burning. Combine quinoa with water and broth in a medium saucepan.

• Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes. Set aside.

• Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan, add the garlic. Once the garlic is lightly browned, add the mushrooms and balsamic vinegar. Sauté until the mushrooms are well cooked.

• Toss the sautéed mushrooms in with the quinoa and serve.

This simple tossing of freshly diced ripe melons is inspired by the couple’s cantaloupe and honeydew-loving sons!

1 honeydew and 1 cantaloupe: Dice the melons and toss together!

Passover Lora Brody’s Bête Noir

This recipe is inspired by the taste buds and by the baking artistry of the couple’s mothers, Linda Greenberg and Tina Strauss-Hoder.

Ingredients ¹/3 cups superfine sugar ½ cup water 8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into 10 chunks 6 large eggs, room temperature Instructions • Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan, line with parchment, lightly greased. Have a larger roasting pan available for a Bain Marie.

• In a medium saucepan, place one cup of sugar and the 4 ounces of water in it. Heat to boil stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove the pan from its heat source, melt the chocolate in the hot syrup, stirring to melt. Add the chunks of butter, stirring each chunk in before

adding another.

• Beat eggs together, with an electric beater until foamy and thickened. Stir eggs into cooled chocolate mixture, stirring until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Place a roasting pan on the middle oven rack, placing the cake in the middle of the roasting pan. Pour hot tap water into the roasting pan to a depth of one inch along the outside of the cake pan. Avoid splashing water on the cake batter. Gently push pan into the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cake pan and cool cake. When ready to serve, run a butter knife along the edge of the cake. Unmold the cake onto serving plate.

• Chill. Can be made one day ahead.

Guess who’s coming to Seder?

T

by Elie Bar Adon

he traditional seder opens with the declaration, “let all who are hungry, come and eat; let all who need hospitality, come and share Passover.” The Jewish congregations in Tidewater, each in their own way, are fulfilling that pledge.

The local congregations of South Hampton Roads reflect a healthy diversity. Some

are small and informal, some larger and more structured. Ideologically, they span the range of Orthodox and Hassidic, through Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist.

As home to an array of military installations, the region hosts its own Jewish chapel, and a rabbi is currently one of the area active duty chaplains. Moreover, many of the synagogues are home to military families.

The congregations’ seder options reflect this diversity. Some are catered, some are home-cooked. Some are directed at specific groups, such as military personnel and people new in their Jewish observance; others are aimed at the broader spectrum.

Kosher policy follows the standards of each denomination, and there is a growing trend to providing vegetarian-friendly seder menus.

But transcending their diversity, the Jewish congregations share an underlying unity: each is reaching out to people looking for a seder. If you are looking for a seder, you have options. For a complete list of area synagogues with contact information, go to www.JewishNewsVa.org and click on the Guide to Jewish Living in Tidewater.

Teri and I wish you and your family a Happy Passover!

We stand with Israel, now and always.

& Mrs. Scott Rigell

Congressman

jewishnewsva.org | Passover | March 23, 2015 | Jewish News | 33

Celebrate Passover

8

49

Yehuda Matzos 5 lb

Streit’s Matzo Ball or Soup Mix 4.5 oz

3

2$ for

Manischewitz Macaroons 10 oz, select varieties

3

99

Manischewitz Matzos 5 lb

10

99

89

¢

Rokeach Memorial Candle

1

89

Kedem Grape Juice 64 oz, select varieties 032315_ROP

3

49

Manischewitz Premium Gold Gefilte Fish 24 oz

7

49

Yehuda Matzoss Farfel or Cake Meal 9-16 oz, select varieties

2

99

Manischewitz Chicken Broth

Prices effective Monday, March 23 through Sunday, April 5, 2015 at 730 West 21 St., Norfolk location only.

34 | Jewish News | March 23, 2015 | Passover | jewishnewsva.org

10.5 oz