Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

Thousands of Orthodox Jews buy premium olive oil ahead of Hanukah because very observant Israelis increasingly like to use olive oil in their Hanukkah candelabras, instead of wax candles, because of its significance in the Hanukah story. Hanukah, which this year begins on Sunday evening, is a celebration of how the Maccabees, after defeating the Syrian Greeks, were able to light the two menorahs in the temple in Jerusalem for eight days with a one-day supply of olive oil.

Using olive oil for Hanukah is not required by halacha [Jewish religious law], but in many communities almost everybody does it; and they want 100 percent pure olive oil to use in their menorahs known as hanukkiot.

This makes me, a Reform Judaism Rabbi think of the Qurans ayah; God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills. And Allah presents examples for the people, and Allah is Knowing of all things. (Quran 24:35)

The historical development of the Jewish holiday of Hanukah) is a very good illustration of how Allah presents examples for his people and all religious leaders can and need to promote the greater jihad spiritual focus over the lesser jihad militant focus, especially in todays Middle East. The popular Jewish explanation of Hanukah reflects the greater jihad focus as follows.

By celebrating Hanukah, Jews recall the evil deeds of the ancient Syrian Greeks who in 168 BCE defiled the Holy Temple in Jerusalem along with its pure olive oil which was used in lighting the two Temple menorahs [ritual lamp-stands]. Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually (Exodus 27:20 & Leviticus 24:2).

After three years of warfare the Hasmonean [pro-Israelite] fighters drove the Syrian Greeks out. When the Hasmonean soldiers came into the Temple and searched for the pure olive oil with the seal of the High Priest to verify its purity, all they found was one small jug among the many defiled ones. This single jug of oil, was able to burn for eight days in the two Temple menorahs [candelabras] illuminating the Jerusalem sanctuary with light; Light upon light!

But the long-lasting oil was not the real miracle of Hanukah. The true miracle was that they were able to light the oil to burn in the menorah in the first place. Everyone knew that the small amount of oil on hand would never be enough to last until new oil could be refined and purified. Their faith, hope and trust in God was the vital ingredient.

The smart thing to do would have been to wait a week, and then to start the eight day rededication celebration copying the way Solomon had dedicated the first Temple. The Second Book of Maccabees which is found in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles but not in Protestant Bibles relates:

We are also told how the wise King Solomon offered a sacrifice of dedication [Hanukah] at the completion of (building) the Temple Solomon celebrated the festival for eight days. (Biblical Apocrypha, 2 Maccabees, 2:9, 12)

For the Hasmoneans to kindle the menorah right away, rationally, would be to expose themselves to disappointment, disparagement and recriminations, if the flames were to die out before the new supply of purified oil arrived. To kindle the menorah right away would be to stake their reputation, and to place their faith, on an uncertain eventuality.

All human beings face similar challenges in their own lives. We know that frequently faith, hope and trust in God can result in failures that lead to despair and cynicism. We also know that faith, hope and trust can lead to wonderful experiences of love, courage and accomplishment.

Without 18 centuries of faith, hope and trust, a modern Jewish homeland would never have come into existence. Similarly, without faith, hope and trust in God for the future, Israel will never be at peace with those who have become its enemies. Jews must believe that miracles do sometimes occur, as indicated in the blessing Jews recite when kindling the Hanukah lights: in those days, and [even today] in these times because faith, hope and trust in God is the only reasonable explanation for 3,500 years of continuing Jewish existence.

The long-lasting oil is only the visible stuff of the spiritual [greater jihad] lesson of Hanukah. This amazing account is first mentioned very briefly in the Babylonian Talmud (commentary on the Torah), written some four centuries after the historical events which relate the lesser jihad military story. However, from the beginning, lights have always been part of the celebration of both the military and spiritual victory.

For those who prefer only the original lesser jihad, the mundane historical and political facts of Chanukah, were written down only a generation after the events; this is what the Second Book of Maccabees records:

Judas Maccabeus and his followers, under the leadership of the Lord, recaptured the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. They tore down the altars which the pagans had set up in the marketplace and destroyed the other places of worship that had been built. They purified the Temple and built a new altar. Then, with new fire started by striking flint, they offered sacrifice for the first time in two years, burned incense, and lighted the lamps.

After they had done all this, they lay face down on the ground and prayed that the Lord would never again let such disasters strike them. They begged God to be merciful when he punished them for future sins, and not hand them over any more to barbaric, pagan Gentiles (i.e., polytheistic non-Jews). They rededicated the Temple on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, the same day of the same month on which the Temple had been desecrated by the Greek ruled Syrians.

The happy celebration lasted eight days, like the Torah Festival of Sukkot, and the people remembered how only a short time before, they had spent the Festival of Sukkot wandering like wild animals in the mountains and living in caves. But now, carrying green palm branches and sticks decorated with ivy, they paraded around, singing grateful praises to God who had brought about the purification of his own Temple. Everyone agreed that the entire Jewish nation should celebrate this festival each year. (2 Maccabees 10: 1-8)

The military victory of the Maccabees led not only to religious freedom for Jews in Judea; but after another two decades of intermittent warfare, it led also to political independence in Judea that lasted for 7-8 decades, until Rome took over.

In the year 66 CE, a little over a 120 years after the Chanukah uprising began for reasons much less important than in the days of the Maccabees a large scale lesser jihad rebellion against Roman governance occurred, which ended in 70 C.E. with the destruction of both Jerusalem and its Holy Temple.

Two generations later, another major jihad rebellion against Rome (132-135 C.E.) occurred, again ending in failure. Over the following generations, the encouraging and hope-filled greater jihad rabbinic tale of the oil grew to became central, in order to overcome widespread feelings of defeat and despair among the Jewish People; and so this greater jihad narrative displaced the focus on the lesser jihad military victory.

Today all Jewish homes have a special candelabrum or an oil lamp holder for Hanukahs eight lights plus the additional light used to light the others each day. The reason for the Hanukah lights is not to light the house within, but rather to illuminate the house without, so passersby should see it and be reminded of the holidays miracle. So the lights are set up at a window near the street.

While the Lesser Jihad (military) aspect of efforts and events should not be forgotten when injustice is rife, all of us Jews and Muslims must give priority to the Greater (spiritual) Jihad aspect of our efforts if we are to experience peace and harmony within, and across, our varied religious and ethnic communities. May this take hold between Jews and Muslims!

The oppression of Judaism by Antiochus IV, the Syrian Greek king, was the first known attempt at suppressing a minority religion, but unfortunately not the last. Other well known attempts were the three century long Roman persecution of Christianity and the terrible persecution of Muhammad and his followers by the majority of pagan Arabs in Mecca.

All three religions emerged from their varying periods of persecution stronger than ever, and this is the ongoing spiritual lesson of the Hanukah lamp that long ago filled believers with hope and trust in God and lasted longer than anyone thought possible: Light upon light. He is the One Who sends to His servant manifest signs that He may lead you from the depths of Darkness into the Light and verily Allah is to you most kind and Merciful. (Quran 57:9)

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Jihad Jews, Muslims, And Going From Lesser To Greater Jihads OpEd - Eurasia Review

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

One of humanitys most ancient tensions is the choice between our duty to God and ensuring that our behavior towards others is the paradigm of perfection.

Historically, morality and religion were portrayed as synonymous because if God wants it, it must be moral but there are numerous instances where the gulf between ones duty to God and to fellow man is so wide that trying to reconcile the two is, for all intents and purposes, impossible. Frequently, those who consider themselves religious allow their God-devotion to overshadow human compassion, believing that faith justifies oppressing the unfaithful.

Examples of murder and cruelty perpetrated in Gods name are ubiquitous. The medieval Crusades and 9/11 are just two well-known examples, but there are countless others. As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks put it in his 2015 book, Not in Gods Name: Too often in the history of religion, people have killed in the name of the God of life, waged war in the name of the God of peace, hated in the name of the God of love and practiced cruelty in the name of the God of compassion.

Clearly, when faced with the choice of ritual obligations and violence against fellow humans, many God-believers have opted for the latter.

November 26, 2021 11:55 am

Judaism is no stranger to this tension and on the face of it, God comes first. For example, if a kohen (priest) walks past a cemetery and spots an item lost by its owner, he cannot forsake his state of ritual purity to observe the mitzvah of hashavat aveida, although returning lost property is a Torah-mandated law, and crucial for the functioning of a just and civil society. God, it would appear, takes precedence over man.

Nonetheless, there are laws that defy this pecking order. Most famously, saving a life takes precedence over any Shabbat prohibitions. One might think that this is only because loss of life is involved, but even seemingly less consequential considerations can get in the way of observing a ritual law.

For example, although the Torah mandates using four species on Sukkot, we are not permitted to utilize a stolen lulav. According to most Talmud commentators, this is because it is inconceivable for a mitzvah to be carried out at someone elses expense. Apparently, in this instance, and others like it, man comes before God.

Interestingly, Joseph makes a statement in Parshat Vayeishev which reflects this theological conundrum, and the way he expresses himself helps explain how man comes before God. After Potiphars wife had arranged for them to be alone together, he refused to succumb to her advances, spelling out his reasoning as follows (Gen. 39:9): There is no one greater in this house than I, and [your husband, my master] has denied me nothing but you, since you are his wife. How then can I perpetrate this great evil? I will have sinned against God!

At first glance, Josephs rebuff of Potiphars wife is a little confusing. Is he concerned with betraying his master, or is he worried about sinning against God? And if it is both, why does God come second? Surely, God should come first!

In the foreword to Even Sheleima, the Gaon of Vilna presents a very powerful idea about our obligation to observe mitzvot: the foundation of every mitzvah, whether it is a ritual mitzvah or a human-relations mitzvah, must always be ethics and morality. In fact, if a mitzvah has not improved your character, it cannot have been executed properly.

In Josephs situation, adultery with his masters wife was certainly an affront to God, but first and foremost it was a betrayal of his master. Joseph was saying something very simple: if the only reason you abstain from immoral behavior is religion, youve missed the point entirely. And if its all about God and not about ethical behavior, you might end up stealing a lulav, or even murdering another human being, to ingratiate yourself with God. But human suffering can never be justified by citing God as an excuse. Or, as Abraham Joshua Heschel once put it so well: If I hurt a human being, I injure God.

Rabbi Yonason Eybeschutz(1690-1764) is best remembered for the period towards the end of his life when he was the foremost rabbinic leader and scholar of European Jewry. Earlier on he was not so well known, and it was during this period of youthful obscurity that he once found himself unable to get back home for Yom Kippur. Instead, he had to stay in a small town some distance from where he lived. Concerned that his prayers would suffer in this unfamiliar environment, he looked for a seat at the local synagogue where he would be able to pray properly. At mincha on Erev Yom Kippur afternoon, he looked around the shul and noticed a man who was deeply engrossed in his prayers a true paragon of devotion.

Rabbi Yonason arrived early for Kol Nidre and sat as close to the devout man as he could. Sure enough, this mans prayers were filled with emotion and piety. I am but dust in my lifetime, he sobbed, his body shaking with emotion, and even more so in my death!Rabbi Yonason was inspired, and the following morning he returned to the same seat near the man, thankful to have found such a saintly prayer partner. As the morning unfolded, the man continued to pray with utter dedication and concentration, particularly for parts of the prayer that focused on his insignificance.

After shacharit was over, the Torah reading began. All went smoothly until the third aliyah. The gabbaididnt call the man next to Rabbi Yonason to say a blessing over the Torah, instead giving the aliyah to someone else. The man went red in the face, and without warning stood up and yelled: Him? Youre giving him the third aliyah?

The shul went dead quiet. Why is he better than me? the man continued shouting, I am a greater scholar than he is! I give more charity than he does! Why are you putting him before me? No one said a word. But Rabbi Yonason, never one to hold back, was undaunted. I dont understand you, he said to the man, last night and the whole of this morning youve been declaring in your prayers how insignificant you are, and now you are demanding an aliyah before this other guy because youre more significant than him? Im sorry, but youre not making any sense. Are you insignificant? Or are you significant? It cant be both!

The man looked at Rabbi Yonason Eybeschutz as if he had just dropped from the moon. Dont you understand, he said, when it comes to God, I am like the dust of the earth but compared to this guy are you crazy?

This story should remind us how all too often we lose sight of the fact that the only route to a relationship with God is via our relationship with those around us: our family, our friends, our community, those we interact with at stores, banks, airports and in every given situation. If we are only focused on God to the exclusion of our fellow man always putting God before man instead of man before God nothing we do for God will ever amount to anything.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.

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What Truly Matters Is How We Treat Our Fellow Men and Women - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on November 25, 2021

SOON WE WILL searchIn the margins of your history, in distant countries,For what was once our history. And in the end, we will ask ourselves:Was Andalusia here or there? On the land or in the poem?

One could easily imagine these lines issuing from the pen of a Jewish migr from Spain, victim of the Alhambra Decree that interdicted Jewish presence on Spanish soil in 1492. The poets aching refrain in the exodus I love you more captures a loss so deep that he is compelled to ask whether the lost country was real or a figment of imagination.

The ode was written not in 1492, but in 1992, which was the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Its author was not a Jew or a descendant of Jews burdened by the lingering pain of the expulsion. Rather, it was written on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of Muslims from Spain by Mahmoud Darwish, the great Palestinian national poet. Darwishs Eleven Stars over Andalusia harked back to the hallowed cultural ground of southern Spain to grasp the sense of exile that Palestinians felt in the wake of the Nakba, the mass dispossession of 1948.

Darwish was not the first to summon up this historical image. Writing in the midst of intense battles between Jewish and Palestinian forces in the Jezreel Valley in April 1948, Burhan al-Din al-`Abbushi, a poet from Jenin, reported that the Jews took revenge by launching an attack on the village of Abu Zurayq and drove away all the women and children. He continued that [t]he exodus of these people and the people of [neighboring] al-Mansi is just like the exodus of the sons of al-Andalus. Three years earlier, he expressed the fear that if Palestinians did not prepare themselves adequately, [w]hat happened to al-Andalus could happen to you.

The fact that not only Jews but Arabs and indeed, Palestinians in war looked to medieval Spain as a historical referent for exile is one of many rich nuggets mined by Shay Hazkani in his pathbreaking new history, Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War. Hazkani has followed an intuitive but all too infrequently traveled path in attempting a shared history of Jews and Arabs in Palestine in 1948. He attempts a fusion of historical horizons by joining a careful analysis of wartime propaganda by both sides with the honest accounts of soldiers on the ground. This interplay of top-down and bottom-up sources yields striking dissonance, which a skilled historian such as Hazkani uses to great advantage. For example, he juxtaposes al-`Abbushis invocation of Andalusia with the fiery rhetoric of the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) propaganda wings description of a sweeping Palestinian victory in the Jezreel Valley. In fact, the Labor Zionist Haganah paramilitary force was not only notching steady wins on the battleground in April 1948 but was expelling Palestinian residents of captured towns and villages in accord with the groups Plan D from the previous month.

What is so impressive and interesting about this book is that it upends our received wisdom at many turns. Thus, it is not surprising that the ALA dissimulated in exaggerating battlefield triumphs. But it is surprising that its propaganda was not filled, according to Hazkani, with ritualistic calls to cast the Jews into the sea nor even with large doses of antisemitism. Rather, a recurrent motif in Arab and Palestinian propaganda was the view that it was legitimate and necessary to wage battle against Jews since, as a result of Zionist designs on Palestine, they had violated the terms of their historical status under Islam as ahl al-dhimmi that is, as protected, albeit decidedly second-class subjects. This line of argument anchored the pan-Arab nature of the ALAs appeal in seeking to mobilize volunteers across the Middle East.

In a similar vein, Hazkanis dual-lens approach demonstrates how unvarnished was the theme of murderous revenge as a catalyst for Jewish battleground behavior. Of particular note is the work of poet Abba Kovner, heroic survivor of the Vilna Ghetto, mastermind of a plot to poison German cities after World War II, and influential education officer in the nascent Israeli army. Kovner authored more than 30 combat bulletins that served as motivational fodder for young conscripts in the heat of battle. The bulletins were stunning in their brutality and disregard for the lives of the Arab enemy. In one riposte from July 14, 1948, Kovner announced: Dont flinch, sons; these are murder dogs their sentence is blood! Even more striking was the call to kill as a liberating and even aesthetic act, as we hear in a post three days later: As you improve in killing the murderous dogs, so would you improve in your love for what is beautiful, what is good and for freedom.

It is far from coincidental that this call was issued three and a half years after the liberation of Auschwitz and that Kovner was a Holocaust survivor. Survivors constituted a disproportionately large percentage of the soldiers in the Jewish fighting forces; in fact, Displaced Persons (DP) camps in Germany became important recruiting stations for these forces, with Zionist officials declaring that all DPs were citizens in potentia of the soon-to-be-created Jewish state, and thus subject to extraterritorial conscription. These recruits brought to Palestine their own distinctive motivations for avenging the loss of their loved ones, even though the Palestinian and Arab combatants they faced were not responsible for the Holocaust.

Kovner and other Israeli educational officers invoked the Holocaust and the need to prevent its recurrence as part of their wartime propaganda. They also made recourse to well-known biblical tropes depicting Arabs (and Nazis) as descendants of Amalek, the ancient nomadic tribe that was a perennial enemy of the Israelites and whose memory the Hebrew Bible enjoined Jews to blot out. The fusing of ancient and modern enemies was part of a pan-Judaic strategy that Hazkani identifies an appeal intended to attract and motivate Jews from around the world to answer the call to wage battle on behalf of the Jewish nation.

The prominence of poets as propagandists and the wider pan-Arab and pan-Judaic appeals are but two of the similarities that Hazkani notes in Dear Palestine. The attempt to tell the story he tells through a pair of contiguous prosopographies, or collective biographies carries a high degree of difficulty. The first historiographical challenge, and a live one for Hazkani, is the question of sourcing. Are there parallel and equivalent bodies of evidence to undergird these two narratives of wartime attitudes and behavior? Yes and no. Hazkani did mine the depths, as noted, of two main types of sources: wartime propaganda materials produced on both sides; and letters written by soldiers on and off the battlefield. Curiously, all of the sources he uses, Palestinian and Jewish, came from Israeli archives. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) not only preserved a vast trove of documents attesting to the training and action of Jewish soldiers but also swept up archival materials from the ALA, from post offices in Arab towns, and from the bodies of dead Arab soldiers in 1948. The Arab sources it collected made their way to a variety of Israeli repositories, especially the IDF archive. Hazkani has exhaustively examined these holdings and even gone to court to gain access to some of them, which Israeli officials acknowledge openly call into question some of the foundations of the Israeli narrative of the 1948 War. Hazkani also makes ingenious use of another key repository the Haganah and then Israeli censorship office, which intercepted letters from soldiers on both sides of the conflict. Hazkani skillfully captures the voice of soldiers through the censored letters, as well as by making his way through the censors fortnightly summary of soldiers letters, The Soldiers Opinion, that articulated shifting sentiments and sensibilities during the war.

The fact that the sources Hazkani used both Arab and Jewish are housed in Israeli archives is itself a reflection of an asymmetry of power. Israel not only won the war of 1948. It also commandeered and, in some cases, hides the evidentiary record of the losing Arab side, including decades after the war (for example, when the Israeli army looted the archives of the PLO research center in Beirut in 1982). The reliance on Israeli archives means, necessarily, that we receive a richer account of Israeli strategies and attitudes than we do of the Arab side. But there is more than enough of a historical record on both sides for Hazkani to upend received truths. For example, a recurrent claim of Israeli propagandists and their scholarly allies was that Palestinian fighters, abetted by their Arab brethren, were prompted to act by a murderous jihadi impulse to exterminate Jews. The obverse of this assertion is that Jewish fighters were informed by an overarching code of honor that demanded the highest moral standards in wartime.

It is one of the surprises of the book that this much heralded code in Zionist history, known by the Hebrew term tohar ha-neshek (purity of arms), makes virtually no appearance. Hazkanis investigation of wartime attitudes and propaganda yields far fewer references to this code than to the kinds of appeals to violence, at times blood-curdling, made by Abba Kovner and his colleagues in 1948. His approach to the history of Israeli military behavior challenges a long-held Manicheanism that starkly contrasts the forces of good (Israel) with the forces of darkness (the Palestinians), often depicting the former as an upstart David engaged in a heroic, long-shot battle against a beastly Goliath.

This upending is not Hazkanis scholarly innovation. For more than 30 years, researchers making use of newly opened Israeli archives have revised our understanding of the events of 1948, including about the balance of forces, observing that the Jewish and later Israeli side had not only a qualitative but a quantitative advantage. For example, the historian Avi Shlaim concluded that by the final stage of the conflict, Israeli forces outnumbered soldiers of all Arab armies by two to one.

In this regard, Hazkani is heir to the work of a cohort of Israeli scholars including Shlaim, Benny Morris, Ilan Papp, and Tom Segev who came to public attention in the late 1980s in Israel and elsewhere as the New Historians. At the same time, Hazkani, who is an Israeli teaching at the University of Maryland, belongs to a later historiographical generation that endeavors to produce a more complex history of the war by taking equal stock of the accounts of Jews and Arabs as reflected in Hebrew and Arabic sources. A prototype of this work is the Side by Side volume of parallel Arab and Jewish historical narratives by Palestinian scholar Sami Adwan and his Israeli colleagues Dan Bar-On and Eyal Naveh. A more theoretical case study, The Holocaust and the Nakba, edited by Bashir Bashir and Amos Goldberg, juxtaposes the relatively coterminous national tragedies of the 1940s. There have also been efforts by Palestinian and Israeli Jewish scholars to craft a shared narrative of the events of 1948, as in the work of Adel Manna and Motti Golani (Two Sides of the Coin) and that of Mahmoud Yazbak and Yfaat Weiss on Haifa.

Shay Hazkani has produced a book that is neither a parallel history nor a fully integrated shared history. Rather, it dwells between those poles, allowing Hazkani to attend both to the common experiences of wartime undergone by Arab and Jewish soldiers and to the fissures and asymmetries between Jewish and Arab war efforts. Hazkani tracked down an impressive body of evidence to produce an elegant, indeed masterful, social history of the 1948 War and the people swept up in its wake. Dear Palestine tells a human and decidedly inhumane story. After all, it is about war, which produces winners and losers, those who live and those who die, those who remain and those who are forced out.

In the final analysis, Dear Palestine makes a compelling case that war and morality are antipodes. To state this is not to abandon ones scholarly balance nor to retreat into Pollyannish platitudes. But it does require that we confront the past with unsparing honesty, pierce the veil of self-virtue, and then repair the deep injustices that war inevitably causes.

David N. Myers teaches history at UCLA, where he holds the Kahn Chair in Jewish History. He is the author and editor of numerous books including the forthcoming American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (with Nomi M. Stolzenberg).

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Margins of History: On Shay Hazkani's Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War - lareviewofbooks

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Posted By admin on November 25, 2021

Eli Kay, a 26-year-old immigrant to Israel from South Africa, was killed on Sunday by a Hamas terrorist who opened fire on Israeli civilians by the Western Wall in Jerusalems Old City.

Kay, a Western Wall guide from the central Israeli city of Modiin, was on his way to work when Fadi Abu Shkhaidem, a 42-year-old Hamas terrorist from Jerusalems Shuafat refugee camp, shot him dead, also wounding four others.

I mourn with his family and strengthen them at this difficult time, said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett expressing his condolences to the Kay family. Todays terror attack is the second recent terrorist attack in Jerusalem. I have directed the security forces to prepare accordingly and remain alert, also over concern for copycat attacks.

We need to be on heightened alert and prevent future attacks, Bennett added.

November 24, 2021 4:28 pm

Kay, a lone soldier who moved to Israel in 2016 to join the Israel Defense Forces, served as a fighter in the paratroopers brigade. He was engaged and expected to marry his fiance in six months.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Kay made aliyah out of Zionism and was murdered in the Old City of Jerusalem in the country he loved so much.

Kays girlfriend, Jen Schiff, told reporters that it was important for her to share how much Eli loved Israel and how he immigrated to the country by himself to fight for the nation. Elis parents and siblings followed his footsteps a year ago by moving to Israel.

Eli loved this country. He fought for it. He had a few injuries during his army service, but he continued his service. He is the strongest person I have ever known, emotionally and physically. He always treated everyone with love and respect, Schiff said.

President Isaac Herzog said that the fact the terrorist was from Hamas political wing compels the international community to recognize it as a terror group, in reference to the UKs decision Friday to fully proscribe the Palestinian militant group, including its political arm.

The Four wounded in the attack included Zeev Katzenelnbogen, who was moderately wounded, Rabbi Aaron Yehuda, who was described as hospitalized in serious condition, and two police officers who were released after receiving treatment.

Two Israeli Border Police officers were wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalems Old City on Wednesday.

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Proud Zionist Who Immigrated From South Africa Killed by Hamas Gunman in Jerusalem's Old City - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on November 25, 2021

Breast cancer can strike any woman at any time, yet few young women are fully aware of the potential deadly threat they face.

For Ashkenazi Jews like myself, this disease looms as an even larger threat compared to most women.

A mutation in the BRCA gene is the most common cause of hereditary breast cancer. Every human has BRCA genes, but researchers have found that roughly one in 40 Ashkenazi Jews carry an altered BRCA gene, which leaves them much more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancers than the general population.

While one in eight women will get breast cancer in their lifetime, just over half of the women with the BRCA1 gene mutation, and 45% of women with the BRCA2 gene mutation, will be diagnosed with breast cancer by age 70.

Dont be surprised if youre hearing this for the first time. After all, this is exactly why October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so we can better understand our risks and family history.

I didnt learn about my distinct genetic threat until soon after I felt a lump in my breast during a routine self-exam that surfaced just six weeks after a clean mammogram my first ever mammogram.

I was only 41, and the doctor said I was likely too young to worry. But a few days later, I heard the words we all dread: You have cancer.

Only then, after a genetic test, I learned that I had the BRCA2 gene mutation, and learned as an Ashkenazi Jew, faced higher chances of a diagnosis and recurrence.

I am now 14 years cancer-free. But the day my fight began, I became painfully aware that too many young women were just as unaware of their risks as I was.

Thats why Breast Cancer Awareness Month is so vital. All women, especially younger ones, and those like me, an Ashkenazi Jew, need to know the risks we face.

Sharing this information widely is even more critical because breast cancer in young women is typically more aggressive, and often diagnosed at a later stage, resulting in lower survival rates.

That is why, after I was cancer-free, I passed the EARLY Act, which created an education and outreach campaign that highlights breast cancer risks facing young women and those at higher risk due to their ethnic or racial background. I also passed the PALS Act to protect access to annual mammograms starting at age 40, and authored the Reducing Hereditary Cancer Act, which would provide millions of Medicare beneficiaries with access to coverage of genetic testing for inherited cancer mutations.

Knowledge of an inherited mutation can be lifesaving for an individual and their family because it guides decisions regarding cancer screening and prevention.

As October comes to a close, its clear that breast cancer awareness cannot stop at just one month. You are never too young to learn about your family history or ask about your risks for breast cancer.

To contact the author, email editorial@forward.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

Ashkenazi Jewish women like me have a higher risk of breast cancer. I didnt know this until my own diagnosis

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Posted By admin on November 25, 2021

How to stay healthy during the holidays

Its hard to believe that its already the end of the year and with Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years fast approaching this is the time when we come face to face with our greatest temptations and potential environmental hazards. An endless array of sumptuous food, delicious drinks, and hours of holiday travel make this perhaps the hardest time of year for all of us to keep ourselves safe and healthy. So here are 10 holiday health tips to keep you on track:

Wochit

Shannon Sarna, a South Orange resident and editor of The Nosher, a Jewish food website, was astounded the first time she ate a dairy kugel.

"I was like,'Where has this been?'It's so delicious."

American food lovers may adorelatkes, matzoh ball soup and pastrami sandwiches, but one dish that deserves their love,lots of their love,is kugel.

What, you ask, is kugel?

For those who did not grow up in a Jewish home or frequent Jewish delis, kugel is a headybaked pudding, often made with egg noodles called lokshen (therefore, lokshen kugel) or potatoes. It may be served on the Sabbath or Jewish holidays (Hello Hanukkah!). Or any time.

And while it maybe difficult to choose between the two what's not to love about a giant, moist, thick potato latke that the whole family can digintoor a custard-ypasta dish that tastes like dessert but can beserved as a side ormain course this article is about lokshen kugel, the more popular of the two and, truth be told, my favorite.

And my family's.

Whenever my mom, Lenka Davidowitz, would make lokshen kugel, a near fight would eruptaround her dining room table. Everyonewanted a nice-sized slice, and thenanother.If for some miraclethere were ever leftovers, you could be sure I'd take it home.

My momdiednearly three years ago. She was 92. For her 80th birthday, her grandkids self-published "Grandma's Kitchen," a cookbookofher recipes, which of course includes her belovedlokshen kugel (recipe below). In the book, my husbandis near verklempttalking aboutit:"Oh the noodle kugel. My problem is I have a son who also likes the noodle kugel. The leftovers disappear from the refrigerator at a truly disconcerting rate. So, my main complaint about the noodle kugel is that there's never quite enough of it."

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Cooking: Hanukkah tips from NJ chefs for a delicious holiday (plus, options for takeout)

Review: Move over Katz's; Montclair's Mikki & Al's Noshery makes killer pastrami

My sister and I don't know when or why she stopped making kugel, we just know that our father, who would only eat her food she'd bring along her chicken soup and baked chickenfor himto eat at my house whenever they'd come over would go to the kosher food market to buylokshen kugel.

"That just tells you how much he loved it," my sister said.

Many Jews do.

"Noodle kugel is sacred for American-Jewish families," Sarna said. "It is extreme comfort food that Jewish-American families really embraced. It's become its own icon."

Tomer Zilkah, chef and owner of Patisserie Florentine in Englewood, Closter and Hackensack, said his mom made the dish only once or twice. The reason? Noodle kugel is an Ashkenazidish and Zilkah is Sephardic. (Ashkenazi Jews descendedfrom Europe while Sephardic Jews from Spain.)

Zilkah, who grew up in Israel, enjoyed the dish at a Polish family's home with his family, who hails from Iraq and Syria. "They made it all the time," Zilkha recalled. "And I loved it."

The kugel was laced with ricotta cheese, which Zilkha said has more fat than farmer's cheese or pot cheese, the more traditional cheesesused. "It is a lot more flavorful and very creamy,"he said.

Natalie Lee, chef and owner of Jewish deli Mikki & Al's Noshery in Montclair, uses ricotta cheesein her savory kugel, which also features broccoli. She uses her mother-in-law's mother's recipe.

"My mother in law, Mikki, grew up in an Italian neighborhood in Union City," she said. "One day, when her mother ran out of cottage cheese, she went out to borrow cheese. All she could get was ricotta."

That turned out to be a blessing. "Her recipe is amazing," Leesaid. (I'm sharing itbelow.)

More: Celeb chefs love this chopped liver recipe

More: The best brisket you'll ever make or eat just in time for Rosh Hashana

Willing to giveit a try?

Lenka Davidowitz would have been honored to share her recipe with you.

poundmedium-wide egg noodles

Kosher salt

3 eggs

9 tablespoons sugar

3 large tart apples (Granny Smith or Greening)

cup raisins (optional)

3 tablespoons margarine, melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles in lightly salted water for about 5 minutes. Drain well and pour cold water over them.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with sugar until well combined.

Peel apples and cut them into thin slices.

Combine egg mixture with apples, noodles, raisins (if using), and 2 tablespoons of margarine.

Grease a 9-inch by 9-inch by 2-inchbaking pan with the remaining margarine and pour the mixture into it.

Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the top is golden.

Serves: 8 to 10as a side dish.

(Courtesy Natalie Lee of Mikki & Al's Noshery, Montclair)

12 ounces egg noodles

1 cup ricotta

3 eggs

6 cups steamed broccoli,chopped

1 small onion, diced and sauted

cup seasoned bread crumbs

3 tablespoonsmelted butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Boil noodlesin salted water until al dente, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, stir together ricotta and eggs.

Add broccoli, onions, cooked noodles, salt and pepper and stir gently to combine.

Grease 8-inch square baking pan.

Add kugel mixture and sprinkle top with bread crumbs

Drizzle melted butter over the top.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until bread crumbs are golden brown.

Serves: 6 to 8 as a side dish.

EstherDavidowitzis thefood editor for NorthJersey.com. For more on where to dine and drink, pleasesubscribe todayand sign up forourNorth Jersey Eats newsletter.

Email:davidowitz@northjersey.com

Twitter:@estherdavido

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An ode to kugel: The best Jewish comfort food ever - NorthJersey.com

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Posted By admin on November 25, 2021

I love pumpkin. I love it in a sweet dessert, I love it in a savory stew, and Im not afraid to say it I love it in my morning latte. But Ive never imagined my ancestors who lived in a Belarussian shtetl would have felt the same.

Jews, it turns out, were really into pumpkin long before Thanksgiving made it popular.

You can still find a big pumpkin knish at the Knishery NYC

Pumpkin is well known as a product of the New World, first domesticated in the area of northeastern Mexico and the southern United States 7,000-9,000 years ago. It wasnt encountered by Europeans, let alone Eastern European Jews, until after the first European settlers arrived in the Western hemisphere.

But before they arrived in America, Jews of the Old World likely already enjoyed pumpkin.

At least one piece of Yiddish literature, suggests that by the early 20th century pumpkin and more specifically pumpkin knishes were well recognizable to Yiddish-speaking Jews in the Soviet Union.

Knishes are available from street vendors across New York City, but traditional knish fillings are potato, buckwheat groats and cheese.

Yiddish Poet Leyb Kvitko had different ideas though. Kvitko, a Yiddish childrens writer and member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Comittee during the Second World War, would ultimately be murdered alongside 13 other Yiddish authors at Moscows Lyubyanka prison on August 12, 1952 the infamous Night of Murdered Poets.

In the 1920s however, he was becoming a rock star to Yiddish-speaking Soviet Jewry for his childrens books written and illustrated in the Soviet realist style.

Published in 1926 in Kharkov, then the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, Kvitkos rhyming childrens story, Di Bubbe Shlok Un Ir Kabak (Grandma Shlok and Her Pumpkin), tells the tale of Jewish grandmother who finds one day finds a massive pumpkin in her garden.

In contrast to Roald Dahls tale of a boy and his giant peach, when confronted with a giant pumpkin, Kvitkos Bubbe Shloks first thoughts go to the kitchen.

There would be endless knishes for the town and for the village, Kvitko writes in rhyming Yiddish. When her grandchildren excitedly came to see the oddity, they asked if she could cut them slices, and bubbe Shlok responds that if they can manage to move it, shell even make them knishes.

After reading that story, I know that my Ashkenazi family has nearly a century of pumpkin knish-less Thanksgivings to make up for.

In contrast to the Ashkenazi culinary tradition of Eastern Europe, Mediterranean Jewish communities, who long had ties with Spanish and Portuguese traders returning from the New World, offer many more traditionally Jewish pumpkin dishes. Though pumpkin is usually associated with Rosh Hashanah in many Sephardic traditions, theyll be just as good for your Thanksgiving table.

Libyan Jewish pumpkin dip is an appetizer, to be served with bread or raw vegetables. It has a spicer version hailing from Tunisia, known as Tirshi.

Farther afield in Central Asia, Oshi Tos Kadu, a festive Bukharian dish, involving a whole pumpkin stuffed with rice, apples and raisins is sure to wow guests.

A 1948 advertisement in the Forverts featured a recipe for coconut pumpkin chiffon pie. The full ad is below.

When Jews from these faraway lands arrived in America, Thanksgiving may have been new, but pumpkin wasnt. By the 1940s, the Forward was already offering American pumpkin pie spice recipes translated into Yiddish for newly arrived immigrants.

Thanks, but Id rather have the knish.

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A short history of Jews and pumpkins The Forward - Forward

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Posted By admin on November 25, 2021

Ive long been intrigued by genealogy, though its always felt like a giant, time-consuming undertaking to attempt to construct a complete family tree that goes beyond my great grandparents. But a few years ago, curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to send a saliva sample into two of the most well-known health and ancestry companies, 23andMe (the 23andMe Health + Ancestry Service is now at its lowest price of the year on Amazon for $99) and AncestryDNA (now on sale for $59, down from $99). I wanted to see if any unexpected morsels of information would pop up like maybe an undiscovered sibling or some heritage I wasnt aware of. Part of my results were just what I expected: Im three quarters Ashkenazi Jew and the other quarter is Irish, British and German (both tests gave me the same results on this; I did two different tests just so Id hopefully be able to tell how accurate they were). Then things got interesting, like famous-relatives and parents-may-be-related interesting.

$199 $99

$99 $59

With these services, you get everything from a health history and genetic reports, to links with potential relatives who share your DNA. (Its also important to note that there may be some privacy concerns with these tests as well, which this piece from Consumer Reports details; but the New York Times notes that the better known companies are safer bets and there are ways to protect your data. Both 23andMe and AncestryDNA have extensive privacy policies on their site and note that your data is protected.)

Have you found a fascinating story when looking into your family tree?Tell us your story: chill@marketwatch.com

After a few very late nights constructing a tree that went back as far as the 1500s on my moms side I signed up for a more extensive family tree service on Ancestry.com to get more in-depth one arm of branches shot off with relatives that had the last name Eisenhower. This piqued my curiosity and after piecing together person after person, I discovered that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was my third cousin, five-times removed. How nobody else in my family ever knew this or figured it out is beyond me.

Perhaps even more surprising, I found a correlation between a first cousin on my dads side and my mom. My dad passed away in 2015 and he never signed up for 23andMe, but my mom sent a sample in. After digging deeper, I learned that somewhere, at some point my parents were related. Thankfully, its a distant relationship, and I have yet to pinpoint it, but nonetheless, it was a startling realization to swallow.

The whole you have a famous relative thing was fun, but the real perk, for me, was getting a more complete picture of my ancestry and health predispositions, without it being too much of a pain to do it. You send in a sample by spitting into a small tube or swabbing your cheek. Other reviewers also give high marks to both 23andMe and AncestryDNA, with Wirecutter, for example, recommending both of them, noting that they both have a similar level of accuracy. (In my case, both delivered very similar results.)

That said, these results arent fast (they can take 6-8 weeks to get back), and some of the health results could prove worrisome.

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How no one in my family knew this is beyond me. I took an at-home DNA test, only to discover Im cousins with this former president - MarketWatch

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Posted By admin on November 25, 2021

Its a question asked at many doctor visits: What is your family health history? When applied to breast cancer risk and prevention, knowing the answer can save lives.

At the recent CURE Educated Patient Breast Cancer Summit, Dr. Leif Ellisen delved into the topics of inherited breast cancer risk, genetic testing and management, so that patients can be armed with the correct information prior to their doctor visit.

It's important for all of us to remember that most breast cancer in society is not caused by genetic causes, it's caused by individual risk factors. And frankly, bad luck, said Ellisen, who is the program director of breast medical oncology and clinical director of breast and ovarian cancer genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital. That's not to say we can't do things to decrease our risk, but that ultimately, most breast cancers are not caused by hereditary factors.

Currently, breast cancers that are caused by individual genes that increase risk of breast and other cancers can be focused on in terms of clinical management.

In the future, we'll have probably better markers for breast cancers that are caused by the sum of many different genes we inherit, Ellisen said.

The genes that put someone at high risk for breast cancer are very uncommon in the general population. Low- or moderate-risk genes are more common, but the risk of breast cancer from them is lower and thus they give rise to fewer breast cancers.

Who Needs Genetic Testing?

While breast cancer caused by hereditary factors is not super common, patients may still wonder if theyre one of the unlucky few. Ellisen highlighted several red flags for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer that signify whether someone should undergo genetic testing.

Anyone with ovarian cancer (at any age) should be tested if theres a family history (on either side) and the person who had ovarian cancer cant be tested, other family members should be. Those diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer of any stage should undergo testing, as well as anyone who received a breast cancer diagnosis before age 50. Male breast cancer is uncommon, and any family history of it signifies there could be hereditary breast cancer in the family; therefore, relatives should be tested. People who have had multiple primary cancers should be tested, as that is also a possible sign of inherited risk.

Individuals with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry should also be tested, as BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations occur in about one in 40 of Ashkenazi Jewish people.

Lastly, if an individual is known to have a mutation, their close family members should be tested as well.

What Genetic Tests Look For

Genetic tests vary, as there are many different types in terms of what genes theyre testing for and which company is providing the test.

It turns out that most folks now are recommended to have multi-gene panel testing somewhere between seven to nine and 30 or more genes testing for hereditary cancer, Ellisen explained.

What an individual is tested for may depend on their family history and potential risk. For example, for someone with a family history of ovarian cancer, there is a whole series of genes to test for.

For folks who have a mixed family cancer history maybe a mix of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, kidney cancer, colon cancer more than 30 genes might be indicated, in some cases, Ellisen said.

The important takeaway is that patients should speak with their health care provider about what kind of genes theyll be tested for.

Interpreting test report

Understanding the findings of a genetic test can get confusing, even for health care providers, Ellisen clarified.

We categorize the findings of genetic testing into things that are meaningful, and those are called deleterious or suspected deleterious. Another term that's used is pathogenic so pathogenic or likely pathogenic.

Whether or not a mutation is deleterious will impact how the patients health is managed.

There is also something called a variant of uncertain significance (VUS), which are very common but should typically not be used to inform decisions on screening, surgery or therapy.

And so you might ask the question, Well, if we don't know, meaning there's unknown significance, should I really be worried about this gene, whether it means something? Ellisen said. And these differences of these VUS (findings), most of them are literally like the difference between your fingerprint and mine. Yes, it's a difference. But no, it doesn't mean anything in terms of your health. And that's why often there's a controversy about whether we even need to report VUS, but definitely they should not be used importantly to guide management.

Risk Assessment and Screening Recommendations

If a patient is found to carry a certain mutation that puts them at risk for breast cancer, the next steps may vary depending on what type of mutation it is.

For the two most common breast and ovarian cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, its important to factor in a patients age. Breast cancer occurs earlier (with these mutations) than ovarian cancer.

Typically, theres a 10-year window when breast cancers occur, as early as the 20s and 30s, whereas most ovarian cancers occur in the late 40s and beyond with BRCA1 and 2, Ellisen said. And that affects how we screen, and that affects how we manage these.

For BRCA1 and BRCA 2 carriers, semiannual clinical breast screenings begin at age 25, while self-exams should be done monthly starting at age 18. Women with BRCA2 are recommended to have both an MRI and mammogram done each year after 30 (with MRI screenings beginning at age 25). The health care providers may also discuss the option of preventive mastectomy with patients and removing the ovaries and tubes not always the uterus.

This can prevent the cancers. And the main choice is about doing it at the right age. It needs to be considered at a younger age for BRCA, Ellisen added.

Beyond BRCA1 and BRCA2, there are several other common genes found through testing that are important to know about, because the recommendations differ. These include ATM, CHEK2, PALB2, PTEN, TP53 and NBN. Because the risk for breast cancer varies among them depending on the gene, some patients may be directed to undergo screenings while others may be encouraged to have a preventive mastectomy.

For the genes considered high-risk (TP53, PTEN, CDH1), providers may discuss screening or preventive mastectomy. For the more moderate-risk genes (PALB2, ATM, CHEK2, STK11), the recommendation is to undergo screening (at a later age than for high-risk genes) and discuss mastectomy if the family history shows red flags.

How Do Genes Factor Into Treatment?

PARP inhibitors were designed with the goal of complementing and providing effective therapy for tumors caused by BRCA1 and BRCA2, Ellisen explained. Theyve demonstrated successful results in breast, ovarian, pancreas and prostate cancers.

What's very exciting is it looks like PARP inhibitors are actually preventing the ultimate development of metastasis, he said.

For more news on cancer updates, research and education, dont forget tosubscribe to CUREs newsletters here.

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Expert Talks the Who, What and When of Breast Cancer Genetic Testing - Curetoday.com

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Posted By admin on November 25, 2021

Food and food traditions play a significant role in many Jewish holidays and celebrations, and the eight days of Hanukkah are no exception. This year, Hanukkah begins at sunset on Sunday, November 28, and ends Monday, December 6. Atlanta-based food and culture writer Robbie Medwed delves into the origins behind the fried foods served during Hanukkah, including latkes and fried cheese.

When it comes to celebrating the Jewish holidays, theres an old cliche one should understand: They tried to kill us, we won, lets eat! During Hanukkah, that old adage could not be more true, with food taking center stage throughout the eight-day celebration.

Over 2,200 years ago, the Assyrian-Greek Empire conquered the Jewish land centered around Jerusalem and its surrounding area. During the conquest, Judaism and its rituals were banned and the Temple in Jerusalem was defiled. Study of Torah, lifecycle events, and anything else Jewish were also outlawed. Unwilling to become Hellenized, a small group of Jewish zealots, known as the Maccabees, launched a violent revolt against their conquerors. Over the course of a few years, this small group of vigilantes successfully defeated the Greeks and restored the Temple to its former glory, re-instituting its services and rituals.

According to legend, when the Maccabees restored the Temple and prepared it for service again, they only found one days worth of olive oil to light the menorah, which was supposed to always burn. Miraculously, that small amount of oil lasted long enough to press more olives (eight days, of course), and from then on the celebration of the Hanukkah festival became inextricably linked with olive oil.

Today, Jewish people across the world eat foods fried in and cooked with oil during Hanukkah to symbolize the miracle which allowed the restoration of the Temple. Below, Eater rounded up a few dishes fried in oil from Atlanta restaurants to consider checking out for Hanukkah this year.

The latke, a fried pancake made from grated potatoes and onions, is Americas most common Ashkenazi Jewish Hanukkah food. It originated in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s when potatoes were ubiquitous and affordable. For traditional latkes, stop by the General Muir at Emory Point or Sandy Springs, the multiple Goldbergs Fine Foods locations around Atlanta, and Breadwinner Cafe in Dunwoody. Theres also tater tots, or heaps of bite-sized fried potatoes.

Though the latke is most known today for being made using potatoes, onions have long been a primary ingredient. Why not branch out this year and enjoy scallion pancakes, too, including from Green Sprout Vegetarian on Piedmont, Gaja Korean Bar in East Atlanta Village, La Mei Zi at Asian Square on Buford Highway, and Harmony Vegetarian at the Orient Center on Buford Highway.

The Maccabees arent the only heroes of the Hanukkah story. A woman named Judith is often considered the first of the Hanukkah heroes. Before the Maccabees ever came on the scene, Judith was fighting for her family and for her peoples survival. Apocryphal stories tell how she sweet talked her way into the army compound of Holofernes, the general sent by the Assyrian ruler Nebuchadnezzar. After some deception and cunning guile, Judith seduced Holofernes with a feast of cheese and other dairy. With Holofernes in a cheese-induced sleep, Judith beheaded him with his own sword. In Judiths honor, cheese has become a Hanukkah staple food. In fact, before potatoes, latkes were most commonly made from cheese.

For fried cheese in Atlanta, check out the fried mozzarella at LLoyds on DeKalb Avenue or the fried mozzarella sticks at Varuni Napoli on Monroe drive or the restaurants stall at Krog Street Market. For something truly indulgent, consider ordering one of the white pizzas topped with olive oil and fried spaghetti covered in cheese at Ammazza on Edgewood Avenue.

Theres more to fried cheese than a simple stick of breaded mozzarella. The cheese-filled chile relleno at Grant Parks Mi Barrio is a great dish to consider during Hanukkah (or any time of year,) as is the vegetarian chile relleno at Nuevo Laredo Cantina on Chattahoochee Avenue.

Hanukkah is a celebration which bridges the gap between ancient Israel and the modern state of Israel because its so tied to the land there and to Jerusalem. And though falafel, deep-fried chickpea patties, are found at street carts and vendors throughout the Middle East and isnt unique to Hanukkah, falafel is still a solid way to celebrate the holiday.

Located next door to Aziza at Westside Provisions District, Falafel Nation features some of Atlantas best falafel on the menu. Grab a pita filled to the brim with fresh falafel balls paired with zaatar spiced fries or a falafel salad before grabbing a Hanukkah takeout feast from Aziza. The family meal includes latkes, brisket, and sufganiyot and feeds six. Over at Krog Street Market, street food stall Yalla serves the fried chickpea fritters with labne, tahini, and sumac radish. Head to the small counter in back of Tip Top Kosher Market on Savoy Drive to order sandwiches and a side of crispy falafel.

Sufganiyot, jelly-filled doughnuts, are a traditional Hanukkah dessert. But there are other fried dessert options to consider for Hanukkah, too. In an ironic twist, the Greeks include baklava among their culinary traditions, a layered pastry treat wrapped in filo dough and stuffed with chopped nuts sweetened with syrup or sometimes honey. Baklava can be found on menus at many Atlanta Mediterranean and Greek markets and restaurants, including great versions at both Kyma and Cafe Agora in Buckhead. For a decidedly modern (and decadent) fried dessert in Atlanta, try the tempura-fried Oreos topped with Nutella or chocolate sauce from Asian street food pop-up Mushi Ni. The pop-up serves out of Little Trouble at Westside Provisions District and S.O.S Tiki Bar in Decatur.

Robbie Medwed is an Atlanta-based food and culture writer and regular Eater contributor. His food writing has appeared in the Atlanta Jewish Times, the Jewish Food Experience, Grok Nation, and Eater Atlanta.

Disclaimer: Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; the latest data about the delta variant indicates that it may pose a low-to-moderate risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial transmission. The latest CDC guidance is here; find a COVID-19 vaccination site here. It is highly advised people wear masks indoors or in crowded situations, regardless of vaccination status, to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

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From Latkes to Scallion Pancakes, Add These Fried Foods to Your Hanukkah Feast - Eater Atlanta

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