A WEEKLY LETTER FROM OUR EDITOR IN CHIEF |
A WEEKLY LETTER FROM OUR EDITOR IN CHIEF |
It's been a horrifically hot week, and we're (finally!) getting our basement floors fixed after last fall's hurricane, which means I'm out of a home-office for a minute. Or maybe — this newsletter is nothing if not transparent! — I just don't have a full-blown column in me today. And, yet, it's newsletter time. So I'm trying something new: a few recommendations for books, recipes, podcasts and...um, footwear. Summer Reading I'm halfway through Danny Adeno Abebe's 2021 memoir "From Africa to Zion," about his harrowing and heroic journey from a remote Jewish shepherding community in Ethiopia to become a respected writer for the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot. I met Abebe last month when I spoke at a Connecticut gathering hosted by the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature — his book was a finalist this year — and was wowed by his intelligence and humility (and the fact that he told me former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called him right after the latest Israeli election was announced and stayed on the phone for an hour). Abebe was a boy of perhaps 11 or 12 when he was brought to Israel as part of Operation Moses. I've read and written plenty about those airlifts and the decades-long struggles Ethiopian Jews faced integrating into Israeli society. But this book is (so far) profoundly revelatory about the day-to-day tribulations of families who had never seen white people, worn shoes, or even heard of their neighboring country, Sudan, adjusting to the high-tech, diverse, divided society that is modern Israel. Earlier this summer, during a single afternoon at the lake, I devoured "Letters from Cuba" by Ruth Behar, a middle-grade reader I picked up on the Jewish Book Council's table at a conference. Inspired by her own family's Holocaust escape saga, Behar imagines the dispatches a young Polish girl who emigrated to Cuba with her father wrote for her younger sister. A far less-trod version of the Jewish emigration story, it's filled with surprising characters, and a great one to read alongside a kid or grandkid. And before that: Judy Blume's adult novel "In the Unlikely Event," which is based on a trio of plane crashes that actually happened in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where Blume grew up, and, to my delight, uses (fictional) newspaper clippings as chapter headings. It is told mainly through the eyes of an adolescent Jewish girl, Miri Ammerman. (Noticing a theme here?) What's on your bookshelf? Send summer-reading recommendations (please disclose any personal connection) to editorial@forward.com and we may just share a roundup next week. |
Boss Lady Boots My feet hurt. Like, pretty much all the time. I learned last year that it's due to arthritis, which I suppose is just another little fact of life-at-a-certain-age. And, really, it could be a lot worse. I've never been a person who wears uncomfortable shoes, shunning heels and pointy toes despite social pressure. But even my flats and low-heeled boots were increasingly causing me tsuris. So I've taken a cue from Vice President Kamala Harris and started wearing sneakers pretty much all the time. Not workout sneakers, fun sneakers. To the office. To parties. With dresses. My daughter, Shayna, has urged me to embrace this as part of my "brand," which my former employees at The New York Times declared as "bad-ass boss lady" by giving me an apron with that emblazoned on it as a farewell gift. Ear (and Arm) Candy I'm an inveterate, inviolable, incessant devotee of "The West Wing," so I was delighted to discover in my podcast feed an episode of "Chutzpod!" titled "Big Block of G'vina." As co-host Joshua Malina — or, as I like to think of him, Will Bailey — explains in the episode, g'vina is Hebrew for cheese, and the episode is an homage to "The West Wing's" homage to Andrew Jackson's tradition of putting a big block of cheese in the foyer of the White House to welcome the hoi polloi with a little nosh. Chutzpod!'s version is an episode where Malina and his co-host, Rabbi Shira Stutman, engage questions from listeners, another tradition I love. I binged a bunch of back episodes of Chutzpod! this week, including an absolutely awesome interview with Michael Twitty and textual response to the Supreme Court abortion ruling. Among many other takeaways, I learned that our matriarch Rebecca had a nose ring. And in the not-Jewish lane, I've been listening to "Fitness Flipped" with my new favorite Peloton instructor, Tunde Oyeneyin. When I first heard about this podcast, I dismissed it, thinking that a show by an exercise-equipment brand would be hopelessly commercial and kumbaya. But when Tunde mentioned during a ride that she had interviewed Sterling K. Brown, star of television's "This Is Us," another personal addiction, I had to check it out — and it delivered. For those Official Jewish Peloton Riders among you, or any unofficial Peloton riders of any background, I also recommend Tunde's four-week arms program: I've just finished Week Two, since sleeveless tops and frocks are also key to my boss-lady summer vibe. What I've Been Eating |
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| With the kids away, we're trying to act like adults, and were thrilled to be invited last weekend for dinner in the backyard of new friends from our synagogue. On the simple menu was a surprising summer-squash casserole made with arborio rice, courtesy of Martha Rose Shulman of NYT Cooking (she calls it a gratin). This felt ever-more-sophisticated than the grilled veggies I usually serve summer guests, and had the ideal-for-entertaining benefit of being something you can make ahead. |
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| Equally delicious at room temperature, and also served to me during dinner-on-a-friend's-deck, is this carrot soup with sage and mint from the Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook. I was lucky enough to be tasting it alongside two of the cookbook's authors, Elise Spungen Bildner and Robert Bildner, who are neighbors in Montclair, New Jersey, and longtime supporters of our partners at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. |
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| The female teenager not currently living in my home (don't fret, she's just at a four-week art program at NYU) mentioned that "smashed cucumber salad" was going viral, so I decided to make it for the potluck after-parade pool party we attend on July Fourth. Smashing the cukes (with the side of a knife) is super fun, and the sauce — soy, sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic, chili — is flexible. There are about a gazillion recipes online. |
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Last week's rant about my generation of parents threatening to ruin summer camp generated plenty of chatter on social media, and in my inbox. More than 40 of you responded to our call for reader perspectives, and I learned a lot. Many of you recommended the Campanion app, which uses facial-recognition technology to help parents sort through the tsunami of photos camps post each day, which I downloaded, but so far it does not seem to recognize my kid. Click here to read some of the responses ➤ |
JOIN THE CONVERSATION UPCOMING EVENTS |
Hineni: Now Where Do I Go? | Thursday @ 7 p.m. ET
Calling all New Yorkers: We'll be live and in-person this week for an important conversation about how millennial (and younger) Jews are finding and building community outside traditional structures and organizations. It's at a swanky space in Brooklyn! It's got a great lineup of panelists! It's part of a pilot project sponsored by UJA-Federation to amplify diverse voices! And if you're not in NYC or can't make it in person, yes, it will be live-streamed. Sign up now ➤ – Candidate Forum | Tuesday @ 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT
Also in Brooklyn! Also live (in-person) as well as live-streamed! Our senior political correspondent, Jacob Kornbluh, and Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Congregation Beth Elohim, will moderate this discussion among the many candidates competing in the Aug. 23 primary to represent the newly redrawn 10th Congressional district. (One fewer candidate now that former Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped out). Sign up now ➤ |
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| That's a picture from Yidstock, an untraditional tradition back after a pandemic hiatus, on the cover. Inside, there are also stories about Boston's Jewish federation investigating its own employees; Jewish doctors spending their summer vacation helping Ukrainian refugees; Mormons and Orthodox Jews on television; and a book about a teacher who uprooted and relocated her school during the Holocaust. Download the printable (PDF) ➤ |
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INSIDE THE FORWARD NEWS FROM OUR NEWSROOM |
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| A hearty welcome to our newest employee, Matthew Litman, who started this week as an editorial fellow. Matt, a recent graduate of Brown University, has interned at Israel Story, my second-favorite Jewish podcast (Duh: A Bintel Brief: our Jewish advice podcast!) and is helping an incarcerated journalist write a book. He's also played piano since he was a kid, hosted a college radio show, and lately has been loving this. |
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| Shameless plug department: Matt's predecessor, Eliya Smith, is heading off to a prestigious playwriting program at the University of Texas, as loyal readers of this newsletter already know. Before she goes, her newest work, which has something to do with Monica Lewinsky, is debuting with a three-day run at Here, a theater in Lower Manhattan. The husband and I are going on Wednesday, Aug. 3, and you can buy your tickets here. |
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Thanks to Samuel Breslow for contributing to this newsletter and editing it. Support Independent Jewish Journalism The Forward is a non-profit 501(c)3 so our journalism depends on support from readers like you. You can support our work today by donating or subscribing. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of US law. Make a donation ➤ Subscribe to Forward.com ➤ "America’s most prominent Jewish newspaper" — The New York Times, 2021 |
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