Food Glorious Food: I have an idea – but I need your help:

Last Updated on Friday, 12 February 2010 02:48 Written by bryfy Friday, 12 February 2010 02:42

I just finished watching Jamie Oliver, the world renowned British chef – and I am inspired. His presentation on healthy eating is something that every educator, parent, grandparent and anyone else who feeds our children, should watch (and it wouldn’t hurt the younger generation to watch it either)

It got me thinking about the obligatory Jewish cooking classes that many Jewish supplementary high school programs offer – and why not?

They’re popular, relatively simple to plan, and you slip in the Jewish content piece without the kids even realize that they’re learning.

But here’s where Oliver challenges us. The real strength of Jewish education in the future – especially for our teenagers – will be offering quality programming, that competes with the many other choices they have, and us seen as adding real value to their lives. If it happens in a Jewish setting, with Jewish friends – that are the bonuses that we know Jewish socialization has to offer.

So here’s the challenge. Let’s design a Healthy Jewish Cooking curriculum. Chopped liver, challah, matzah balls, honey cake all have their cultural importance only matched by their caloric significance. But now is our chance to create a healthy lifestyle that is also Jewishly rich – how much more value added could one ask for?

So let’s hear from you – Please post for us all in the comments below: what are your favorite healthy Jewish recipes? Maybe even add a few sentences about the Jewish significance of your recipe. Let’s see if we can put together a cook book, and perhaps even a curriculum, that leverages the power of the blogosphere.

I am not a Young Judaean – but it does raise questions

Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 December 2010 07:20 Written by bryfy Friday, 5 February 2010 02:09

I am not a Young Judaean – but I am a supporter of the great work YJ does and I think that the (long term) Israel experience is one of the most vital programs that the Jewish community should be investing in. That is why the news of the last week and months has been troubling for me – even as a relative outsider.

A quick summary:

• Young Judaea, largely because of its strong connections to Hadassah, has been hit hard by the global economic recession and the Madoff scandal. These financial conditions have forced/prodded/allowed Young Judaea to look at how it can restructure itself moving forward.
• In recent weeks and months there have been several high profile resignations from senior YJ staff, as well as several YJ staff having their jobs cut.
• Early this week, Keith Berman, former head of YJ long term Israel programs, established his own long term Israel program – Aardvark Israel

Let me just say much of what has happened has not been pretty – as is evidenced by some of the articles, blog posts and comments that have appeared in recent days. Here is a small sampling:

Key staff resignations at Young Judaea and Hadassah

Former Young Judaea head launches rival year program

Young Judaea head blasts predecessor for launching program day after quitting

Aadvark Israel is launched: What does it mean? (comments are essential reading)

But I don’t want to get into these discussions – even though I do have may questions about what has taken place and how it all got to this stage.

I do want to use this opportunity to ask some more macro questions that I think this recent series of events has brought to our attention – and should be asked of many Jewish organizations and the Jewish community at large. It is my belief that if we don’t find ways to adequately answer these questions then the Jewish community will face even more challenges in the future.

Why Be Jewish? Because Why the Hell Not.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 2 February 2010 08:20 Written by bryfy Tuesday, 2 February 2010 08:20

Teenagers today have been labeled many things – Generation Y, the Millennials, the iPod generation and Generation Me – to name but a few. Most of these labels infer something narcissistic about today’s youth – it’s all about them (unless of course they want to harass, or shoot someone else)

But here’s where we may have just got it wrong.  The Generation Me label fails to take into account the massive number of youth today involved in so many different causes, campaigns, social action projects, and repairing the world.

How do we make sense of this paradox?