Author: Carol Green Ungar

Meet Israel’s warriors on the home front—IDF wives who exhibit extraordinary faith while juggling housework, jobs and toddlers

With antisemitism reaching levels not seen in decades and Israel locked in a devastating war, what is there to laugh about? 

It is not unusual for him to prepare by applying copious amounts of bug spray and donning heavy rubber boots and a netted face mask—all to protect himself from the snake bites, malaria and dengue fever he might encounter while journeying to plants tucked deep in the Amazon.

Even now, with airports still in post-Covid chaos and gas prices at nosebleed levels, the rabbi continues on his journeys. “Indefatigable is the word I’d use to describe him,” says Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz, a senior RC for OU Kosher.

Over the past sixteen years, Koegel has brought in over 2,000 new brands and over 250,000 new products, among them Gatorade, Sambazon, Jelly Belly jelly beans, and Tootsie Roll.

While such matzah is most certainly not new—it has old roots in the Sephardic world—in recent years it has become more commercially available.

How did our shtetl foremothers make their Rosh Hashanah meals memorable?

With supermarket shelves bulging with Passover muffins, Passover granola and even Passover breadsticks, it’s hard to grasp that for much of history, this holiday’s fare was limited to the simple and home-made. In the shtetl, Passover preparations began at Chanukah when housewives rendered chicken and goosefat into schmaltz, the cooking fat of choice before people […]

There is an Israeli folk tale about how the sufganiya, the ubiquitous Chanukah doughnut, got its name.

According to the late food historian Gil Marks, the first latkes, called kartoffelpfannkuchen, were fashioned from coarse potatoes fried in schmaltz (chicken fat).

Sure, many families observe the minhag of not eating gebrokts on Pesach, but why?

What’s Behind the Explosion in Non-Gebrokts Products for Pesach? In recent years, non-gebrokts food has become a major trend. “People are noticing that matzah meal, a long-standing Pesach baking staple, is appearing less and less in packaged kosher-for-Passover products,” observes Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz, OU senior rabbinic coordinator. The OU, which certifies more than 600,000 products […]

For nearly a year now, Simcha Esther (Shari) Gershan has been looking the Angel of Death in the eye and smiling back at him. She’s also been telling the world about it on her Internet blog, and plans to share more of her story in her forthcoming documentary. The day after Purim 2008, the Passaic, […]