Jerusalem Report

It started with a late-night call from DeeDee Benel, my son’s faculty adviser at Manhattan’s Ramaz High School, a private Orthodox Jewish prep school on the Upper East Side. “Everything is OK with Daniel,” she reassured my wife and then began telling her about the birth of her grandson in Denver… Read more...

"V” Vegetarian Sandwich Bar 1259 Park Avenue (between 97th and 98th), New York, NY 10029 Tel: (212) 360-7185 Open daily 7am (8am Sundays) - 10pm, Fridays till 2pm, closed Shabbat Kosher/Cholov Yisroel Depending on your perspective, Manhattan’s new “V” Vegetarian Sandwich Bar is either between the… Read more...

Darna Restaurant 600 Columbus Ave. (corner 89th Street) New York Tel.: (212) 721-9123; http://www.darnanyc.com Open: Sun.-Thurs.: lunch, 11:30 am-4 pm, dinner, 4 pm-11 pm, Fri.: 11:30 until one hour before Shabbat; dinner with reservations, Sat.: after Shabbat until midnight. Passing by Darna on a… Read more...

Milk Street Cafe 50 Milk Street, Boston (Also at Norman B. Leventhal Park, at Post Office Square) 617-542-FOOD (3663) http://www.milkstreetcafe.com Kosher Open: 7am-3pm Walk through Boston’s financial district on a hot Indian-summer day and you will be delighted to discover Leventhal Park at… Read more...

379 Whalley Avenue New Haven, Connecticut Tel.: (203) 787-1055 Open: Mon.-Fri. 8:30am-7:30pm, Sat. 8:30am-6:30pm, Sun. 9am-6pm At first sight “edge,” as the locals call it, is your typical health food store: Fresh flowers for sale greet you at the door, beyond which are the… Read more...

Taam Tov 41 West 47th Street, New York Tel. (212) 768-8001 or 768-2827 Open: Mon. - Fri. 10am - 6pm, kosher Wade through the sea of mainly Orthodox diamond dealers mingling and conducting business along 47th Street and you will come across a man with a sandwich board, standing in front of an office… Read more...

2026 Irving Street, San Francisco, Tel: (415) 731-2548, Open: Mon-Sun 11:30am-9pm, Kosher. After a long day of cable car rides, walks along Fisherman’s Wharf and a hike up Lombard Street, we were delighted to discover another Chinatown, San Francisco’s Sunset neighborhood. The Shangri-La Vegetarian… Read more...

Jelly Belly Visitor Center and Factory Tour One Jelly Belly Lane Fairfield, California Tel.: 800-JB-BEANS Tour info: 800-953-5592 Free drop-in tours daily 9am-4pm (A train and video tour are also offered at a second plant, in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin; tel.: 866-TOUR-JBC), Kosher… Read more...

2608 Broadway between 98th and 99th Streets, NY Tel.: (212) 865- 7334; http://www.la-creperie.com Open: Sun-Thurs: 11am-11pm Fri: 11am-2pm Sat: one hour after Shabbat-1 a.m. It is not at all surprising to find a kosher dairy restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. But when it opened… Read more...

Mendy’s Grand Central Station (Lower Level Dining Concourse), NY Mendy’s Dairy and Appetizers: 7am-5:45pm, Sunday 7:30am- 3pm Mendy’s Kosher Deli: 10:30am- 8:45pm, Sundays till 6pm Closed on Shabbat Tel: (212) 856-9399 http://www.mendysdeli.com Drop by Grand Central Station’s… Read more...

Streit’s Matzos Factory Store, 150 Rivington Street, New York, Tel: (212) 677-0876, http://www.matzofiles.org, Hours: Tues-Thurs 3pm-6pm, Sun 12 noon - 5pm, appointments possible. Though Passover’s more than half a year away, there’s a lot of action at Steit’s Matzos on Manhattan’s Lower East Side… Read more...

At 6am on a recent Sunday morning, a group of us grabbed mountain bikes, helmets and water bottles and set out from Palmer, Massachusetts for Quabbin Reservoir, 10 miles northwest of us. We rode past the local airport, through the town of Belchertown, alongside Doug’s Taxidermy and Archery shop and… Read more...

921 Reisterstown Road, Baltimore, Maryland Tel: (410) 580-1400; http://www.cafe921.com Open: Sun.-Thurs.: 11am - 9pm, Fri.: 11am- 1:30pm in winter; 11am-2:30pm in summer; Saturday: 1 hour after Shabbat; kosher Baltimore natives fondly remember 921 Reisterstown Road as home of the… Read more...

This Jewish year, with its two Adars, affords aficionados of hamentaschen (Haman’s pocket, in Yiddish; in Hebrew, the goodies are called oznei Haman, or Haman’s ears) an extra month to contemplate and seek out the perfect three-cornered pastry. Before we get to the main course, you may wonder why… Read more...

In honor of George Washington’s birthday on February 22, I ran an Internet search on the relationship between the first president and the Jews, and found some interesting results. For a good overview of Washington’s life, including the apocryphal “I cannot tell a lie” cherry tree story, it is… Read more...

When I was a kid, Tu Bishvat meant putting money in the Jewish National Fund pushke, singing “Hashkediah Porahat” (The Almond Tree Is Blooming) and eating almonds from Israel, or trying to avoid breaking teeth on dried carobs. The Internet has widened the options for observing the New Year of the… Read more...

In spite of the romanticized nature of his images, or perhaps because of it, it is David Roberts’s 19th-century prints that many still think of when they think of the Holy Land Jewish tradition holds that Moses was denied entry to the Land of Israel for striking the rock. Although the fairness of… Read more...

69-66 Main Street, Flushing, New York Tel: (718) 261-6767 Open: Sun.-Wed.: 9am-7pm; Thurs.: 9am-9pm; Fri.: 9am-2pm. All products are kosher. The Pereg Gourmet Spice Store is a stone’s throw from Shea Stadium and the U.S. Tennis Center in Queens, New York. Located in a strip mall in a predominantly… Read more...

153 East 53rd Street, corner of Lexington Avenue, at the sunken plaza of Citigroup Center, Manhattan. “Which building do you work in?” asks Avraham Matayav, the friendly, soft-spoken immigrant from Tajikistan and proprietor of Moshe’s Café International Glatt Kosher Cuisine. The eatery, Avraham… Read more...

Why do Israelis call the night of December 31, which most of us call New Year’s Eve, Sylvester? If you don’t know, you’re not alone. Rabbi Jeremy Rosen didn’t either. Rosen confesses his ignorance at http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk “Having been brought up in… Read more...