“I believe that the Book of Ruth is my story,” says Devorah. “Ruth is always referred to as a Moabite. Even though she says, ‘Where you go, I’ll go, and your people is my people.’

One sliver lining of quarantine has been spending quality time with my Japanese father and Israeli mother.

Because I primarily ate rice pudding at these diners, the dish always felt more connected to my Midwestern roots rather than my Jewish heritage. But while researching dishes to include in The Jewish Cookbook—my forthcoming collection of global Jewish recipes—I discovered that rice pudding has a definitive place in the Jewish kitchen, particularly within Sephardi cuisine.

Can we, or do we, see past the labels to create an inclusive community where those born in the margins need not remain there? The story of Ruth raises issues that are atypical from much of our biblical narrative, and Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth, a new anthology of modern commentaries on Ruth, edited by Stuart Halpern (Yeshiva University Press/Koren Publishers 2019), seeks to answer some of those questions.

Although everyone agrees that the food of choice for Shavuot is cheese, most typically blintzes, or a Sephardic equivalent such as bourekas, there are differences of opinion (some quite charming) as to why it is a custom.

Sephardic memory and tradition at Shavuot.

A Greek-Sephardic custom until the Nazis decimated the community, will the ‘bread of the seven heavens’ soon be the crumbs of history?

The Shavuot holiday is upon us.

Shavuot is one of the rare Jewish holidays that really specifies a dairy meal.