Another great Torah chanting from Rabbi Zach. This time, instead of the oud, we get a special treat with his new musical toy--the harmonium. We hope this won't be the last time we see it!
Join us for a unique Passover experience!
Monday, April 4
A fun and casual exchange to benefit Seder Hosts to enhance and
engage our holiday guests led by member Wendy Kantor.
Bring a holiday related question to the group - from decor
to desserts, Haggadahs to traditions - anything goes.
Hosted by member Dusty Berke from 7-9pm. Contact the office for address.
Hors d'oeuvres and wine will be served.
RSVP to the office.
If you love the theater, politics, Communism, art, advocacy, film, or great New Yorkers, you won't want to miss this interview between Tony Kushner and New York Public Radio's Andrea Bernstein. Kushner's sensational new play opens next week and this interview is an important vehicle for understanding his art and motivations.
Kushner and Bernstein have had a series of conversations over the years about art and politics. They recently sat down in an Upper West Side café to talk about "Angels in America," Kushner’s new play, "The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures," dubbed “iHo,” writing the screenplay for Stephen Spielberg’s Munich and why the sex in The Kids are Alright between Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo is hotter than the lesbian sex in that move--and what that has to do with his new play.
Click on this link for the entire interview: http://culture.wnyc.org/articles/features/2011/mar/11/wnycs-andrea-bernstein-interviews-playwright-tony-kushner/
Happy listening/reading!
From our very own Diane Temkin, an opportunity to support an organization doing amazing work in the field of mental health!
Dear Family & Friends,
This is the 4th year that I and my family, friends, and fellow MHLS (Mental Hygiene Legal Service) lawyers are walking to support our loved ones, friends, and clients who struggle every day with mental illness.
I would like to ask you to come and walk with me or to donate to support my participation in this great event. If you would like to register to walk with me, visit my team's page at http://www.nami.org/namiwalks11/NYC/mhls. Or if you just want to make a donation to sponsor me, visithttp://www.nami.org/walkdonation.cfm?id=152370. Donating online is fast and secure, and I'll get immediate notification via e-mail of your donation.
NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the largest education, support and advocacy organization that serves the needs of all whose lives are touched by these illnesses. This includes persons with mental illness, their families, friends, employers, the law enforcement community and policy makers. The NAMI organization is composed of approximately 1100 local affiliates, 50 state offices and a national office.
The goals of the NAMIWalks program are: to fight the stigma that surrounds mental illness, to build awareness of the fact that the mental health system in this country needs to be improved and to raise funds for NAMI so that they can continue their mission.
NAMI is a 501(c)3 charity and any donation you make to support my participation in this event is tax deductible. NAMI has been rated by Worth magazine as among the top 100 charities "most likely to save the world" and has been given an "A+" rating by The American Institute of Philanthropy for efficient and effective use of charitable dollars. NAMI has also been given 4 out of 4 stars by The Charity Navigator for short-term spending practices and long-term sustainability.
Thank you in advance for your support.
Sincerely,
Diane
To The New Shul Community,
A wonderful six year old girl from Riverdale named Neshama Ryman is undergoing 15 months of treatment for a very serious cancer. You can literally help to save her life by donating platelets at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Any blood type can do this -- it takes approximately two hours, doesn't hurt (!), and makes all the difference in the world.
We need approximately 75 donors in the next two months, so please don't think, "I'll let someone else do it." You should know they make a difference in both the short-term and long-term. As her father wrote about a day this past week in the hospital: "Yesterday, Neshama needed more blood and platelets, and after the transfusions took effect, her afternoon and evening were filled with energy and spunk!"
Remember, blood type does not matter for platelet donation.
Details:
Patient: Neshama Ryman (parents Rob and Lamelle Ryman)
Donations can be scheduled by calling Joe Licata, donations coordinator at Memorial Sloan Kettering
You must mention that your donation is for Nashema Ryman if that is your intention.
Phone: 212-639-8177. Appointments required!
‘wichcraft’s Chocolate Cream’wich
Makes 1 dozen sandwich cookies.
Ingredients:
For the Cookie:
•1/3 cup cocoa nibs
•3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
•2/3 cup brown sugar
•2/3 cup granulated sugar
•6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (64% cocoa), melted in a double boiler
•1 tablespoon vanilla extract
•1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
•1 teaspon baking soda
•1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
•1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
For the Filling:
•4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (64% cocoa), finely chopped
•2 tablespoons unsalted butter
•1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
•1/4 cup heavy cream
Method:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
To make the cookies, grind the cocoa nibs in a coffee grinder or food processor until a fine powder. In a bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, ground cocoa nibs, and the sugars on medium speed until well mixed. Add the melted chocolate and the vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the bowl. Mix into a smooth dough and chill in the freezer for 5 minutes.
Transfer the dough to a large surface covered with a layer of parchment paper. Top with another layer of parchment and gently roll the dough into a 1/4-inch-thick sheet. To prevent the cookies from sticking as you cut them, carefully remove the top layer of parchment and sprinkle some flour over the sheet of dough. Replace the parchment, flip the dough, and release the parchment on the other side. Cut the dough into 2 ½ inch round cookies and space 1/2 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Gather any leftover scraps of dough and roll and cut as described above. Repeat until you have no dough left. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes, turning the pan 90 degrees halfway through baking, until you can smell the toasted chocolate. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Cool completely. Once cool, the cookies should be crisp.
To make the filling, place the chocolate, butter, and salt into a medium mixing bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil and pour one-third of the cream over the chopped chocolate to melt the chocolate. Add the rest of the cream and stir until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.
Place half of the cookies with the top side (the most attractive) down. Using a piping bag or a spoon, evenly distribute the filling among those cookies, and close into sandwiches with the remaining cookies. Gently press down. Serve immediately or store the cookies in a cool place.
This blog post also appears on Joanne's blog, Gotham Gal.
Every year our temple, the New Shul, puts on a food contest. Great for community and raising money. I can tell you that food is always good and available when it comes to the Jews. There was some serious competition.
I entered my chocolate chip caramel salted cookies.
To my right was ruggelah.
To my left was these decadent chocolate brownies with dulce de leche.
The judges took it all very seriously.
In the end, I won for most sophisticated dessert. Glad to have come with a trophy. Lots of buzz around my cookies which made me happy. I wish I had a small video camera to watch peoples reaction when they took a bite, particularly the kids, just funny.
There was also a junior competition. The winner was a teenage kid who made three nut toffee like crunch with just a hint of cayenne pepper. Pretty damn good.
---
And now for the recipe:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tsps. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 1/2 flour
1 egg
1 egg yolk
12 ounces chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
16 ounces caramel chips
medium coarse fleur de sel (or any other salt that you like)
In a mixer beat the butter until smooth. Add in the sugars and beat until really incorporated. I let this go for a couple of minutes. Add in the vanilla and egg yolk and egg and beat. I like to sift together the dry ingredients before adding them in for the next step. Add the mixture of dry ingredients over three times beating each amount in between. Add in all the chips and beat until incorporated. This should happen quickly.
Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The oven should be pre-set to 370. After the cookies are on the sheet sprinkle salt over the top of each cookie.
Bake about 7-9 minutes or until browned. When you take the cookies out of the oven, let them cool a bit before taking off the sheet otherwise they completely fall apart.
These cookies are seriously decadent!
Dear friends,
For My Mitzvah Project, I have decided to piggyback onto a New Shul effort to raise money for a water treatment plant that residents of an Amazon River village will install, run and maintain on their own. From now until my Bar Mitzvah on April 30th, I will take my unicycle act “on the road” and donate any contributions I receive to this clean water project. In addition, instead of asking for presents, I am asking my guests to help me give the gift of clean water to these children by making a donation to this project.
Almost all children in Amazon River villages consume water directly from rivers, streams and ponds. Since these water sources contain many parasites, children who drink from them are likely to become ill and malnourished. CONAPAC is a Peruvian non-profit organization that promotes conservation of the rainforest by educating its stewards, the people of the Amazon. CONAPAC has designed a simple system to build small water treatment plants in Amazon villages. Overseen by CONAPAC, villagers build the water plants in their communities and attend a 2-day workshop where they learn about the importance of clean water for good health and community prosperity.
At the end of the workshop, each family receives a large container with a spigot to bring and serve clean water in their homes, and each child receives his or her own cup with the message that clean water equals good health.
To donate by check, make checks payable to "The New Shul - Water Project" and mail to: The New Shul, 505 8th Avenue, Suite 1212, New York, NY 10018.
Thanks!
Noah Levy
This blog post, written by member Judy Levine, also appears on Cause Effective's blog. Cause Effective provides management consulting services to nonprofits. They teach their clients how to build effective boards, manage successful events, and maximize their fundraising potential. In addition, they house our New Shul offices!
I went to a tasting today – or, rather, I went to an outpouring of love.
It was a dessert cook-off. People prepared their standout recipes, and competed for various prizes. They paid to get in – a sliding scale that started low and rose pretty high, with the only differential being someone’s capacity to write checks – and the rest of the community, the non-chefs, paid to come in as well.
What did we get?
A chance to peak inside the kitchens of our fellow community members; a chance to appreciate good cooking in the company of our peers; and a chance to laugh together as we attempted the absurd task of trying 50 or so desserts in an hour’s time.
And the ability to cheer each other on (especially the kids – there was a special Junior Chefs division with about 10 contestants).
Food = Love. An age-old theme.
But even more than that, this showed me, once again, the power of special events if they’re really well-designed for the community at hand. We all went home with a glow – and the organization raised some dollars, increased awareness, and created an even tighter bond between participants.
Chefs Alex and Judah pose with their Chocolate Chip Cookies
Now I have to come clean – my 12-year-old son and his friend won second prize for their delicious chocolate chip cookies, so the event had a very satisfying end for them. But even before that dénouement, they basked in the appreciation of the 100+ participants, supported each other’s creations, and marveled at the variety of chocolate cakes in the world…while having no idea they were involved in a nonprofit fundraising venture.
They were simply having fun.
We'll be blogging pics, recipes, and more from this past Saturday's 4th Annual Golden Schmaltz Awards honoring Amy Eichenwald Golding all week. Thanks again for coming out and making it an incredible day!
This month, our group has explored Israel's political landscape and learned about everything from elections to political parties to politicians, all using the medium of political cartoons.
After a visit from New Shul member and The Forward staffer Karen Loew, we had the opportunity to create our own political cartoons using what we've learned so far. Here's what we came up with---enjoy this seriously symbolic cartoon created by our own Julian Baldwin. (click on the image to make it a little bigger)
