Persian Haroset

My friend Loraine makes this wonderful haroset that is somewhere between the straight-ahead apple and nut Ashkenazi haroset and the Sephardic date haroset, and very complicated tasting. Here is why--there are many ingredients, and some of them make you scratch your head a bit, but somehow all together, they taste fantastic. 25 dates, pitted and diced 1/2 cup unsalted pistachios 1/2 cup almonds 1/2 cup golden raisins 1 1/2 peeled apples, cored and diced 1 orange, peeled and diced 1 banana, sliced ~1/2 cup sweet red wine ~1/4 cup cider vinegar 1/4 tsp. cayenne 1/4 tsp. ground cloves 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. black pepper Put nuts in a food processor and pulse. Then add the fruit (the smaller the size you start with the better) and the spices. Pulse until a uniform size. Add the wine and vinegar until a pasty consistency is achieved. Adjust seasonings. Makes 5 cups.

Esther Scrolls, Jewish Museum, Prague

Unlike the ceremonial scrolls, private scrolls of Esther, from which the participants of the Purim service follow the reading of the book, may be decorated. Illuminations for the Book of Esther appear in medieval Hebrew codices, but the earliest decorated scrolls to have been preserved come from 16th century Italy. The Prague Jewish Museum collection contains about 20 scrolls of Esther with ornamental or figurative decoration. For illuminated scrolls, the decoration consists most often of a plant ornament, sometimes with animal figures and signs of the zodiac or architectural elements. But for the two scrolls of local provenance, dating from the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th, most of the Prague Jewish Museum’s illuminated scrolls are probably from Italy and date from the 17th and 18th centuries, with only two of them clearly Czech in origin.

On both of my visits to the Prague Jewish Museum these scrolls stood out as exceptionally beautiful--there were three on exhibit each time, and not the same three. I would love to see an exhibit of all 20 scrolls, and a catalog that showed all of the illustrations.

St. John of Nepomuk, Charles Bridge, Prague

Charles Bridge (Karlov Most) is a famous historical bridge that crosses the Viltava river in Prague and named for the city's inspirational medieval leader, the man who really put it on the map during his lifetime, and most impressively, for centuries to come. Back in King Charles' times, this was the main pedestrian route linking the Old Town with Mala Strana, and then onto Prague Castle. The bridge is decorated on each side by 30 baroque statues that are impressive, and one of which is said to be able to give you good luck. I love the Charles Bridge, and it turns out, I am not alone. The streets going from the Old Town to the bridge were not at all crowded when I was there last month, but the bridge itself was if anything, more crowded than when I was there in the summer.

My favorite Charles Bridge story involves John of Nepomuk, who was a priest in Prague under King Wenceslas IV (son of Charles IV). The Queen made a confession to John of Nepomuk. Unfortunately for him, the King being a very suspicious man, pressed John of Nepomuk for the Queen’s confessions which John of Nepomuk would not reveal, not even to the King (perhaps the Queen revealed something in her confession that the King should not know). John of Nepomuk was executed by being thrown into the Viltava River from the bridge and drowned as punishment for his refusal to the King. So sad, right? Well, he achieved sainthood, if that is any consolation. It is thought that touching his statue, or the marker of where he went into the river, or on the statue of him on the bridge, can grant wishes and good luck to the person who rubs it (not hard to figure out where to rub--the bronze is rubbed clean in those spots).

Asparagus with Orange-Pecan Pesto

Adapted fromt he new Mario Battali cookbook, and it is stupendous. Salt 2 pounds medium asparagus, thick bottom ends snapped off 2 oranges, preferably nice and juicy 1/2 cup chopped pecans 3 garlic cloves 2 Tb sugar 1 cup plus 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1/4 cup plus 2 Tb freshly grated Pecorino Romano Directions: Bring 8 quarts of water to boil a large pasta pot. Set a large ice bath nearby. When water comes to a boil, add 2 Tb salt. Add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook until just softened, 1 minute. Using tongs, transfer the asparagus to the ice bath. When it has cooled, drain and set aside. (This stops the cooking process and keeps them bright green) Juice one of the oranges, removing any seeds, and set the juice aside for later. Chop what is left of the juiced orange — pith, rind interior fruit and all — along with the remaining orange, (again removing pits) and place the chopped orange in the bowl of a food processor. Add the walnuts, garlic, sugar, 1 cup of the olive oil, and 1/4 cup of the romano to the processor, and blend until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a bowl, and season it with salt and pepper to taste. If it’s too thick, add up to 1/4 cup of the reserved juice to loosen it up. (This pesto will last up to one week in the fridge if you cover the surface with a layer of oil.) To make the citronette, place the reserved orange juice and the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil in a small bowl, and whisk to form a thin emulsion. Arrange the cooked asparagus on a serving platter, and spoon the walnut-orange pesto over the stems. Drizzle the orange citronette over all. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 Tb pecorino and serve.

The Descendants (2011)

George Clooney continues to impress me. He has dodged the 'just another pretty face' moniker and gone for some very gritty roles. In this one he faces multiple personal challenges and comes out looking human. Here's the scenario as it quickly unfolds in the film: Clooney's Matt King is a workaholic casual Honolulu attorney. He doesn't like to brag, but he is descended from royal blood: His great-great-grandmother was a Hawaiian princess who married a haole (white) banker and passed on a beautiful and very large parcel of real estate in Kauia to her heirs. As the man in charge, Matt must decide which of the developers to sell it to (for some reason, keeping it is not an option) to please an army of cousins, led by a weedling Beau Bridges. Matt has more personal issues than just his extended family to worry about--his nuclear family is coming apart at the seams. A boating accident has left his neglected wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), in a coma and left Matt (who is hard to find as a parent) in charge of their two daughters, neither of whom is doing all that well. They are Scottie (Amara Miller,), who is all of 10 but has quite the mouth on her, and seen-it-all Alexandra (Shailene Woodley), 17, who is reckless with both boys and drugs, which has landed her in boarding school. Just when Matt steps it up as a husband and father, he gets round two of adversity, first when he's informed that Elizabeth will never come out of her coma, and then when Alex tells him that his wife was cheating on him. So what does he do? He decides to go visit the land he has been left in charge of deciding it's fate and to confront the man his wife has been having an affair with. Since his kids know about the affair, he includes them in the trip (we have to cut the man some slack in the judgement department--his wife is dying), and along the way they try to figure out how to live without the wife and mother that they share, and how to move forward as a family. It is a wildly successful contemplation of how to deal with loss in the modern era (taking economics out of the equation). The best movie of 2011 that I have seen.

Passover Post Eastern Europe

Wow. We have a lot to be thankful for. This passover I am not just celebrating an ancient escape from slavery. I am taking stock in the value of a nation where there is a separation between church and state. Long may it continue to reign. Two things threaten what is special about religious freedom in America. The first is politicians who vow to end it. These are the same guys who seem hell bent on taking us not just back to the Constitution, but to the first century. Admittedly, life was good for them then--they were completely in charge. What is not to like? Well, how about the fact that civilizations do best when their women are educated? Not a compelling argument for that crowd, I am afraid. They want their cake and to eat it to--go back to the morays of the first century, but don't forgo your Blackberry and your iPad when you take us back to an era where slavery was the norm and you could stone your children to death for disobedience. The other threat to religious tolerance is radical Muslim doctrines being mistaken for mainstream Muslim religious beliefs. When those who would have Obama out of office declared him to be a closet Muslim, the answer should have been "So what?" But it wasn't. Attaturk, the man who founded the secular state of Turkey, took a page out of the American constitution. He made government adamantly secular. As we celebrate Passover and Easter this weekend, may we also praise a country that allows those two celebrations to be held side by side uneventfully.

Holocaust Memorials Czech Style

Sadly, there is a lot to memorialize in the Czech Republic related to the Holocaust. The war that swept through all of Europe, and beyond, had an early start in what was then Czechoslovakia. As early as March of 1938 Germans asserted control of Sudetenland, to be followed by Moravia and Bohemia, and the end did not come until the war itself ended--six years is a long time, and a totalitarian regime without morals can do a lot of irreparable damage in that amount of time. So how to remember those who perished at that time? There are so many. And no graves are known for the vast majority of them. How to do that any kind of justice is very hard.

The Czechs have struck me as an artistic people--which is a big help when it comes to making things right in a monument. Prague is such a spectacular city, both in the architecture that remains from it's medieval roots to have it has grown organically and beautifully through each era since. So it is not surprising that they have poignant and tasteful memorials for those who were systematically murdered by Nazi armies. I like the simplicity of these memorials, and the ability to place stones of remembrance on them, in a way that enhances the beauty of the piece, is especially appreciated.

The Artist (2011)

I had the benefit of hindsight when I saw this movie, but I agree, it is a remarkable piece of film work. A must see. The Artist sounds like a fairly difficult sell. A full-length black and white, silent movie is not everyone's cup of tea. I heard that people who were unaware of these two factors demanded their money back on m ore than one occasion. But make no mistake, the film is as good as any cinematic experience gets--it is just different from what you might be used to. The Artist is a charming, and incredibly clever homage to the Golden Age of silent film: as authentic and believable as if it were made circa 1927, right from the opening credits. Jean Dujardin’s George Valentin, an homage to the mega-stars of the silent period, has the whole Hollywood world on their knees before him – the film subsequently charts his peak, before the advent of the talkies arrives, and he finds himself cast out overnight in favor of the new breed of speaking stars. Along the way he meets Berenice Bejo’s Peppy Miller, a wannabe who miraculously finds her way to stardom through him. Jean Dujardin, a stalwart of French film, offers a personification of Golden Age charisma and panache. He is breathtakingly good as Valentin, in both the high moments, when his flamboyant swagger disarms, and the lows, when the tragedy of his fall requires a more humanist side. Alongside him, and also brilliant is Berenice Bejo as the young starlet who represents Hollywood’s new direction, whose ability to segue from moxy to pathos, combined with her striking beauty, make her a genuine leading lady, who will no doubt now find herself inundated with job offers. Both actors are charged with convincing the audience using only facial expressions and movements. Dujardin in particular is a master of expression. Finally, the music is fabulous. It was put together with artisan precision by Ludovic Bource in far more testing circumstances than “normal” films require. For The Artist, Bource had to capture the feel of the era, to pinpoint the spirit of silent film, as well as capturing the essence of each character, and trying to convey the emotional bent of each scene; heavily referencing major film composers of the 1920s as well as working closely with the director pre- and post-edit to make sure the score fit the visuals like a second skin. He was appropriately awarded with an Oscar for his efforts, but it makes the film.

Jews in the Czech Republic

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The short answer is that there aren't any. That is a slight exaggeration, but not by a lot. There are 3,000 people in the Czech Republic who are identified as Jewish--and the definition is not strict. Almost all Jews are in mixed marriages, and the basic criteria is that you have a Jewish grandparent. While I was in Prague, we had the chance to meet with a member of the Jewish community. She is personally very active in Jewish education, but sad fact is that there arent' that many people to educate. Many synagogues do not even hava torah, despite the fact that there are numerous Czech torahs that survived the war. The other sad part is that the Jewish Quarter in Prague, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, speaks to a large and thriving Jewish community before WWII. The Spanish Synagogue, the most elaborately decorated of the synagogues that remain, has nightly concerts. Culture abounds in modern day Prague, that is true. But there are likely to be as many people of Jewish ancestry who are visiting this fair city than who live there. This may indeed be a very good entry into the Ottoman Empire followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire countries that Hitler left behind. If you look solely at the effect on the Jewish population, he was very successful. Gorgeous synagogues, beautiful cemeteries, no living Jews. So while discrimination is not alive and well in the Czech Rebuplic, it is not an exaggeration to say that there arent't many people it would apply to

Returning to Prague

Such a lovely walking city. Last time we were there we stayed in the old city, called Staré Město. This time we were in Nove Město--which, contrary to how it sounds, is not all that new. I returned as the first stop of a tour of Eastern Europe that was primarily focused on the Jewish experience there. Which means you are necessarily focused on the Holocaust. Not too uplifting. So in order to balance out the emotionally traumatic, there were days devoted to other aspects of the cities we visited. And we started in Prague. Such a lovely city. Our bus rolled into the hotel mid-day and we, in true organized tour fashion, had a walking tour of the Prague Castle and surrounding area.

We hadn't gone there when I was in Prague before, so it was nice to be someplace new, but best of all you get an incredible view of the city from high above. Prague is charming. The buildings are nicely preserved--people started living on both sides of the Vitava River in fortified settlements as early as the 9th century, and in the 14th century Charles IV inspired a medieval urban landscape that influenced all of Europe. It is a marvel. As early as the Middle Ages, Prague became one of the leading cultural centers of Christian Europe. The Prague University, founded in 1348, is one of the earliest in Europe. The milieu of the University in the last quarter of the 14th century and the first years of the 15th century contributed among other things to the formation of ideas of the Hussite Movement which represented in fact the first steps of the European Reformation--which is why parts of the city are UNESCO World Heritage Sites today.