Chag Pesach sameach!

Passover Seder plate, via Wikimedia Commons, by Edsel Little.

[This post, by Edward Schabes, Library Assistant, Midtown, was written in 2018 and has been updated for publication in April 2024.]

Passover is the one Holiday besides the New Year which is celebrated by a majority of all Jews from around the globe. The preparations for this Holiday very often drive people nuts.  The commandment is not to have any leavened product in your home during this 8 day period; this means that the house must be cleared of bread and all other such foodstuffs. And that’s on top of cleaning and cooking in preparation for the family gathering. Especially with small children in the household, it’s not hard to see why people get a little crazy at this time of year!  

This Holiday also brings back very pleasant memories for many, because it is a coming together of family.  For example, I most remember my grandmother coming over every year.  She used to make an extraordinarily large jar of horseradish with beets, and a large jar of applesauce.  I also remember my mother taking out a grinder and grinding fish to create the fish loaf that we ate at the Seder.

Passover is known for the eating of unleavened bread and the asking of questions by children during Seder, the ritual meal that commemorates the Exodus from Egypt.  The most famous questions are usually asked by the youngest child and are called the four questions. For example, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” and, “Why do we dip not once but twice during the Seder?”. For a full explanation of the rituals of Passover, consult library titles such as Telling the Story: A Passover Haggadah Explained. 

Besides eating unleavened bread the type of foods eaten on Passover varies between Jews with a European heritage and Jews with a Middle East or Spanish heritage.  Everyone eats meat, chicken, and dairy foods (though not together with meat), but those with a Middle Eastern or Spanish heritage eat rice, corn, or peas, while those with a European heritage do not.

The theme of Passover is freedom and becoming a nation. In ancient times, the Jews escaped slavery in Egypt and gained their freedom. This was also the time that Jews became a nation, an entity beyond the members of a single family.  This year Pesach will begin at sunset on April 22nd and will end at sunset on April 30th.

Celebrating Sukkot!

A sukkah from inside (via Wikimedia user Muu-karhu)

After the solemnity and introspection of the High Holy Days, Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, is always a treat. Like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, I look forward to Sukkot every year because this holiday, unlike Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, is an unaltered celebration.  After the Exodus from Egypt, the ancient Jews traveled the wilderness for forty years before reaching the land of Israel. They lived in small huts called “sukkot” during this time. The holiday of Sukkot commemorates those temporary dwellings: Orthodox Jewish families build a small hut, or Sukkah, outside the house where they eat all meals for the seven days of the holiday. Many Orthodox Jews also sleep outdoors in the Sukkah. A typical Sukkah would look something like this:

(source)

The holiday of Sukkot is also called “Chag ha-Asif,” or the festival of the harvest. It is a festival of thanksgiving for the bounty that was just harvested in time for winter. As a child, I always enjoyed helping my father build our Sukkah on the back porch and decorating it with posters, flags, and ceiling decorations suspended from the bamboo poles that made up our s’chach (the roof of the sukkah, which must be made from some form of plant).

I love to visit other people’s sukkahs because no two sukkahs are exactly alike. Every family builds and decorates theirs in their own unique style. The requirements to build a sukkah are pretty simple, according to Wikipedia: “A sukkah design must be a temporary structure.^[4] The roof must be made of non-edible plant material.^[4] The roofing must be thick enough to shade those sitting inside in the daytime, and thin enough so that stars are visible through the roof at night.^[4] The walls must be at least 10 handsbreadths tall but can be made of any material. Did you know that the body of a dead whale can serve as a wall? ^[4][7][10] The sukkah can also be built atop a live camel.^[3][4][7]”

 Fortunately, these days we do not need to use dead whales for walls, but I came across some pretty interesting sukkah designs when I did a quick Google image search. In the fall of 2010, an architectural design competition called Sukkah City was held in partnership with the Union Square Partnership for New York City’s Union Square Park. All entrants can be seen here on Sukkah City’s website. The winning designs were constructed at Brooklyn’s Gowanus Studio Space and set up in Union Square Park for the duration of the holiday. Below are some of the more eye-catching designs.

Sukkah City entrant Sukkah of the Signs by Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello

Sukkah City entrant “LOG” by Kyle May and Scott Abrahams

Sukkah city entrant “Gathering”, by Dale Suttle, So Sugita, Ginna Nguyen

Sukkah City entrant Repetition meets Difference | Stability meets Volatileness by Matthias Karch

(All images from http://www.sukkahcity.com)

For more information on the holiday, take a look at the Encyclopedia Judaica page here.

Or check out these titles in our collection:

• The Sukkot and Simhat Torah anthology by Philip Goodman
• A treasury of Succos prayers: excerpted from … the complete ArtScroll siddur, by Nosson Scherman
• The Lulav and esrog handbook: the laws of the Four Species, by Hadar Margolin; translated by Dovid Oratz
• Succos: its significance, laws, and prayers: a presentation anthologized from Talmudic and traditional sources, laws by Hersh Goldwurm; background and insights by Meir Zlotowitz; prayers and ritual by Avie Gold; overview by Nosson Scherman

Sukkot begins at sundown on Friday, September 29, 2023 and will end at sundown on Friday, October 6, 2023. Happy holidays!

(Blog post originally posted October 2016)

Contributed by: Toby Krausz, Judaica Librarian, Midtown

Shanah tovah: Happy Rosh Hashana!

“Feast of Trumpets” by Aleksander Gierymski, 1884 – Hasidic Jews performing tashlikh on Rosh Hashanah (CC0 image via Wikimedia Commons)

[This post was written in 2014 and has been updated for publication in 2023]

Rosh Hashanah begins this year at sundown, September 15^th, and ends at sundown, September 17^th. It’s almost time for apples and honey! This sweet treat is one of many customs that symbolize the wish for a sweet new year.

Rosh Hashanah is the first of the autumnal Jewish holidays known as the High Holy Days.  It is a two-day holiday due to the nature of the Jewish calendar, which follows the lunar cycle and is dependent on observation of the new moon. Difficulty determining when the moon actually appeared meant that the Jews of ancient Israel observed both possible days after the end of the previous month. Religious Jews continue this practice today.

The Hebrew term “Rosh Hashanah” translates as “the head of the year” or “the first of the year.” Historically, it is believed that this time period is the anniversary of the creation of the world and of the first man and woman. Rosh Hashanah is a time of both joy and solemnity, as Jews all over the world celebrate the beginning of a new year and stand in judgment for the previous one. No work is permitted during the holiday; the majority of the day is spent in synagogue reciting special prayers.

A shofar (CC BY-SA 2.5 image by Olve Utne)

The most essential and iconic tradition of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar. A shofar is a trumpet made from an animal horn, traditionally a ram’s. Its call sounds like a plaintive cry, meant to awaken the Jewish people to repentance and remind them that G-d is their king.

photo byIgal Ness via unsplash.

Symbolic foods are consumed throughout the holiday, representing the good things we hope for in the coming year. I have already mentioned apples and honey, sometimes eaten with round loaves of challah bread, symbolizing fullness and completion.  A pomegranate is said to contain 613 seeds, the same as the full number of commandments, and according to tradition, it is eaten to symbolize the hope that our “merits increase as the seeds of the pomegranate.” Other symbolic foods include the head of a fish or lamb, dates, and gourds.

One last tradition is saying the prayer of Tashlich on the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah. This involves turning out our pockets at a body of water, preferably one with fish in it. This is symbolic of casting off our sins and mistakes for the fish to carry away.

Rosh Hashanah / New Year greeting card: A Pansy with a face bears the Hebrew inscription for a happy New Year. [Center for Jewish History, NYC]

To find out more, the library has many resources, including A Companion to the Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur Machzor, by A.L. Rubinstein and The High Holy Days: A Commentary on the Prayerbook of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, by Herman Kieval).

As the traditional greeting goes, “L’shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatem.” May we be inscribed and sealed for a good year!

[Contributed by: Toby Krausz, Judaica Librarian, Midtown; further editing by Emma Larson-Whittaker, Starrett City)

A Brief History of Labor Day

Illustration of the first Labor Day parade in New York City. Via Wikimedia Commons.

On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a national holiday, to be celebrated on the first Monday in September. Since then, we have celebrated the long weekend with cookouts, parades, and more. But do you know how it came to be a holiday?

In the late nineteenth century, labor unions began advocating for workers’ rights. The Industrial Revolution had created a market for cheap labor in dangerous environments, often for very low wages. It was due to these labor unions that Labor Day became a holiday.

In 1881, Peter J. Maguire, a union leader in New York City, proposed the first Labor Day. Some 10,000 workers turned out for a parade in the city on September 5 of that year. Over the next 13 years, 23 states had adopted Labor Day as a state holiday.

The proposal for the first Labor Day suggested a parade to celebrate “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” in the community. It also put forward a festival for the enjoyment of workers and their families, just as we do today.

Have a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend!

[Post by Emma Larson-Whittaker, Library and Outreach Assistant, Starrett City]

Happy Fourth of July!

Photo by Tom Dahm on Unsplash

Happy Fourth of July from all of us at Touro Libraries!

Why Do We Celebrate Memorial Day?

Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash

When we think of Memorial Day today, we honor all those who gave their lives in the United States Military. However, did you know that Memorial Day was originally created to honor the Civil War?

Remembering the Civil War

The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history. It raged from 1861 to 1865 and claimed the lives of approximately 620,000 soldiers on both sides. At the heart of the conflict was slavery, however, it was wrapped up in the complex economic and political desire for control in the North and South. Tensions rose following the election of President Abraham Lincoln, leading the South to secede from the rest of the nation. After five bloody years, the South surrendered and returned to the United States.

The first documented observance of Memorial Day was in Charleston, South Carolina, with the decoration of soldiers’ graves on May 1, 1865. Approximately 10,000 Charleston residents, primarily newly freed, former enslaved people, attended, where they sang songs, picnicked, and celebrated the great sacrifice of the Union soldiers. Flowers, wreaths, and flags were laid at graves in war cemeteries, making the gravesites look like “one mass of flowers.” Just as we do now, regiments marched around the graves and staged a drill.

The celebration of Memorial Day became more widespread with the help of General John Logan, the leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans. General Logan designated May 30 as Decoration Day in honor of Civil War soldiers.

Photo by Philippa Rose-Tite on Unsplash

A Modern Holiday

After World War I, the holiday was renamed Memorial Day, to honor those American soldiers who had died in all wars, later including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War, and the Afghanistan and Iraqi Wars. In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, changing Memorial Day from May 30 to the last Monday in May so that federal workers could have a three-day weekend.

Memorial Day is now celebrated all across the country. A special ceremony is held at Arlington National Cemetery, where a small American flag is placed at every grave. Military services conduct memorial services and the US president is also known to give a speech and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Approximately 5,000 people attend annually.

While you enjoy your long weekend, take a moment to honor the great sacrifice American men and women have made to protect our country. Perhaps remember friends or family members who fought in the military and thank them for their service, either in person or with flags and flowers on their graves.

[Post by Emma Larson-Whittaker, Library and Outreach Assistant, Starrett City]

Happy (Delicious) Passover!

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels

This year, Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday, April 5, and ends on Thursday, April 13, in the United States.

We asked Touro Library staff what they love to eat on Passover. Read on for some of their favorites.

Photo by Pixabay

Toby Krausz, Judaica Librarian, Cross River Campus, shares her grandmother’s recipe for Chremselach:

I make cooked potato pancakes called chremselach (that’s multiple, one is a chremsle). My grandmother used to make them and eventually let me make them with her enough times that I now know the recipe and make them every year.

Recipe:

• Boil potatoes (minimum 5, add more for a larger group)
• Drain potatoes and put them in a separate bowl
• Add eggs to potatoes depending on the size of the potatoes. One large potato=1 egg. 5 large potatoes=5 eggs. 5 small potatoes=4 eggs. If in doubt, add an extra egg.
• Add salt, pepper, seasonings (I like onion powder) to taste
• If desired, grate or chop in a small onion (make sure the pieces are small or your chremsle will fall apart!)
• Mix batter together (we find it helpful to use a potato masher to get a smooth batter)
• Fry generous spoonfuls in hot oil until golden brown.

Enjoy hot off the pan or in your chicken soup!

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Gefilte fish and horseradish by Karen on Flickr. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Marina Zilberman, Chief  Librarian, Cross River Campus’s favorite Passover dish is gefilte fish with beet horseradish and potato kugel.

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Flourless Chocolate Cake by Kurman Communications on Flickr licensed under CC BY 2.0

Bashe Simon, Director of Touro Libraries, shares her Passover recipe for chocolate cake:

Chocolate cake

• 6 eggs
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 ½ cups oil
• ¾ cup cocoa
• ¾ cup potato starch 
• 1 ½ tsp. baking powder

Mix well in mixer and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hr.

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Rita’s gefilte fish, courtesy of Rita Stravets

Rita Stravets, Librarian at the Graduate School of Education’s favorite Passover dish is gefilte fish which she cooks twice a year, using her grandmother’s recipe.

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We wish everyone in the Touro University community and beyond a Happy Passover!

Who is that masked man? Happy Purim!

image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Book of Esther, Hebrew, c. 1700-1800 AD – Royal Ontario Museum – DSC09614.JPG  Uploaded by Daderot Created: November 20, 2011

[this post, by Toby Krausz, Judaica Librarian, was written in 2019 and has been updated for publication March, 2023. After reading Toby’s great history of Purim, we recommend this recent piece about the beautiful Esther scrolls in the collection of the Library of Congress, here.]

On the night of Monday, March 6th, after having fasted all day Jews all over the world will gather in synagogues, houses of worship, places of study, and sometimes in their own homes to hear the story of Purim.

Library Staff Profile: Christine Leddy

Christine Leddy, Librarian, Health Sciences Library – Central Islip 

Welcome to the latest in our series of Staff Profiles. Christine Leddy recently joined the Touro community as Librarian at the Health Sciences Library, which serves the School of Health Sciences and the Graduate School of Education and Psychology. Christine answered some questions for us below:

Who is that masked man? Happy Purim!

image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Book of Esther, Hebrew, c. 1700-1800 AD – Royal Ontario Museum – DSC09614.JPG  Uploaded by Daderot Created: November 20, 2011

[this post, by Toby Krausz, Judaica Librarian, was written in 2019 and has been updated for publication March, 2022]

On the night of Wednesday, March 16th, after having fasted all day Jews all over the world will gather in synagogues, houses of worship, places of study, and sometimes in their own homes to hear the story of Purim.