Rocky Mountain Jew

When you land in Israel, what’s your go-to food you’ve been dreaming about and salivating over? Is it savory — sabich, falafel or shawarma?

With all of the heavy, tragic news emanating from seemingly every corner on earth, we can’t forget that it’s still Chanukah and there is still a lot of room for joy and celebration.

With Purim on the horizon, flour, butter, eggs and jams are found on kitchen counters in Jewish homes — including ours. The title “Best Hamantaschen Recipe Ever” certainly captured our attention. That’s what Shannon Sarna of The Nosher calls the hamantaschen recipe below.

Considering its prosaic nature, the ordinary onion garners its share of poetic prose. Take this line from Mark Kurlansky’s ode to the allium, The Core of an Onion: “The onion is an extraordinary lily, certainly more talented than other lilies.”

The nine days, which began Monday, Aug. 5, is a period of heightened mourning in the Jewish calendar, culminating with Tisha b’Av, the Ninth of Av. During this mourning period, anything associated with joy or celebration is traditionally forbidden. That includes the consumption of meat, with some exceptions, including Shabbat or if one is making a siyyum, a ceremony upon completing a unit of Torah study.

When Elite Candy’s factory temporarily shut down a couple of years back due to a fire, Israeli candy lovers everywhere went into withdrawal. We know of one Denverite (hint: you’ll typically find her on Page 2 of the IJN) who deeply missed her regular Egozi bar top-ups delivered by a faithful brother.

When you find out that one of your Shabbat or holiday guests is vegetarian — or worse, vegan — do you panic? Where among the shmaltz-laden potato kugel and roasted chicken are the dishes your dietarily restricted guest can tuck into? And when Passover rolls around, with all of its own added restrictions, does your panic hit new levels?

Nearly five months to the day after Oct. 7, Sagi Gabay and Avigail Olman are sat in the IJN conference room, recounting the hell they’ve lived through. This isn’t the first time they’re telling their stories, not even the first time that day. They’ve come from a meeting at the Colorado State Capitol with the Jewish members of the House and Senate.

Consideringus Jews have a whole leap month (that we’re currently in), it’s not surprising that Leap Day, Feb. 29, doesn’t have much significance in the Jewish world.

Oct. 7 hasn’t left much headspace for meandering trips down memory lane. In fact, we haven’t published a From the Archives post since September. Current events overtook. As for many of us in the Jewish community, our attention has...