May 28, 2017

Sour Cherry Soup (for Shavuos or just because it's good)

We make a chilled sour cherry soup every year for Shavuos. If you haven't had it, it's basically dessert but part of dinner so then you get to cheat and have "real dessert" after.

1-1.5lbs of sour cherries, pitted
4 cups of water
1/2 cup of red wine
Pinch of salt
Lemon zest (some long pieces you can fish out of soup after its initial boil and simmer)
2tbsp-.5 cup of sugar (this is a taste thing. More sugar makes it sweeter obviously)
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup of sour cream
2 tbsp flour

Put the cherries in a pot with the water, cinnamon sticks, red wine, salt, lemon zest, and the sugar and bring it to a boil. Simmer 10 minutes. Take the pot off the heat and remove and discard the cinnamon sticks and the zest pieces. Pull out 1/2 cup of the liquid and cool it just a tiny bit, maybe 3 minutes or so.

In a bowl whisk together the sour cream and the flour. Temper this with that very slightly cooled cherry juice you pulled from the pot. Whisk that 1/2 cup into your sour cream and flour mixture and then whisk it back into your soup. Now simmer that another 5 minutes. Don't let it boil, just a low simmer until it all thickens a bit. Stir it here and there.

Cool it quickly and then get it in the refrigerator and chill it 2-3 hours and then eat it all.

May 26, 2017

What A Progressive Society Can Learn From The Ultra-Chassidic Sect of Skver

https://www.momitating.com/single-post/2017/05/23/KimpaturinWhat-a-progressive-society-can-learn-from-the-ultraChasidic-sect-of-Skver


Kimpaturin; A Yiddish word for a woman who has just given birth.

I grew up hearing this term every time my mother referred to a post-partum woman, or in reference to herself after birthing a new child, which was often. Mom said and uttered “Kimpaturin” with awe and respect. If someone in the community recently gave birth, I would find her in the kitchen cooking, or on the phone arranging meals or cleaning help for the newest kimpurtin.

And then there was the kimpaturin home. After each baby my mother used to leave the hospital in New Jersey and head straight to New York for a week to recover in the kimpaturin home. We children didn't quite understand what this place was really about but we knew for our mother, this was a non-negotiable part of giving birth.

After I had my first child and with each additional one after, my mom would gently suggest that I consider recuperating in the kimpaturin home in New York. I live far away from family and as my responsibilities and family grew, I needed the rest more so. I also experienced post-partum anxiety after some of my births which left me emotionally and physically depleted.

But as daughters often do, I dismissed Mom’s suggestion. For several reasons. First, I thought it was ancient (after all, mom did it!). Also, as a woman with a Chabad background and identity, I wasn’t sure how I would be perceived and accepted in the very insular worlds of Satmar and Skver.

And finally, I figured if everyone else managed, I can too. This is where I was gravely mistaken.

Everyone else does not manage.

According to the CDC, up to twenty percent of women in the US get some form of postpartum depression- and that’s documenting live births. This does not include miscarriages etc. Additionally, the majority of these statistics are women who have reported themselves. Imagine the statistics if there was no stigma and shame attached to PPD?

Many factors contribute to PPD such as sleep deprivation that often leads to exhaustion, which most post-partum moms’ experience. But we simply can not ignore that postpartum and maternity health care and benefits in the US are some of the worst. Women are expected to spring back to work and assume normal responsibilities a mere few weeks and sometimes days after birth. The kimpaturin is not a concept in our progressive twenty seventeen society.

This is not so in the Chassidic communities such as Williamsburg and Boro Park. In their world, she's a superhero, this Mama Kimpaturin. We often say it takes a village to raise a child, and let me tell you, they have a village. This is due to many factors, some that as a modern society we simply can’t attain (such as living near our families) and some that we should embrace. In their village, after a baby is born, the siblings of the new baby are split between family members while mom takes a week or two to rest and recuperate. And many go to the kimpaturin homes.

This brings me to my own kimpatorin story after my recent birth of a baby boy.

Mother was finally successful in convincing me to let go of my “trepidations” and fears and with the encouragement of some friends and my supportive husband, I made the trip with my newborn to New York. I felt like a child going to overnight camp for the first time, but I knew I needed to try whatever it would take to get back to myself.

A beautiful state of the art building greeted us in New Square in the Skver section near Monsey, New York. A special entrance with a stunning lobby welcomed the new moms. The women at the reception desk greeted me with the most welcoming smiles. Asking me first when I had last eaten and offering to serve me cake and coffee. Two staff members whisked my suitcases to my private room while a nurse came to take the baby to the nursery. They led me to the a most elegant room with modern furnishing, and an attached bathroom. From the softest bed linen to the welcome bag on each bed and all the details so carefully thought of, it felt like I was on vacation in a five star hotel.

****rest of blog at link: https://www.momitating.com/single-post/2017/05/23/KimpaturinWhat-a-progressive-society-can-learn-from-the-ultraChasidic-sect-of-Skver

April 9, 2017

You can sell your chometz online.

Chabad can handle it for you if you do not have a local rabbi to take care of the transaction. You only have until Monday morning though so do it now if you plan to.

https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/sell_chometz_cdo/jewish/Sell-Your-Chametz-Online.htm

March 30, 2017

Globe and Mail suspends columnist Leah McLaren after breastfeeding controversy

Snippet:

The Globe and Mail has suspended marquee columnist Leah McLaren for a week.

A source told the Star that McLaren, who wrote about her attempt to breastfeed Tory Leadership candidate Michael Chong’s baby without his knowledge and at a time when she was not lactating herself, has been forbidden to comment on her controversial column or on her suspension.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/03/30/globe-and-mail-suspends-columnist-leah-mclaren-after-breastfeeding-controversy.html


Here's a link to the now gone but archived column:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170326224152/https://www.mbnews.one/ca_news_158305.htm


I have to say that if I walked in and saw someone attempting to breastfeed one of my babies, I'd probably smack them across the room after taking my baby back. What is wrong with her brain?

March 21, 2017

JEWS SINGLE-MOST TARGETED GROUP: TORONTO HATE CRIMES REPORT

Incidents of hate-motivated crimes in Toronto increased by eight per cent in 2016 over the previous year, with Jews earning the dubious distinction of being the single-most targeted group for the 12th year in a row.

Of 145 total incidents reported to police, Jews were victimized 43 times, according to the Toronto Police Service 2016 Annual Hate/Bias Crime Statistical Report.

The number rises to 51 when “multi-bias occurrences,” which take into account more than one identifiable group, are included. Black/Jewish, with three reported incidents, and black/Jewish/LGBTQ, with two, boost the numbers, while single occurrences were recorded by Hindu/Jewish, Indian/Jewish and Japanese/Jewish victims.

********More at the link**********

http://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/jews-single-most-targeted-group-toronto-hate-crimes


Shining light of tolerance up here. 🙄

March 12, 2017

Our JCC was evacuated this morning.

A freilichen Purim. My 7 year old sighed and told her 2 year old sister that there will always be a Haman. 😞


http://globalnews.ca/news/3304830/vancouver-jewish-community-centre-evacuated-following-second-bomb-threat-in-less-than-a-week/

February 7, 2017

STUDY SAYS ALL ASHKENAZI JEWS ARE 30TH COUSINS

According to a new study, all Ashkenazi Jews are basically cousins. More specifically, Ashkenazi Jews are at least 30th cousins. LiveScience reports on the international team’s new study, which found that “the central and eastern European Jewish population, known as Ashkenazi Jews, from whom most American Jews are descended, started from a founding population of about 350 people between 600 and 800 years ago.”

Rest of the article at the link:



http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/184252/study-says-all-ashkenazi-jews-are-30th-cousins?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Post&utm_content=Study+Says+All+Ashkenazi+Jews+Are+30th+Cousins&utm_campaign=feb2017

My husband said we need to encourage our kids to marry converts lol.

January 15, 2017

German court calls synagogue torching an act to 'criticize Israel

So it's ok to be antisemitic because Israel? No, no it's not and I'm tired of it.


http://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/German-court-calls-synagogue-torching-an-act-to-criticize-Israel-478330#article=6023OEJFQjg4RjY1OTg3M0NDN0Y1RUJERTczNzg1Q0E2OUU=

January 13, 2017

This month's PJ Library book is about RBG!!!

I don't know if any of you are familiar with the PJ Library but they send a Jewish children's book every month for free to people that sign up with them. They are "non-denominational" so it's not like they are a kiruv organization.

Anyway this month in the US, some of the families are getting a children's mini biography of RBG which is just awesome. Every month there are 2-3 possibilities you may get and up here in Canada I didn't get that one. So I'm calling tomorrow to ask if i can order it.


https://www.pjlibrary.org/books/i-dissent-levy/IF00758

October 27, 2016

Question regarding voting and haven't received ballot.

I'm a US citizen with permanent residency in Canada. I'm registered to vote in CA, specifically LA County. I sent in my form for my absentee ballot6 weeks ago to the registrar in Norwalk. Still haven't received my ballot. Is there anyone I should call??