The Long and Winding Road

Friends, please take a moment to read this important update from my friend and the Director of Rutgers Hillel, Andrew Getraer. If you can watch Fox News tonight at 9 please do so.

Dear Friends of Rutgers Hillel: 
We held an event this week that has caused much controversy and will be featured on Fox News TONIGHT at 9 PM – The MegynKelly Show. TUNE IN.

This past Tuesday night the Rutgers Hillel Center for Israel Engagement sponsored an event, “Examining Human Rights Violations Against Minorities in the Islamist World” A Discussion with Brooke Goldstein and Dr. Qanta Ahmed. A letter protesting the event was published in the campus paper, the Daily Targum, the day before. I personally received dozens of hate filled messages, calling me a racist, a white supremacist, an islamaphobe, etc. Dozens of posts to our Facebook event called on us to cancel the event. 

The event went on as planned. Powerful and compelling issues regarding human rights abuses throughout the Middle East were discussed. The most honest dialogue I have ever seen between Jewish and Muslim students occurred. And it has ramifications. 

The speakers, Brooke Goldstein and Dr. Qanta Ahmed were presented powerful testimony.  Ms. Goldstein is a human rights attorney,award-winning filmmaker, and director of The Lawfare Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to issues regarding abuse of Western legal systems and human rights law. She has been featured in several media, including CNN, FoxNews, The New York Sun, Defense Technology International, and WABC News Talk Radio, and has been published in a variety of sources, including The New York Daily News, Commentary Magazine, The American Spectator, The Counter Terrorist Magazine, and others.

Dr. Ahmed, daughter of Pakistani immigrants to Britain, physician, devout Muslim, and human rights activist, is a frequent contributor to a variety of international media, including BBC World Service, Voice of America, NPR, CNN, Fox, C-Span, and Al Arabiya. She has been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, the Jerusalem Post, Ha’aretz, Pakistan’s The Daily Times, Gulf News, The Times of Israel, and the World Policy Journal. Her first book, “In the Land of Invisible Women” details her experience of living and working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The presenters were exceptional: reasoned, articulate, compassionate – but no tip toeing around the issues.  It was a powerful and moving experience, before a standing-room-only crowd of students, about half Jews and half Muslim. The speakers clearly and sensitively differentiated between the term ‘Islamist’ and Islam/Muslim. They testified to their own experiences living, working, andresearching in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian territories, under the rule of Muslim religious extremists. The litany of child abuse and oppression of women and minorities was tragic and chilling. For over 2 hours students sat in rapt attention, and it  was conducted with civility.

Then came the Q&A, filled with shouting, anger, and discord. Not a single student addressed the litany of tragedy and human rights violations which had been described to them in detail for two hours. The lack of any concern for the serious human rights issues presented was notable and disappointing.  

Instead, many Muslim students focused entirely on attacking the speakers personally. Hillel’s student Israel Chair had been facilitating the event, but eventually I had to step in and restore order. I had the police remove one student who began shouting anti-Zionist epithets. Both Dr. Ahmed and Ms. Goldstein, shocked and insulted, got up and left unceremoniously. 

Following the formal program, however, several Muslim students stayed at Hillel and continued discussions with a group of Jewish students for an hour.  These students expressed their feelings that the overall experience was extremely positive.  I was very proud of our students and that Hillel facilitates such discussion.  

• In this era of instant global communication, comments pro and con have been flying all over Twitter, reaching tens of thousands of people.
  
• It was covered by the New Jersey Jewish News http://njjewishnews.com/article/24764/hillel-takes-heat-for-program-on-islamism
  
• The Daily Targum, Rutgers’ campus paper ran this:  http://www.dailytargum.com/article/2014/09/experts-discuss-radical-islam-among-protests
  
• Student leader Sarah Harpaz ’16 shared her thoughts in this blog on the Rutgers Hillel website:http://www.rutgershillel.org/opening-gates-jewish-muslim-dialogue-sarah-harpaz-16-2
  
• An op-ed piece today by a Muslim student leader was extremely critical – not of the issues, but of the speakers and of Hillel by association. http://www.dailytargum.com/article/2014/09/ru-needs-unity-not-division
  
• An online publication shared this supportive piece. http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/despite-combative-interruptions-rutgers-hillel-event-brings-attention-human-rights-abuses
  
• Other online commentaries are springing up even as I type. 
  

The controversy is sure to continue. Some students have already called the Office of Student Life to condemn us. It’s easier to attack Hillel than to deal with the human rights issues related to Islamic extremism. The irony, of course, is that the victims of such extremism are almost entirely innocent Muslims themselves.

Ultimately, Hillel created a safe space for students to engage with challenging issues in a serious way – they struggled, persevered, and ran with it. We hope to continue at the Jewish-Muslim Dinner, Sunday October 12^th in the Hillel sukkah next to Brower Dining Hall, co-sponsored The New Jersey Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee, the Sisterhood of Shalom Saalam, andThe Foundation for Ethnic Understanding,

That is what the campus, and Hillel is all about. 

What a difference a day makes! Today was a hot day! Not sweltering, but just plain hot. Bright and sunny. Thank God there is a lot of shade at Williamsburg so it was not so bad. The boys wanted to dive right in to their RevQuest game and they needed to meet a character at some location where the person would be every 30 minutes on the quarter hour. We tried hard to get the kids to take a 30 minute walking tour, but they wanted to go right for that. I got them at least to agree to stop at one location and hear all about guns of that time period.

Once they got started into their game, it was not too bad, but unfortunately that was all they could focus on. I guess all in all, it was a successful day. They did learn something about the time and the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. After they finished the quest (and got their medals) Avi and I took a “tour” of the one coffee house that was in Williamsburg. We learned the difference between a coffee house and a tavern and got to sample either Coffee, Tea, or Chocolate. Of course Avi chose the latter. They make a very authentic chocolate drink from that time period. A thick mixture with coco, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a pinch of cayenne. Add a touch of sugar and it was VERY good. I tried to find their recipe but I was not successful. I gave this some thought and here is what I think will come up with a similar drink (makes four 8 ounce servings)

1 quart of milk
4 ounces of unsweetened coco powder (not dutch process)
1 Tablespoon of sugar (superfine would be best)
1 Tablespoon of flour
2 Teaspoons of cinnamon
1 Teaspoon of nutmeg
1 Teaspoon of ground cloves
pinch of cayenne
pinch of salt

Mix all of the ingredients except the milk. Add a small amount of water until everything has dissolved and mix well. Wisk in the milk slowly and then heat on a stove until just starting to boil. Serve hot.

After coming back to the resort the kids went to the pool and I went to a grill and prepared burgers, dogs, and corn from NJ. Everyone enjoyed! Tomorrow we go to Jamestown and I am hoping that they also have some things to keep the kids interested.

As for the trivia question yesterday, the answer is that the ring was called the Culper Ring. Washington wanted it called the Culpepper ring, but the men did not like that so they shortened it to Culper ring. Today’s question is (without Google!) “Name two Virginians who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Yesterday, we started our 2014 vacation and took a long drive to Williamsburg, VA. As I said in my last post, my in-laws drove down as well in their own car and this allowed us to split the kids up between the two cars! For the first few hours, Shayna went in my in-laws car, and the boys were with us. For this part of the trip, the boys were amazing. They were each playing on their DS and having some sort of contest with each other. They were calm and mostly quiet. This allowed Marsha and me to actually talk! I cannot recall the last time we able to do that. We stopped in Delaware for lunch and Avi switched cars with Shayna. The rest of the trip was also fine. Shayna can get a bit giggly, but it was really fine. Marsha and I got to listen to a recording of the Billy Joel / Howard Stern interview that was on Sirius XM radio. If you have not heard this, get a copy of the recording and listen to it. It was incredible!

After a little bit of traffic, we made it to Williamsburg just in time for dinner. My cousin Stacey, who lives in Virginia Beach told us about this great restaurant in Williamsburg called “Food for Thought“. This place is amazing. The food is great, and they take vegetarian food seriously! They are not a vegetarian restaurant, but they have a lot of vegetarian and vegan selections, and they will often substitute vegan chicken for other proteins on the menu. I had Ahi Tuna which was a special that night (Ah-May-Zing!) but Marsha had Pad Thai with vegan chicken that was great too. The best was when they made vegan chicken parm for Noam even though it was not on the menu. Everyone loved the meal and perhaps we will go there again.

After dinner we checked into the hotel. The hotel is part of our time share company so we expected a nice place. We were not disappointed. The suite is smaller than we are used to from a time share resort, but it is very nice. Our two bedroom suite ended up being a three bedroom suite which was a very nice surprise. We unpacked and got the kids to bed and we got a chance to just relax for a couple of hours.

We did not set an alarm for this morning, but were awakened by some machine outside (leaf blower?). We still took our time and got over to Colonial Williamsburg by 11 or so. We picked up our tickets and saw two short intro movies about the city. It turns out that they have a little game called RevQuest for the kids. Basically, they get a folder with clues and cyphers and they get to play “spy”. Avi and Noam really got into this. So much so that at times, we did not get to do anything but let them play the game! We did get to see a few things and all in all, the kids were great. The boys got about half way through the game, and we ventured our way to the art museum where they had a kids activity about spy craft and they got to try cyphers and other things that spys would use. One thing that was good is that they sell re-fillable cups here that give you free refills for the entire season! We purchased two of them and there is even one place where they will fill it with ice cream or a slushy! Needless to say the kids enjoyed that.

After coming back to the resort Avi and Shayna got to have some time in the pool and I made some really good eggplant parmesan (of course that means plain pasta for Avi and pizza for Noam, but at least Shayna had the eggplant!)

That’s pretty much it for now. Tomorrow we are going back to Colonial Williamsburg to see some more and let the kids play more of the spy game. Hopefully, Marla won’t mind me copying her vacation trivia game. Today’s question is (without google) what was the name of the Revolutionary spy ring that Washington created, and what is the origin of the name?

Avi in the stockade!

Some of the citizens of Williamsburg

I have posted my Hamentashen recipe twice before in my blog (here and here). For the first time in more years than I can remember, I have made some changes to my recipe. If you can hold back you gasps, I will explain and post my new recipe below. I have been baking for many years now and I have a number of items that I have always done in a particular way. I also have a go to book for Jewish baking that I consult with all the time. The book is called “A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking” by Marcy Goldman. This is a great cook book and covers all the basics of both baking in general and Jewish baking in particular. If you want to learn about baking, buy the book. If you already bake, buy the book. It has helped me numerous times.

My Hamentashen recipe differed from others because I tried to create a VERY light dough with a minimum of flour in the recipe itself. My reasoning was that as you roll out the dough you add more flour and as you keep re-rolling you continue to add more flour. Eventually I would find that the last rounds I would cut would be much too dry to shape into proper Hamentashen. The downside was always that I had to closely watch them as they baked. I would need to take them out just as they began to turn brown. Any less time and they would fall apart and any longer and they started to burn. I figured for a couple of days a year I can stick close to my oven. My dough was also very sweet (which certainly made it popular with my kids!)

I have not really looked at another recipe in a long time. People had given me recipes over the years and I have glanced at them, but I always said to myself, mine was better. Year after year, I would taste other homemade Hamentashen that I would get on Purim, and year after year I was satisfied that mine were the best of the bunch. Today I decided to just take a look at Marcy Goldman’s Hamentashen recipe. I was somewhat surprised that the recipe was very close to my own, with some significant changes. First off, she had more flour in the recipe than I did; significantly more. My recipe as printed in my blog had two cups of flour for ½ cup of shortening. Her recipe was double mine, and as printed said “at least four cups of flour”. It seems the same, but one of my little secrets was that I did not follow my own recipe and I used closer to 1 ½ cups in my single batch, or 3 cups in a batch equal to hers. That meant that she was using a whole cup more than me. If I were to put that much extra in my dough, I felt it would dry up much too quickly. Then I noticed that she dealt with that problem by adding more liquid. I call for 2 teaspoons of vanilla in my double batch (or orange juice) and she called for ¼ cup of orange juice and two teaspoons of vanilla. I had two eggs and she had three. The only other difference was the lower amount of sugar that she used. I had two cups, and she had a cup and a half. I think as I have gotten older, my need for the extra sweetness had lessened, so I was open to this idea as well.

Here, then, is my NEW Hamentashen recipe, based on my original recipe and Marcy Goldman’s.

2 Sticks of Margarine
1 ½ Cups of Sugar
3 eggs
¼ Cup of Orange Juice
2 teaspoons of Vanilla
2 ½ teaspoons of Baking Powder
½ teaspoon of salt
4 ½ Cups of flour

1.    In a standing mixer, cream the margarine and the sugar with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy.
2.    Add the eggs one at a time and mix in until the mixture is smooth. If it looks like it is curdling, add a few tablespoons of flour to bind it together.
3.    Add the orange juice and the vanilla and mix well.
4.    Add the baking powder and salt and mix well.
5.    Add half of the flour and mix in, and then mix in the rest a half cup at a time until the dough holds together well but is still somewhat soft. Depending upon the humidity (which should be low this time of year) you will need to adjust the amount of flour. I think I added about 4 ½ cups.
6.    Take the dough out of the bowl and put on a lightly floured board. Bring the mass together into a large ball and flatten slightly. Let the dough rest for at least 15 minutes. You could refrigerate the dough at this point and use within 6 hours or freeze it and use within a few weeks.
7.    Separate the dough into quarters and roll out each quarter to about 1/8 inch thick. Using a 3″ cookie cutter or similar sized glass cut out rounds. Stack the rounds on the side and take the remainder of the dough and add it to the next quarter and roll it out and cut the rounds. Keep repeating this until you run out of dough.

Rather than explain fillings and how to shape the Hamentashen, I recommend going to my friend’s website, The Shiksa in the Kitchen. She has a bunch of recipes for fillings and some great images showing a wonderful technique in shaping the Hamentashen. The only thing I will add to her info is that if you want to purchase fillings, the best you can get is Solo brand pie filling.

Enjoy!