Blogerim

Candy is a tricky matter for synagogues on Simhat Torah, the holiday celebrating the Torah and its yearly reading cycle. On this evening, the Torah scrolls are carried around the synagogue in festive processions and worshippers sing, dance, and throw sweets for children to collect. In small synagogues, this procedure is fairly straightforward.

But large synagogues can have issues with Milka-bars and Twixes flying through the air. To be fair, not many adults enjoy a barrage of caramels raining down on their heads, no matter the brand, no matter the degree of religious devotion. And to be very fair, bonbons thrown from synagogue balconies can be hazardous for the Torah scrolls, too. → continue reading

On the occasion of Julia Child’s 100th birthday I watched the film “Oma & Bella.”

Oma and Bella © Salzgeber & Co. Medien GmbH

Oma and Bella share with Julia Child a love of cooking. They are not yet 100, but not far off: they are 84 and 88 and live in Berlin. Fifty years ago they went dancing at the “Las Vegas”; today they go to the “Chalet Suisse” and drink Berliner lager. Oma’s granddaughter made a film about them: having their hair done, out on a boat trip, watching television, and again and again, cooking in Oma’s kitchen. → continue reading

I thought I was losing my visual cognition yesterday noon, at the Jewish Museum’s canteen, when a colleague bought a candy bar which looked like a snickers in every way except for the writing, which spelled STÜRMER. I turned out to be healthy. Consulting the website of chocolate makers Mars, Inc., I learned that STÜRMER-bars are part of a “happy day edition” campaign to boost sales during the European Football Championship. Sometimes, we get paranoid at the Jewish Museum, so I was quite relieved to find that not everybody associates STÜRMER (which means “striker”) with the notoriously anti-Semitic 1920s and 1930s publication…

Naomi Lubrich, Media