“Along with his greatness in the Torah, he was a spiritual leader who humbly and modestly led a large and important public in Israel and the Jewish world,” President Isaac Herzog stated.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

Israel’s leadership issued announcements of grief and mourning following the passing of Rabbi Shalom Cohen, the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas political party.

Cohen, 90, passed away early Monday morning after several days of hospitalization for an infection in his leg. He replaced Rabbi Ovadia Yosef as Shas’ spiritual leader in 2013. He was a member of the party’s leadership from its founding in 1984.

Shas is an Ultra-Orthodox religious political party that primarily represents Sephardic and Mizrahi ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri announced, “With a heart-stricken with shock and grief, our father, our teacher and our leader, the President of the Council of Sages of the Torah, the elder of the generation, Hacham Shalom Cohen, left us in a storm to the Heavens.”

“Woe to the world that has lost its leader and woe to the ship that has lost its captain. Baruch Dayan HaEmet [Blessed is the True Judge].”

“Along with his greatness in the Torah, he was a spiritual leader who humbly and modestly led a large and important public in Israel and the Jewish world,” President Isaac Herzog stated.

“We met many times, and I am sorry that this year I will not get to keep the tradition and visit him in his sukkah. In every meeting with him, I saw his love and deep connection to Jerusalem, and how he made sure to always place before his eyes the people and the individual. My condolences to his family, the Shas Party, his loved ones, and his students.”

Prime Minister Yair Lapid stated: “On behalf of the Israeli government and the entire Israeli people, I send my condolences to his family, his students and all those who honor his memory. Our strength is in the unity of the Jewish people.”

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he “deeply mourns, along with the entire House of Israel, the passing of the President of the Council of Torah Sages, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, a righteous man.”

“Rabbi Cohen was one of the Torah giants of our generation. He had tremendous knowledge of the world of the Torah, along with Torah and social leadership that influenced masses of Jews and Israelis. After the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Cohen continued his path as president of the Council of Torah Sages and as a beacon of guidance to which all turned their eyes.”

“Rabbi Cohen was an enormous scholar who never stopped learning and teaching, keeping and doing. The love of the Torah pulsed in him together with the love of the people. The people of Israel have lost an arbiter of Halacha, a guide for many and a public messenger of the first order. A great leader has departed from us,” he said.

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Jewish community cries foul after police search homes, offices of attorneys working to help the descendants of Sephardic Jews obtain Portuguese citizenship.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Portuguese police carried out sweeping raids targeting people who help Sephardic Jews obtain citizenship on Friday, with authorities searching attorneys’ offices and the home of the curator of the Jewish Museum of Porto.

Under Portuguese law, the descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from the country during the Inquisition are eligible for naturalization.

Tens of thousands of Israelis and diaspora Jews have used the program to obtain Portuguese citizenship, including Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and other high-profile figures.

But recently, Portugal has signaled that it wants to roll back the program after questions arose about the veracity of some applicants who were aided by Jewish community institutions.

According to the local outlet Sol, Friday’s raids saw police searching for evidence of crimes by people involved with Jewish ancestry-based citizenship, who authorities suspect engaged in corruption, forgery of documents, money laundering, tax fraud, and conspiracy.

On Monday, a Jewish community representative said that the government’s investigation into the citizenship process for Jews is rooted in antisemitism.

“I regret that the [citizenship law] has become an antisemitic weapon against wealthy Portuguese citizens, all of whom are, astoundingly, of Jewish origin,” the president of the Porto Jewish community, Gabriel Senderowicz, said in a statement.

“This is nothing more than deception by some powerful state officials in the country who seek to disguise their antisemitic attitudes on the grounds that these businessmen received their citizenship insincerely.”

He added that Portuguese police had a list of 20 Jewish prominent naturalized Portuguese citizens, including Abramovich and Israeli diamond tycoon Lev Leviev, and were ordered to work under the assumption that they had obtained their citizenship illicitly.

In March 2022, police arrested Rabbi Daniel Litvak, who had aided Abramovich in obtaining citizenship, in the northern coastal city of Porto.

Representatives of Porto’s Jewish community denied any wrongdoing and said that Litvak was the victim of a “smear campaign,” according to a Reuters report.

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A new peer-reviewed study reveals that Sephardic genes may have traveled further than originally thought.

By Joseph Wolkin, World Israel News

A new study published in the Nature Communications journal reveals that almost one-quarter of people researchers surveyed have Jewish ancestry.

The group of researchers, which includes top geneticist Juan-Camilo Chacon-Duque, studied genomes from 6,589 individuals from five different Latin American nations. Twenty-three percent of those surveyed showed at least five percent of Sephardic genetic material.

They figured this out thanks to combining specific DNA data with the knowledge of Jewish history relating to Spanish-speaking populations.

“For instance, mtDNA and Y-chromosome data suggest that historical admixture in North West Colombia involved local Native women, and that some immigrant men carried haplogroups common in Jewish populations,” the research explains.

The group of people who have Sephardic DNA likely come from “conversos,” Spanish word for converts from Judaism to Christianity during the Inquisition. Even after they converted, conversos were still persecuted in Spain and Portugal, so many of them journeyed to Latin America.

“For every individual, we characterized more than 600,000 genetic variants,” the research said.

Different DNA variations were used to figure out whether or not they were common for Jews who have roots in Spain.

Further, 7.3 percent of the people who have Sephardic roots have “mostly Sephardic” genes, according to the study. While this might only be a sample, it is certainly intriguing to see just how many people might indeed have Jewish ancestry.

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In the second article in the Jewish Food Series, we looked at popular Jewish appetizers, especially those served on Shabbat, along with the traditional Shabbat bread. In this third and final installment we will discuss the classic Shabbat soup and Shabbat day main course, along with some popular side dishes.

Soups

A number of soups are characteristically Ashkenazi (Jews of eastern European origin), one of the most common of which is chicken soup, traditionally served on Shabbat, holidays and special occasions. The soup may be served with noodles (lokshen in Yiddish) or rice. It is also often served with croutons, which are very popular in Israel, called shkedei marak (Hebrew for “soup almond) in Hebrew and mandlen or mandlach in Yiddish. Other popular additions include kreplach and kneidelach – a mixture of matzo meal, eggs, water, melted fat, pepper and salt. Some reserve kneidlach and kreplach for Passover and other special occasions.

Soups such as borscht were considered a staple in the Ukraine. Soups like krupnik were made of oatmeal, potatoes and fat. This was the staple food of the poor students of the yeshivot. Wealthier families added meat to the soup. At weddings, “golden” chicken soup was often served. The reason for its name is probably the yellow circles of molten chicken fat floating on its surface. Today, chicken soup is widely referred to (not just among Jews) as “Jewish penicillin” and hailed as a cure for the common cold.

Carrot Tzimmes

Tzimmes is a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish sweet stew typically made from carrots and dried fruits such as prunes or raisins, often combined with other root vegetables. Some add chunks of meat (usually flanken or brisket). The dish is cooked slowly over low heat and flavored with honey or sugar and sometimes cinnamon or other spices. The name may come from the Yiddish words tzim (for) and esn (eating).

Tzimmes is often part of the Rosh Hashana meal, when it is traditional to eat sweet, honey-flavored dishes. Traditionally sliced in rounds, carrots bring to mind gold coins, symbolizing the hope of prosperity in the year to come. Turnips were also used for tzimmes, particularly in Lithuania. In southern Russia, Galicia, and Romania, tzimmes was made of pears, apples, figs, prunes or plums.

“To make a big tzimmes over something” is a “Yinglish” expression that means “to make a big fuss.” The expression is probably an extension of all the work, such as the slicing, mixing, and stirring that go into the preparation of the dish.

Cholent

Cholent is the traditional Jewish stew. It is usually simmered overnight for 12 hours or more and eaten for lunch on Shabbat.

North African cholent (Photo: anedibleoblivion.blogspot.co.il)

Cholent was developed over the centuries in conformance with Jewish law, which prohibits cooking on the Sabbath. As such, the pot is brought to boil on Friday before the Sabbath begins and kept on a hotplate, or placed in a slow cooker until the following day.

There are many variations of the dish that are standard in both Ashkenazi and Sephardi kitchens. The basic ingredients of cholent are meat, potatoes, beans and barley. Sephardi-style cholent, known as hamin, uses rice instead of beans and barley, and chicken instead of beef. A traditional Sephardi addition is whole eggs in the shell which turn brown overnight. Ashkenazi cholent often contains kishke (Jewish stuffing) or helzel (a chicken neck skin stuffed with a flour-based mixture). Slow overnight cooking allows the flavors of the various ingredients to permeate the dish, resulting in the unique, characteristic taste of cholent.

Scholars believe that the word “cholent” is related to the Latin calentem, meaning “that which is hot.” Other suggest that the word has its origins in the French words chaud (hot) and lent (slow). In traditional Jewish families, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi, cholent or hamin is the main course of the midday Shabbat meal served on Saturdays after the morning synagogue services.

Kugel is another Shabbat favorite, particularly lokshen kugel, a sweet noodle pudding, often with raisins and spices. Non-sweet kugels may be made of potatoes, carrots or a combination of vegetables.

Kugel

The name of the dish comes from the German kugel, meaning sphere, globe or ball; thus the Yiddish name likely originated as a reference to the round, puffed up shape of the original dishes. Nowadays, however, kugels are usually baked in square pans.

Savory kugel may be based on potatoes, matzah, cabbage, carrots, zucchini, spinach or cheese.

Noodle raisin kugel (Photo: meals.com)

The first kugels were made from bread and flour and were savory rather than sweet. Approximately 800 years ago, cooks in Germany replaced bread mixtures with noodles or farfel (Yiddish for egg noodles). In Poland, Jewish homemakers added raisins, cinnamon and sweet curd cheese to noodle kugel recipes. In the late 19th century, Jerusalemites combined caramelized sugar and black pepper in a noodle kugel known as Yerushalmi kugel, or Jerusalem kugel, which is commonly served at a kiddush (informal gathering after reciting the Kiddush – prayer sanctifying the Shabbat or Festival, after which people partake of food and drink) and as a popular side dish with cholent during Shabbat lunch.

By: Rabbi Ari Enkin

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