Books that model good middos: Measure of a Man by Martin Greenfield

December 21, 2014beccakinla advice, book, holocaust, Jewish, recommended reading, shoah Tags: achievement, autobiography, book, character, holocaust, immigrant, jewish, martin greenfield, measure of a man, memoir, middos, recommended reading, review, shoah, survival 1 Comment

One day early in my marriage, I found my husband reading the autobiography of John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach.

Martin Greenfield’s new book about the Shoah and after inspires readers to rise to greatness.

“Why are you reading that?” I asked. My husband did not follow sports, and he rarely read a book that wasn’t overtly “Jewish.”

“My rabbi once told me that if you want to learn good middos (character traits), you should read about the lives of people who have achieved genuine greatness.”

In that vein, I’m going to recommend that my husband read Measure of a Man, Martin Greenfield’s new memoir of survival and character. If you want to learn why, check out my review of Measure of a Man in last week’s Jewish Home L.A.

Ready for a little Hanukkah Hoopla?

December 16, 2014December 15, 2014beccakinla blogger, blogs, chanukah, food, Jewish, recipe Tags: chanukah, egg free, grandfather, hanukkah, Hanukkah Hoopla, holidays, jewish, latkes, recipe, vegan 7 Comments

Latkes frying. Image by Jonathunder from Wikipedia Commons .

Blogger Renée A. Schuls-Jacobson has invited me to participate in this year’s Hanukka Hoopla. To help wrap up your holiday, I’ll be sharing a Chanukah memory and a recipe in case you’re still looking for a latke fix.

My parents divorced when I was a preschooler. Mom settled down with my twin sister and me in suburban Columbia, Maryland, near her parents.

Grandma and Grandpa were about the most doting grandparents humanly imaginable. (And Grandma, at 94, ka”h still is!) While my grandmother ran a small business when I was very young, Grandpa had already retired by the time I was born. He found lots of ways to fill his time, and many of them involved keeping two little girls happy — namely, my sister and me. Continue reading →

My Review of Henye Meyer’s A Stranger to My Brothers

December 12, 2014December 15, 2014beccakinla jew, Jewish, Judaism, recommended reading, review, reviews, Uncategorized Tags: a stranger to my brothers, henye meyer, jewish, novel, recommended reading, review Leave a comment

My latest review appears in the Jewish Press book supplement, Of the Book. You can find it here. It’s of Henye Meyer’s re-issue of A Stranger to My Brothers under a new title and with new material.

Remembering Gil Marks and his contribution to Jewish books and cooking

December 8, 2014December 12, 2014beccakinla Jewish, Jewish writing, recommended reading Tags: cookbook, cookbooks, cooking, cuisine, culture, ethnography, ethnological, food, gil marks, history, jewish, kosher, remembering 3 Comments

Last week, Gil Marks passed away at the untimely age of 62. He was a legendary food writer, known not only for his recipes, but for his contribution to our understanding of Jewish food. He did extensive research on the details of recipes, their cultural connections, and place in history. Because I trained as an anthropologist, his ethnological approach to Jewish food made him by far my favorite cookbook author.

Remembering Gil Marks and his contribution to Jewish books.

His most famous books are The World of Jewish Cooking, Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World and Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. That final title is my absolute favorite cookbook of all time. It actually makes fun reading even if you make not one recipe. Marks also wrote extensively for periodicals, such as Emunah Magazine.

Twenty years ago, most people thought of latkes, kugel, kishke, and borsht when they referred to “Jewish Food.” Marks changed that and became among those who popularized Sephardic and Mizrachi cuisine. Continue reading →

Slacker moment — forgot to let you know about my review of Farewell, Aleppo

December 3, 2014beccakinla aleppo, america, book review, claudette sutton, farewell, farewell aleppo, immigration, Jewish, jewish american experience, mizrachi, new release, sefardi, sephardic, syria, syrian, united states Tags: american, book, book review, claudette sutton, farewell aleppo, immigration, jewish, jewish american experience, mizrachi, new author, new release, review, sefardi, sephardic, Syria, syrian Leave a comment

Sleecha.

I got a little distracted at the end of November, and I forgot to post about my most recent book review for Jewish Home Los Angeles. It’s of Claudette Sutton’s Farewell, Aleppo, and it will interest readers who like reading about the Jewish American Experience, as well as those whose families originate in Syria or other Muslim countries. You can find the review here.

Tables turned: a writer gets interviewed by Fradl Adams for The Lakewood Shopper

November 26, 2014beccakinla author, interview, Jewish, writer, writing Tags: author, binah magazine, Chareidi, hareidi, interview, jewish, orthodox, rebecca klempner, writer, writing Leave a comment

Fradl Adams interviews inspirational women, particularly baalos teshuvah, for The Lakewood Shopper. Her column appears weekly. Anyway, she asked to speak to me — focusing primarily on my writing for Jewish teens and tweens — about a month ago, and the interview runs this week. For those of us outside NJ, she provided this link.

I’m much more used to interviewing people than being interviewed. It was definitely WEEEIRD, and I kept thinking, “Do I sound like that?”

Rebecca Klempner

Author page of Rebecca Klempner

Author: beccakinla