Monthly Archives: April 2018

Protest: Confederate Memorial of the Wind in Orange, Texas, Sunday, April 8, 2-4 p.m.

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We will be protesting the Confederate Memorial of the Wind in Orange, Texas this Sunday.

Tracie and I have spots available in our cars for anyone who needs a ride from and back to Houston.

We are advocating that the owners of the site repurpose it to reflect community values (we don’t want to tear it down).

Click here to read more about our campaign and how it got started.

Please join us (shoot me an email if you need a ride from Houston or need more info).

Please note: Due to a forecast of rain, we have changed the date for this weekend’s protest from Saturday, April 7 to Sunday, April 8.

Join us in PROTEST of the Confederate Memorial in Orange, Texas (at Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. and Interstate 10, north access road):

Sunday, APRIL 8
location: Confederate Memorial of the Wind (Google map)
time: 2-4 p.m.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE REPURPOSE EMAIL NEWSLETTER
to receive event details and updates.

Roman artichokes declared unkosher by Israeli Rabbinate prompt global crisis

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According to a report published by the Israeli daily Haaretz on Wednesday, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has declared that carciofi alla giudia, “Jewish-style” artichokes, are traif or unkosher.

“A few months ago,” writes reporter Davide Lerner, “Israel’s Rabbinate banned imports of a ready-made version of the dish, ordering its immediate removal from shelves.”

The issue, according to the report, is that artichoke leaves may contain insects that are impossible to remove before cooking.

The consumption of insects is strictly forbidden by Jewish law.

A “common problem with vegetables,” write the editors of Chabad.org (a leading English-language resource for explanations of Jewish traditions and law, including dietary laws), “involves possible insect infestation. The prohibition against consuming insects, even very tiny ones — as long as they are visible to the naked eye — is mentioned five times in the Torah and is very strict.”

“Some particularly severe problem vegetables are artichokes, asparagus, brussel [sic] sprouts, cauliflower, and leafy vegetables.”

Here’s what the Rabbinate’s Import Division head, Rabbi Yitzhak Arazi, had to say, as quoted by Haaretz: “The heart of the artichoke is full of worms, there is no way you can clean it. It cannot be kosher… This is not our policy, this is Jewish religious law.”

It’s not clear what prompted the Rabbinate to reconsider this dish (above), which traces its roots to the Renaissance and beyond.

One of the most popular foods served in Rome’s historic ghetto, carciofi alla giudia are made by flattening the artichoke buds and then frying them in olive oil until tender. The artichoke was prized by ancient Romans and modern Romans still flock to the Jewish quarter to enjoy Jewish-style artichokes (not to be confused with Roman-style carciofi alla romana).

I have eaten the dish in Rome many times but have never seen the “ready-made” kind. I was able to find this version in a jar online. But canning or jarring the dish would seem to defeat the recipe’s essence: the delight is delivered by the delicate crunch of the gently bitter leaves balanced by the sweetness and tingling sensation produced by the thistle’s heart.

The Rabbinate’s ruling seems to apply to pre-packaged carciofi alla romana and it remains unclear whether or not the made-to-order version will also be deemed traif.

Lerner writes:

    Removing the signature dish from a restaurant renowned for its Roman-Jewish cuisine led to some awkward conversations between customers puzzled at not finding it on the menu and embarrassed hosts. When the restaurant manager negotiated a revised version of carciofi alla giudia being on the menu, disappointed restaurant patrons commented that it was not the same.

Read the Haaretz article here (accessible for free if you register with the site).

Jews across the world are known for their love of wordplay. And the piece in the English-language Haaretz inspired some true nuggets:

“Artichoke on this” (the title of the article).
“It breaks one’s [artichoke] heart” (a comment).

Special thanks to the inimitable Francesco Bonfio for bringing this story to my attention.

Image via seventyoneplace’s Flickr (Creative Commons).

Chaptalization: new labeling norms could force European winemakers to list sugar as an ingredient

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“Sugar War Reignites in Europe” read the title of an article published last month by Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s leading financial daily.

The paper was among the first to report on negotiations that took place in March between the European alcoholic beverage lobby and the European Commission.

According to a post published the following week by Reuters, “Europe’s drinks sector announced plans [in March] to inform consumers more about the energy content and ingredients in beer, wine and spirits in a self-policing move, but critics said much of this information would only be available online.”

But the inclusion of sugar as an ingredient and how ingredients will be listed remain a contentious issue. According to the Italian report, northern European wine growers (German, Austria, France) insist that sugar, even when added to boost alcohol content (a process known as chaptalization), is not an ingredient because the sugar is transformed into alcohol. Mediterranean growers, on the other hand, want sugar to be included.

Chaptalization is legal in the EU although it is forbidden in Italy. But some believe, as the author of the Sole 24 Ore piece notes, the practice is still employed illicitly. Some readers may be old enough to remember the chaptalization scandal that emerged in Piedmont in the early 1980s, involving one of the region’s most prominent winemakers.

The Sole 24 Ore article includes a quote from Roberto Moncalvo, president of Coldiretti, Italy’s national federation of food growers, one of the country’s most powerful food and wine advocacy groups.

“We need to expose the addition of sugar on wine labels,” he told the paper.

“The revision of labeling norms, including nutritional values and ingredients, needs to be adopted in order to allow consumers to know, finally, if the wine they are drinking was produced with the addition of sugar. Hiding this information misleads consumers and creates unfair competition for producers who don’t resort to sugaring [chaptalization].”

As the Reuters piece notes, the EU’s alcoholic beverage sector has agreed to draft and implement new labeling guidelines. But it’s not clear that northern and Mediterranean countries will agree on how (and where, whether or the label itself or online via QR code) sugar will be listed as an ingredient.

Image via Uwe Hermann’s Flickr (Creative Commons).

“We must see racism for what it is.” Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King 50 years after his death.

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader and peace activist, was assassinated 50 years ago today in Memphis, Tennessee.

The following is an excerpt from his landmark speech “The Other America,” delivered less than three weeks before he was killed:

    There must be a recognition on the part of everybody in this nation that America is still a racist country. Now however unpleasant that sounds, it is the truth. And we will never solve the problem of racism until there is a recognition of the fact that racism still stands at the center of so much of our nation and we must see racism for what it is. It is the nymph of an inferior people. It is the notion that one group has all of the knowledge, all of the insights, all of the purity, all of the work, all of the dignity. And another group is worthless, on a lower level of humanity, inferior. To put it in philosophical language, racism is not based on some empirical generalization which, after some studies, would come to conclusion that these people are behind because of environmental conditions. Racism is based on an ontological affirmation. It is the notion that the very being of a people is inferior.

I can’t think of a better way to honor Dr. King today than by re-reading and studying his writings and speeches. I recommend the speech above, one of the last he gave before his death.

Tracie and I wept last night as we streamed “King in the Wilderness,” a new documentary about the latter part of his career.

As we watched the film, one of the things that struck both of us was how whites would use Confederate flags to taunt Dr. King and the marchers he led. I can’t repost the image here but this photograph was shot during the 1966 March Against Freedom: a young shirtless boy plays “Dixie” as a young woman waves the Confederate flag and the marchers approach. You see the hecklers (in motion picture footage with audio) in the documentary. It’s a chilling sight.

Scroll through this archive of photographs from the same march and you’ll find similarly disturbing images of white Americans menacing their black sisters and brothers with Confederate flags.

Today, on the anniversary of his death, we celebrate the life and work of Dr. King. His contribution to the historic fight for civil and equal rights for all Americans is unrivaled. And his legacy only grows as it continues to inspire a new generation of Americans to stand up for what is right and just in our country.

On Saturday, April 7, Tracie and I will be protesting the Confederate Memorial of the Wind in Orange, Texas. It was erected a few years ago on Martin Luther King Dr. where the thoroughfare meets Interstate 10, one of the busiest traffic hubs in the county. See this flier, distributed by the owner to raise funds for its construction.

We are not asking for the site to be torn down. We are asking the organizers to repurpose the site to reflect the values of the community — nearly 50 percent black.

Please join us. We have space in both of our cars available for Houstonians who want to participate.

G-d bless Dr. King and his family. G-d bless America.

See also this op-ed, “How Dr. King Lived Is Why He Died,” published by Rev. Jesse Jackson, in today’s New York Times.

Image via the National Park Service Flickr (Creative Commons).

Cannabis impacts CA wine industry in unforeseen ways

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Above: the West Sonoma Coast is one of California’s youngest wine regions. Growers are petitioning to create a new Americana Viticultural Area designation there. The Pacific Ocean lies just a stone’s throw to the west of the vineyard in the photo.

Much has been written about the impact of newly legalized recreational cannabis on the California wine industry. The fear among some trade observers is that consumers will spend less on wine as their spending on pot grows.

But weed is affecting the California wine trade in unexpected ways, even just four months into legalization (which took effect in January of this year).

One of the most interesting elements to emerge from a touring tasting organized by West Sonoma Coasts Vintners last week was the winemakers’ concern that the lucrative cannabis business is attracting current vineyard and farm workers.

“It’s a lot nicer to be using tweezers in a greenhouse” to pare cannabis flower “than it is to be working in a vineyard,” noted one winemaker. Evidently, according to the growers, it also pays better.

Making matters even more challenging for wineries is the fact the the Sonoma, Napa, and Paso Robles fires last fall have drastically reduced the availability of affordable housing. This, combined with the current White House hard-line on immigration, has also made the industry less attractive to the migrant and seasonal workforce.

Another issue faced by wineries, said the vintners, is the decreased availability of storage and industrial space. The cannabis business is so lucrative that the new wave of pot growers is willing to pay higher rent for coveted warehouse and industrial park rentals. Winemakers need those spaces to store and age their wines.

The West Sonoma Coast is just one of the many wine growing areas affected by the nascent recreational cannabis business. But as a relative newcomer, in one of California’s more remote locations, it seems — at least anecdotally — to have been more acutely affected.

There is no doubt that cannabis is already reshaping the California’s agricultural landscape. It remains to be seen how its viticultural industry will react in the face of mounting challenges.

A world without Trump (exists)…

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Yesterday, on Easter morning around 7:30 a.m., President Trump wished his Twitter followers a “HAPPY EASTER!” in all caps.

An hour and a half later, the President tweeted “NO MORE DACA DEAL!” also in all caps.

Another two hours would pass before he, his wife, and one of his daughters attended church for Easter services.

I wasn’t the only one who noted the jarring juxtaposition and incongruity between the occasion and the sentiment.

Is this what my Christian sisters and brothers hoped for when they voted for him? Is this how George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, or Mitt Romney would have acted on one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar?

I ask the same of my Jewish sisters and brothers who support Trump. Sunday was the second day of the Passover, a remembrance of how we were all once immigrants in Egypt. Can any one of them say that their forbears — immediate or ancient — were not immigrants?

Tracie, our daughters, and I spent the Passover holiday with my brothers, their families, and our mother in San Diego. That was the view from my mom’s house above.

It was nice to be in a place like (mostly) liberal California where the majority opposes Trump, his willful degradation of civic discourse, and his continued efforts to use the children of immigrants — the DACA dreamers — as a political bargaining chip. Where I grew up in Southern California, it’s mostly socially awkward to speak favorably about Trump and his policies and dehumanization of immigrants. Mostly…

People call California a liberal bubble. I was reminded of this when one of my detractors recently wrote the following on my blog: “You dont know a godam thing about the south u bathroom swapping western bitch!!” [sic, sic, and sic]

But it’s actually not a bubble. In fact, one of my best friends from my childhood in San Diego, with whom I’m still very close, is an adamant and vehemently vocal Trump supporter. And so is one of my immediate family members, although not as loudly so.

My California family lives along the coast. But head inland and you’ll find plenty of Trump supporters. Similarly, you’ll find a predominance of liberals in blue-state Houston where we live. But move outside the urban area — north, east, south, or west — and you will find the political attitudes inverted.

As much as I enjoyed being home with my family and being in a place where we were mostly shielded from politics and political discussions, I also realized that California is not a world without Trump. That world exists in the future and in my mind. It exists in my hopes and dreams. But it is not a real world or real place. Yet…

In the meantime, Tracie and I will continue to teach our children that Easter and the Passover are holidays meant to make us reflect on our shared humanity — regardless of religion, ethnicity, or geography. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ and G-d’s redemption of the Jews in ancient Egypt remind us that we are all emigrants and immigrants, traveling between the physical and the spiritual. Between the real world and the one that awaits us.