At New Shul, Beyond Apples And Honey

Soapbox preacher: New Shul Rabbi Dan Ain, who brought his High Holy Days message to Washington Square Park, will be installed this week. Michael Datikash

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Decked out in brown suede Nikes, distressed denim jeans and black Ray-Ban sunglasses, Rabbi Dan Ain stood atop a “kosher” soapbox in Washington Square Park Monday afternoon, extolling heresy and encouraging his listeners to break from tradition during these 10 days of awe and repentance.

“You guys didn’t expect a rabbi to stand up and talk in Washington Square Park,” he said.

At a first glance, most passers-by thought they were about to hear yet another testifying Evangelical minister. But Rabbi Ain, 32, sported a blue button-down bowling shirt with a bright yellow “Rabbi Dan” nametag embroidered above the pocket and a swooping New Shul logo silk-screened across the back.

Throughout this week, he has been delivering short soapbox talks just south of the Washington Arch, to discuss how we can reconnect with our thoughts and reinvent our spiritual selves during the days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Meanwhile, the New Shul is hosting a nearby House of Awe and Repentance Café, with a variety of interactive multimedia displays, creative modes of repentance and a wine-coffee bar tended by Rabbi Ain himself.  

“I think we need this time at the end of the year to reconnect with who we want to be,” said the rabbi … Continue reading…

Video of Rabbi Ain’s talk:

From Here To Eternity, On Facebook

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Every year, we welcome the New Year with the proverbial yet fatalistic saying, “On Rosh HaShanah, it is written. On Yom Kippur, it is sealed.”

This year, as these two sentences come to mind once again, I think about a more modern page that we write and edit and then seal with an inadvertent yet morbid permanence — the Facebook profile. 

A few weeks ago, I found out through the viral social networking Web site, Facebook.com, that a 22-year-old sorority sister of mine named Lindsey Goldhagen had died of an infection, after fighting through what we all had thought was a successful battle with liver cancer. I didn’t know her well — she was a freshman when I was a senior at Penn — but the death of such a vibrant young woman who was ready to offer so much to the world really hit home. 

As soon as the news surfaced in the realms of Phi Sigma Sigma e-mail listservs and Facebook “News Feed” streams, friends of Goldhagen immediately began posting flurries of “wall” notes onto her profile page — no, not notes to her family, but messages directly to her. 

When we leave this world, we are survived not only by our closest family and friends, but also by our Facebook accounts — a Web interface that today’s 20- and 30-somethings spend hours with every day.

“Linds, you were a great inspiration to more people than you could possibly ever imagine, myself included,” says one post to Goldhagen’s wall. “Your courage and ambition are things that I definitely admired in you. You’ll be greatly missed. Rest in Peace.”  Continue reading…

Bringing More To The Table

The kosher chicken case at the new Whole Foods market on the Upper West Side. courtesy Whole foods

by Sharon Udasin
Staff Writer

Just in time for the Jewish new year, local food vendors are pumping up their kosher offerings.

Two weeks ago, Whole Foods Market opened a new Upper West Side location, where staff members pay added attention to the needs of the largely observant local Jewish community. Meanwhile, the owners of Kosher.com have re-launched their Web site, spruced up with blogs, recipes and cooking shows in addition to the food orders. And in Midtown, several new kosher restaurants have just opened, including Schnitzel Express, Lunchbox and a revamped Mr. Broadway now acceptable to the Health Department.
At the new Whole Foods, located on the corner of Columbus Avenue and 97th Street, Andrew Roberts, the grocery’s regional prepared foods coordinator, is diverging from the Whole Foods norm. Unlike at the other stores, where kosher products are mostly mixed among others, Roberts has sectioned off an area for kosher prepared foods only, next to the store’s regular dairy section.

“We’ve consolidated all the kosher products,” Roberts said. “I’m also taking a look at opening this up a bit more to vendors suggested by people in the neighborhood.”
Thus far, the prepared foods are dominated by two brands — Foremost Fresh Caterers and Zayda’s — and include a variety of Mediterranean salads, as well as ratatouille and traditional Ashkenazi foods like kugel and mushroom barley soup. 

As with other Whole Foods, the new store adheres to specific ethical standards, such as the Animal Compassion Act.  Continue reading…