Chinese pandas love 'Jewish penicillin'

The affinity of the Jewish people for Chinese food is well-known. Now we learn of the affinity of the Chinese - pandas - for Jewish food, namely chicken soup.

To be fair, the Chinese do have a long tradition of drinking slow-simmered chicken broth for health. I'm wondering if the Persian Jewish merchants who arrived so long ago in Kaifeng brought it with them?

Celia Male of London just emailed me:

Flavour of the month in your blog is cooking [re your Iranian Jewish Cookbook] and for many, it means home-made chicken soup, as it gets colder and the nights draw in. "We" always knew it was good for us and now the pandas are getting it too. What could this mean genealogically-speaking?

"Don't worry, bubbelah. The soup's almost ready!"
Here's the Yahoo News link to the AP story Celia sent:

Everyone needs some chicken soup for the soul — even pandas.

The Wuhan Zoo in central China has been feeding its two pandas home-cooked chicken soup twice in a month to reduce stress and give them a nutritional boost, a zoo official said Friday.

He Zhihua said 3-year-old Xiwang and Weiwei — literally meaning "Hope" and "Greatness" — were tired and suffering from a little shock since the start Monday of the weeklong National Day holiday, one of the biggest travel seasons of the year.

On Wednesday, up to 30,000 people swarmed the zoo and about 1,000 tourists packed the panda enclosure, shouting to get the animals' attention, He said. The pandas paced restlessly.

"They had been getting less sleep, and they had to run around more," he said. "We felt it would be good to give them the soup because they were fatigued and had a bit of a shock."

Reflecting the Chinese tradition of drinking slow-cooked chicken soup for health, the zookeepers boiled roosters in water overnight and added a pinch of salt to the concentrated stock.

The pandas were served 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of soup in giant dishes, in addition to their regular diet of bamboo, milk and buns, He said.

It was a hit.

"They drank it all like they drank their milk. They loved it," he said.

Hey, if all YOU had to eat was tough bamboo, chicken soup would also sound good. I'm looking for a chain of fast-food chicken soup places in the nature preserves in which the pandas survive. And the tourists might like it also!

The story does not mention either matzo balls or Persian gondi. However, since pandas are also known to eat meat and small birds, the gondi might be of interest.

The pair were first fed chicken soup on Sept. 28 - nearly Rosh Hashanah - to help them brave the upcoming cold weather. When they exhibited no stomach problems, they ate it again this week.

Coverleaf: Read magazines online

I just received notice of a new website, Coverleaf.com, that features digital magazine editions and free previews of some popular magazines. Family Tree Magazine is one of them.

How does it look online? Try the link below to see a Family History Magazine story by genealogy writer Lisa Alzo - who happens to be a GenClass.com colleague. Not only will you see each page in the story, but also thumbnail images for the entire magazine. The site also offers a "my stuff" page, where you can place "clipped articles" and add notes about the piece.

Lisa's story, Make No Mistake, highlights 10 common pitfalls to avoid when researching family histories. View Bruce's blog posting with the link here.

My immediate impression was very good, and I liked the idea that those of us who live around the globe could easily access favorite publications (more are signing up), read them online as they become available and wouldn't have to wait for the issues to come through the mail - usually very late - or pay exorbitant newsstand prices for "foreign" publications or have to load up on magazines at airports when we travel abroad.

In the case of Family Tree Magazine, the US rate is $24, while the international rate is $31 - a $7 difference. Multiply a similar savings for many magazines, and anyone can easily see this would be an advantage.

For those of us who can give up hardcopy, combined with the advantages of article clipping and note taking, it sounds good. And, if you can tear yourself away from traditional paper copies, there will be fewer piles of magazines on your coffee table, desk and other horizontal surfaces in your home, not to mention a happier mailman who won't have to schlep the magazines each month to your mailbox.

I remembered that Everton's Genealogical Helper had also gone digital, and asked Bruce about digital-only subscriptions - after all, none of us want to pay international rates for solely digital access.

Great minds think alike, I guess. Here's Bruce's response:

Regarding digital subscription prices and offering digital subscriptions separately from print subscriptions, we are actually in the process of working on trying to set these up exactly as you suggest. It's a publisher decision obviously, and some of the publishers that are part of the Coverleaf service have already agreed to sell digital-only subscriptions (and for even less than the domestic sub price) and we're working on convincing all of the publishers that this is a good idea.

So, the future looks good and I have a whole list of mags (family history and many others) that I'd like to see sign up to offer digital editions.

For the press release on the launch of Coverleaf.com, click here.

How do Tracing the Tribe readers feel about this new development? Would you be interested in subscribing digitally to publications?

Online: Internet security speaker's warning

A consumer advocate speaking at the Utah Attorney General's Economic Crime Conference in Salt Lake City warned attendees that Internet predators are finding new ways to exploit even Web users who consider themselves safe and savvy, in this Salt Lake Tribune story.

"Every one of you . . . is a commodity," Internet security expert Linda Criddle said at the Utah Attorney General's Economic Crime Conference at Salt Lake City's Embassy Suites. "Somebody is willing to pay to know the color of your eyes."

That kind of personal information can give criminals access to financial accounts, help them select and profile potential victims, and even put users' friends and relatives at risk, Criddle said.

Criddle described a family tree her own father posted online to display the fruits of his genealogical research. He took it down once she pointed out that "mother's maiden name" is a common security backup question for online accounts.

"Utah is a big state for genealogy," she said. "If you are into genealogy, you should not be putting that information out there."

Online obituaries, wedding registries and birth announcements often contain much of the same data - along with a notice to potential identity thieves that those named are involved in an emotional event and may not notice new, mysterious debts.

"There is an opportunity every step of the way," Criddle said.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace also give predators a bevy of clues into the lives and families of users, many of whom believe they have preserved their anonymity, Criddle said.

Read the complete article at the link above.

Illinois: Online declarations of intent database

The Cook County (Illinois) Archives hold more than a half-million naturalization petitions, 1871-1929. Of these, 400,000 are Declarations of Intent (1906-1929), also called "first papers."


Why are these so valuable for researchers?

- These papers were generally filed closer to the time of immigration, so details were fresher in the minds of the immigrants at that earlier date;

- With higher rates of mortality in overcrowded cities, and not discounting the impact of the Great Influenza Epidemic, an immigrant could have died before filing other papers on the way to becoming a citizen; these declarations might be the only available document for an individual.

Learn more here about these records in the archives of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Search the database here.

The Declarations of Intention database was created with a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a division of the National Archives. The project began in November 2006 and, since then, more than 150,000 of the Circuit Court records have been entered through 1923; additional entries are ongoing and will include through 1929 when complete. The plan is to also include the Supreme Court declarations.

What can a researcher find on a Declaration of Intention? The document includes the following fields: declaration number, name, age, occupation, physical description, birth city, birth country, birth date, current address, current city, departure, location, vessel of departure, last foreign residence, arrival location, arrival date, signature and declaration date. Most also include marital status, spouse's name, birthplace and residence information.

Philly 2009 on Roots Television

Dick Eastman interviewed key players for the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy on Roots Television. He sat down with event co-chair David Mink and program chair Mark Halpern at the early September FGS conference in Philadelphia.


The Jewish genealogy conference will be co-sponsored by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia and the IAJGS, and takes place Sunday-Friday, August 2-7, 2009, at the Sheraton City Center Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, convenient to major tourist locations.

Mark mentioned that the conference would begin programming on Sunday morning, there would be a film festival, the first two days will be how-to days, a repository fair will take place on Sunday, walking tours arescheduled of recent Jewish history as well as colonial Jewish history, workshops on Friday morning and much more.

David mentioned several areas of interest to general researchers (other than those searching specific Jewish ancestry) such as DNA sessions, computer skills workshops and other programming.

The conference website will be www.philly2009.org, although it has not yet been launched.

View Dick's interview with David and Mark here.

Iranian Jewish cookbook planned

In Southern California, Tannaz Sassooni is planning a book of Iranian Jewish recipes and kitchen stories. Readers of Tracing the Tribe with Iranian ancestry are asked to spread the word among their immediate and extended families around the world.

I'm delighted that she is working on this project, and I am sure that many people will contact her with stories and recipes.

Writes Sassooni,

The Iranian Jews have a rich kitchen culture, and each region of the country has its own culinary tradition, with recipes that are not seen anywhere else. Dishes like gondi Kashi and the Mashhadi chelo-nokhodab, or the beloved abgoosht-e-gondi, are culinary treasures that need to be documented before the recipes are lost. Iran’s Jewish population is also responsible for the nation’s wine and spirits.

Sasooni is interested in conducting interviews, over the phone or in person, in English or in Farsi, with the people responsible for feeding their families every day, following traditions passed from generation to generation, and knowing
without the help of any cookbook how to make delicious feasts for Shabbat, holidays, and even weeknight dinner.

If you or someone you know is interested in being part of this unique history, I recommend that you email Tannaz Sassooni, who also writes a food blog, allkindsofyum.com .

Iranian Jews: Book on American experience planned

The published Jewish immigrant experience in America has been overwhelmingly Ashkenazi, with only a few smatterings of Sephardi or Mizrahi recountings.

This week I was happy to learn about two planned book projects focusing on the Iranian Jewish community. One is an Iranian Jewish cookbook planned by Tannaz Sassooni (see separate posting), and the other is a general volume on life in America as an Iranian Jewish-American by Nazanin Lahijani Cohen and Ninaz Khorsandi Beral.

It's about time that these experiences are recorded in different ways by Iranian Jewish Americans looking at themselves and their community. Both projects will, I am sure, elicit support from the community. In the future, when the younger generations are completely assimilated - except perhaps in their love for gondi - these books will have preserved the wisdom of the community's elders and cooks, and will also bear witness to the not-always-so-easy immigration experience of this community.

First, my comments on perhaps the most well-known Persian Jewish food anywhere in the world: Gondi.

Do you know what "gondi" are?

Gondi are the Persian Jewish versions of matzo balls. No Shabbat or holiday dinner is complete without golden peppery gondi, either as an appetizer (with lavash bread and assorted herbs) or served in the traditional Persian chicken soup called abgusht ("water of the meat"), with turmeric, potatoes, chickpeas and white beans.

The basic recipe includes roasted (not raw) chickpea flour, ground meat (beef, veal, chicken, turkey or a combination according to each family's traditions), onions, fresh-ground "hel" (cardamom), fresh-ground black pepper (lots) and salt. Mix together, addding some flour if too soft, a little water if too thick. The trick comes in forming the ball. This is not a matzo ball rolled between both palms, this is a gondi and it is authentically tossed in a rolling motion in one hand until perfectly round and then added to a pot of simmering chicken soup. There is a trick to doing this, but you have to see it in action as I cannot adequately describe it in words.

Gondi also feature in a project called Gondi Lunchbox by two young Iranian Jewish women, Nazanin Lahijani Cohen and Ninaz Khorsandi Beral. Click here to read more about the project and the women.

For 15 years, they have wanted to put together a book about the Jewish-Iranian community in America, to contain stories, essays, commentaries, cartoons, jokes, one-liners, photographs - all pertaining to the good, bad and ugly of life in America as a Jewish Iranian-American.

In their invitation for submissions, the best friends write:

We are, to say the least, an interesting people. We are the sons and daughters of Isaac and Rebecca, the heirs of the greatest empire the world has seen, and relics of a revolution that uprooted us from a desert oasis and re-earthed us in the land of the free . . . a revolution that re-routed our destinies and changed our lives forever.

There is no one story to explain our collective experience and, yet, there is something which we all share. An understanding as to what it is to be a Jewish-Iranian American.

Think of the tales our grandparents tell us at the Shabbat dinner table: nine year-old brides, 80 year-old feuds, love, and betrayal. It's enough to inspire a novel and thank G-d, in recent years, it has.
But another story has not been told. YOURS. It is the tale of being raised in America as a Jew of Iranian descent.

It is about culture shock and assimilation. It is about being a first generation American at the turn of the millennium. It is about leading a double life, giving in to the demands of others, or taking your non-conformity to the grave. It is about clashing, reconciling, and, hopefully, finding yourself in the end.

Perhaps in a hundred years it won't matter. Our progeny will be completely assimilated and the situations that terrorized our first generation lives (think: heavy accents, heavier cologne, and getting parental permission to wax your eyebrows) will just be something to laugh at.

But the stories of our lives deserve to be heard, shared, and recorded. And if, in the process, we have a couple of laughs (or cries) sharing our tales with each other, well, then, our lives will just be the richer for it.

If you have one or more stories, essays, journal entries, poems, cartoons, or writings in whatever format – send them to us! We are taking submissions – authored or anonymous, fiction or non-fiction (but please specify), in English or Persian – for publication.

Feel free to change names for privacy. Give as much (or little) biographical information as you wish but please indicate what information about yourself you do or do not wish to have published. In fact, no contact information or return address is necessary (i.e., if you are making an anonymous submission). Of course, if you'd like the recognition you deserve or wish to use a pen name, that's fine too.

To a large extent, your submissions will determine the parameters of our book. After all, we want it to be about you . . . about all of us, without any restrictions. Some brainstorming topics are family, in-laws, parental restrictions, "khastegari," dating, marriage, sex, double-standards, immigrating to America . . . you get the
picture. Please be as serious, funny, or explicit as you want.

Just tell your story, tell it straight up, and tell it like it is. Because it just may be the only chance you'll get!

Send submissions to: Booksubmissions2008@gmail.com

Please note that by sending us your submission, you are allowing us to reprint your submission without receiving compensation (i.e., you are giving us a release). If you would like the opportunity to approve any editing, please provide your contact information with your submission.

Please feel free to pass this e-mail along to other members of our community.

The submission deadline is December 31, 2008. For more details, click www.gondilunchbox.com.

Music - and food - of the Jews of India

Writer and musician Rahel Musleah - originally from Calcutta with ancestry to 17th century Baghdad - has created a website for the music of Jewish India, announced the Jewish Music Web Center

Musleah has spoken widely on Indian music and her CD, "Hodu: Jewish Rhythms from Baghdad to India," features ancient text, Indian melodies and contemporary rhythms. The Hebrew texts and English translations are included. Here you can listen to her version of tzur mishelo.

A songbook, "B’Kol Arev: Songs of the Jews of Calcutta," included more than 50 songs for Shabbat, holidays and special occasions (Tara Publications), with a cassette featuring 18 songs.

For more details, see her website at the link above.

Under "books," see her article on the Sephardic/Mizrahi Rosh Hashanah seder, related to her book "Apples and Pomegranates: A Rosh Hashanah Seder."

In this respect, families of Sephardic and Mizrahi origin have a secret to share with the rest of the Jewish world. On the first night of Rosh Hashanah, we hold a special ceremony at home, during which we recite blessings over a variety of foods that symbolize our wishes for the new year. The ritual is called a “seder yehi ratzon” (may it be God’s will) because we ask God to guide us and provide us with bounty, strength and peace in the year ahead. Many of the foods are blessed with puns on their Hebrew names that turn into wishes that our enemies will be destroyed.

The Talmudic origins of the seder date back to a discussion by Rabbi Abaye about omens that carry significance (Horayot 12a). He suggested that at the beginning of each new year, people should make a habit of eating the following foods that grow in profusion and so symbolize prosperity: pumpkin, a bean-like vegetable called rubia, leeks, beets and dates. Jewish communities throughout the world have adapted this practice, creating seders of their own.

So my shopping list for Rosh Hashanah includes fat, juicy, red-skinned pomegranates; glossy, sticky-sweet dates; apples that will blush spicy pink when they are cooked into preserves with a drop of red food coloring and whole cloves; savory pumpkin; pungent leeks or scallions, foot-long string beans (available in Indian shops) and deep-green spinach. Often, my parents and my children prepare the foods together. It’s an art to separate the jewel-like pomegranate seeds without splattering their scarlet juice all over the kitchen counter; to split the dates, stuff them with walnut halves and arrange them in concentric ovals on a newly polished silver dish.

The foods become vessels for meaning, effective because of their tangibility. “Before Rosh Hashanah I try to concentrate on the content of day,” says my friend Marilyn Greenspan, “but repentance and reflection give way to thinking about what I’m serving for dinner.” The seder makes it not only forgivable but desirable to think about such practicalities.

The seder begins with biblical verses to usher in the new year: Dates, pomegranates, apples, string beans, pumpkin, spinach or beetroot leaves, leeks or scallions, honey. Musleah provides the blessings for each of the Indian symbols in her article.

In Iran, however, we added a fish head (fertility and leadership), brains (intelligence and the binding of Isaac), lung (to breathe easy and lighten life), cooked whole beets, sometimes tongue and black-eyed peas.

According to Musleah, there is a reason why not all these symbols are sweet (like honey, dates, apples and sweet pumpkin):

Because the seder doesn’t focus exclusively on sweet symbols, it mirrors the realities of our lives. The bitter truths, fears and enmities we live with mix with the sweetness. Life is not just beginnings; it is also endings. It’s not just honeyed dates, it’s also the sting of scallions. It is about uncovering blessings despite the elusiveness of peace.

Read the complete article here.

Click here for a series of articles touching on Sephardim, the various Indian Jewish communities and holiday traditions.