News
NY CONGREGATION DONATES JEWISH COOKBOOKS TO GULF COAST FLOOD VICTIMS
Posted on 07/19/2006
By Annette Keen
NISKAYUNA, NY, June 10, 2006. Some 2000 copies of Divine™ Kosher Cuisine Cookbook, a recipe collection published by a Jewish Congregation in upstate New York, are going to flood-devastated Gulf Coast communities whose residents lost -- among many household items -- valued family recipes. The cookbook contributions are made possible through a special arrangement between the Niskayuna, NY synagogue, Congregation Agudat Achim, and the Memphis, TN printing house, Wimmer Cookbooks. This action follows an appeal for Jewish cookbook contributions from a Louisiana librarian.
In the hard-hit New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Betty Lazarus was glad that over the years she had jotted down some of her mother’s special recipes so she could give them back to her mother, who had lost everything to the floods, including her recipe books. As librarian at the Gates of Prayer Synagogue in Metairie, Lazarus saw firsthand how widespread the book losses were among her neighbors. She sent a letter to the Association of Jewish Libraries asking for replacements.
In Memphis, TN, Wimmer Cookbooks had just printed the initial run of a collection of traditional and contemporary Jewish recipes, Divine™ Kosher Cuisine, for Congregation Agudat Achim in upstate New York. With the enthusiastic cooperation of the congregation and the considerable financial backing from the Wimmer Company, 2,000 copies of Divine Kosher Cuisine are being distributed throughout the Gulf Coast.
A Busy, Happy Holiness: Divine Kosher Cuisine Cookbook Seasons with Ruach
Posted on 08/09/2006
By Annette Keen
Picture this: A synagogue is presented with an exciting fund-raising idea that could raise a great deal of money for its educational programs. The catch? It will require substantial seed money and hundreds of volunteers staffing a dozen different committees, working on a dizzying array of assignments, each requiring thousands of work hours.
Within a few days, an army of 135 congregants volunteers for duty. This dream team suffers no attrition and shows unflagging enthusiasm and competence from beginning to end, turning out a dazzling, full-color cookbook collection of more than 350 cook-at-home recipes, aptly called Divine™ Kosher Cuisine. How did they do it?
The committee effort that produced Divine™ Kosher Cuisine springs directly from a rich participatory tradition at Congregation Agudat Achim that fosters commitment and cooperation. The synagogue, in upstate New York near Albany, is the only one in Schenectady County that belongs to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. It is home to an eclectic, multigenerational, diverse and inclusive family of congregants. Through their commitment and good works, among themselves and in the community, Agudat Achim congregants live Torah.
Divine™ Kosher Cuisine also is the direct outgrowth of the As You Like It Kosher Catering Company, an all-volunteer group that has become the region's premier kosher catering service.
Newcomers to Agudat Achim are quickly drawn in, accepted, befriended, and absorbed into the family. This inclusiveness encourages courtesy and discourages cliquishness, creating a feeling of shared friendship and mutual responsibility. It also translates into increased participation in synagogue worship, and also in the many activities and projects that support the synagogue's spiritual and fiscal health. It is this spirit that propels so many synagogue projects, including the catering company and the cookbook.
As You Like It - nicknamed simply Catering is a significant profit center for the synagogue. It consistently attracts waves of volunteers from year to year and generation to generation. One volunteer teaches the next, sharing expertise and developing skills, adhering to the high professional standards established more than 30 years ago, when its founders trained at culinary arts programs in local colleges.
A visiting Episcopalian priest put that feeling into words one day, as he toured the synagogue's state-of-the-art commercial kosher kitchen, where As You Like It Kosher Catering was hard at work. As he watched the crack all-volunteer army of damp-faced, white-aproned, hair-netted chefs and helpers, as he listened to the good-natured banter and laughter rising above the steaming pots and sizzling sauté pans, the clanking cutlery and pounding mallets, the priest said, "I've never seen such a busy, happy holiness."
More than anything else, this ruach - this particular holiness ? defines the congregation. It is the glue that binds synagogue members. It is what makes working together a joy as well as a mitzvah.
Catering's menus, recipes and professional presentation dazzle guests at congregational dinners, private parties, brunches and lunches, bar and bat mitzvah and anniversary parties and weddings. Such Jewish organizations as Hadassah, B'nai B'rith and the local federation schedule meetings and community events at Agudat Achim to be able to use it. Beyond the Jewish community, Catering has prepared kosher meals for visiting diplomats at the Governor's mansion and for New York's state legislature.
Divine™ Kosher Cuisine shares Catering's vision: To revere Jewish tradition in kosher cooking, to absorb the culinary wisdom of those who came before and to use it to create original recipes, to make the traditional contemporary, to reflect food trends and to take care of special dietary needs. Both projects, as the congregation behind it, are devoted to securing a viable and promising future for kosher cooking. It reflects the full range of Jewish cuisine, including recipes for appetizers, entrées, side dishes, and desserts that call for traditionally rich ingredients as well as trimmed-down versions that use vegetarian and nondairy substitutes to replicate texture and flavor without sacrificing taste.
For easy use and fast reference, the recipes are organized according to courses and specific occasions, ranging from a typical family meal to special events and celebrations, including Jewish holidays and festivals. The book includes advice on planning a menu, choosing courses, preparing recipes and selecting an appropriate wine.
The cookbook's guiding lights are Risé Routenberg, who served as Catering's co-chair from 1994 to 2004, and Barbara Wasser, who joined her as co-chair in 1998. Working from 50 to 80 hours a week, the two volunteer chefs built what already was a well-respected operation into the region's premier kosher caterer, bringing home a national prize for excellence, the 2003 Gold Solomon Schechter Award.
When they were not working in the synagogue kitchen, Risé and Barbara busied themselves with research that broadened their already considerable culinary knowledge. They have shared hundreds of recipes from their own collections with Catering. Together they created many new recipes and modified and expanded many more. Catering now has more than 1,200 recipes. Many of them appear in Divine™ Kosher Cuisine.
Catering has become the respected voice for kosher cooking in the local media, which regularly interviews its volunteers before Jewish holidays and festivals, writing feature articles that explain Jewish traditions to the entire reading public. And each September for 27 years, the synagogue's expansive lawn has drawn crowds to the Agudat Achim Carrot Festival. The Carrot Festival has evolved into a huge harvest produce fair and carnival. It features arts and crafts, games and musical entertainment that draw hundreds of visitors from all over New York and surrounding states. They flood the synagogue grounds to sample food cooked right on the spot, and to buy many dinner dishes and desserts made with harvest produce prepared in the synagogue's kosher kitchen.
The festival's signature foods are its carrot-based baked goods. A two-layer praline-filled carrot cake, topped with a lush cream cheese frosting, is many people's favorite. The other carrot cakes, which are pareve, include applesauce carrot cake, banana chocolate chip carrot cake, zucchini carrot loaf, chunky apple cake, old-fashioned carrot strudel, apple carrot strudel and pineapple carrot cake with streusel topping. All of these recipes, along with many, many others, appear in Divine Kosher Cuisine.
This article is reprinted with permission from United Synagogue Review Magazine, Fall 2005, issue.
Posted on 12/30/2007
Divine™ Kosher Cuisine wins the prestigious 2006 McIlhenny/Tabasco Mid-Atlantic Region Award. First established by McIlhenny Company in 1989, the TABASCO® Community Cookbook Awards were created to recognize the best of the thousands of cookbooks published annually to generate funds for charitable causes while preserving
United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism has been awarding deserving congregations with the coveted Solomon Schechter Gold Award for Excellence and this year Divine™ Kosher Cuisine was noted for outstanding work in fundraising with this special citing.
Divine™ Kosher Cuisine contains hundreds of recipes for every day and special event cooking including lactose free, gluten free and vegetarian options.
