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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 15, 2005 Dinner series explores migration of Jews By Amanda Bolsinger Tidings Correspondent Taking time to dine together and learn together is an important part of their faith for many members of Temple Emek Shalom. The temple has hosted a Dinner with the Rabbi series for the last five years, giving temple members opportunities to become closer with the community and the rabbi. The different series focus on a wide variety of topics that are pertinent to local and global Jewish culture and faith. This year's series is called Tastes of Foreign Places Jews in Different Lands. The series is taking a look at Jewish culture through food and music. "I wanted to change things and focus on culture. It's a program I have wanted to do for about eight years," said Rabbi Marc Sirinsky. "I love music and it's a great way to learn about different cultures and expand horizons on a rational and non-rational basis. Before we never had a way to project music into a large crowd but now in the new building we have that ability." The series is looking at Moroccan, Yemenite, Italian and East Indian cultures. Each night of the series, a meal from that culture is being served. The foods committee has researched each culture and different regional foods to develop a menu that is true to the Jewish culture of the region. For each of the previous series, a food committee had one big cooking day to prepare everything for the meals for the entire series. This year committee chair Christina Bagi changed the format to include more community members in the entire process. "With the expansion I thought it would be a really good community builder," Bagi said. "I opened up the opportunity to cook and chop to the whole temple community. There are a lot of books on Jewish world cooking so we researched and discussed the menus." Feb. 16 was the first night of the new series. The menu and discussion both centered on the Moroccan culture. The menu featured several items such as a barley vegetable stew, a roasted three-pepper dish with cumin and garlic and a carrot salad with parsley. About 50 people attended the dinner, with more coming for the lecture. In order to prepare for the discussions, the rabbi did an overview of the context of different cultures within Jewish history. "Within any history there are the great traditions and little traditions," said Sirinsky. "The great tradition is the Torah; we all share the same written book. The little traditions are those things we have our biggest emotional ties to, the food, the music, the dances." "It's the way we do things," said Bagi. "The way grandmother made the food, or the way the weddings are held." The rabbi talked about Jewish migration to different parts of the world, focusing on three migrations and put the series into a larger context of Jewish history and diversity. "There is deep learning that goes on at the synagogue," said Sirinsky. "Great music, great food, and it's an open place for people to come to learn, to pray, to study and to talk with each other. There is great diversity and we welcome that." The next nights of the series are this Wednesday, April 20 and May 18. The dinner cost $5 per person for members and $7 otherwise. The discussion following dinner is free. Guests are asked to bring their own place settings, napkins, cups and flatware. Dinner is served from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. with the discussion from 7:30 to 9. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams