Front Lines iNenline NOTEBOOK This Week www.JNonline.us Celebrate And Salivate W hat is it that causes us joy, raises our hopes, feeds our • June — The month offers us Shavuot and a chance to indulge in souls (and stomachs) and gets us through the year? Why, dairy meals, my personal favorite. Add to that the chances to con- a calendar of holidays, that's what. gratulate grads (with cake and ice cream) and confirmands (with ice Mixing the secular and the religious, let's examine the delicacies cream and cake). that await us each month. Realize of course that the • July — What a bang-up time (oy!) to be had on the 4th. months are often off by a smidge — no Jewish holiday is What a challenge to make red, white and blue treats like flag ever on time; it's always "early this year" or "late this yen" cakes and to cook out every day. Celebrate the hot dog, the • January — Once we recover from our celebratory hamburger, the chicken wings and the freedom to make a pig hangovers, we are ready for resolutions, promising our- of yourself. selves to be better in the coming year. Food involvement • August — Ok, you got me here. I really can't make a food comes in the form of promises to diet and only then association with a fast, especially like Tisha b'Av; but we do because we have overdone it at so many holiday parties. get a breather to counteract the renewed gorging that is to (Worry not, since these delusions will soon pass.) come up on the High Holidays. • February — To take our minds off winter (you know, • September — Labor Day comes and goes, taking with that nine-month stretch of snow, ice, cold and darkness), it the wearing of white and leads us to prepare for the food we have Valentine's Day (honoring chocolate, love and fest we've come to know as Rosh Hashanah. True, we recant Sy Manello more chocolate); President's Day (honoring store sales on Yom Kippur, but go back to feasting on Sukkot in October. Editorial and cake with cherries on it, chocolate cherries and cher- What a month! Assistant ries jubilee). • October — eating in the sukkah just seems to boost • March — Coming in like a lion, this month enables appetites a notch and that's not a bad thing. For those who us to tell others to "go fly a kite" and not seem too brusque. All have put on a few pounds, try dancing them off with the Torah on munchies are welcomed at this time as we wake from hibernation. Simchat Torah. • April — Despite the proverbial shower-flower bit, we plan for • November — Why is it that when we think of giving thanks it is Passover. Here is our opportunity to eat all that stuff considered cha- for a "bountiful feast"? No, I'm not that cynical; I know that many of metz (leavened) to get rid of it in time and then stuff ourselves with us find many things to be thankful for in addition to plentiful cran- Pesach goodies (just avoid the cereal; it's deadly!) berry sauce and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. • May — We take time out to remember Israel (Independence and • December — The month of the visit by the Great Latke is truly Remembrance days) as well as the Holocaust. Though a sobering worthy of note. And what better time to prep ourselves for the time, why pass up an opportunity to whisk up some tasty Middle East onslaught of the New Year parties. treats? Here we go again! ❑ Fire blazes at the Hechtman II Jewish Apartments in West Bloomfield. Federation Board of Governors recently voted to allocate $50,000 from the general fund. An additional $50,000 was donated by an individual, so now the fund stands at $151,000. JAS executive staff and some Hechtman staff attended a fire de- briefing session at the West Bloomfield Fire Department. The key fire personnel from each station involved went through a step-by-step dis- cussion about how events unfolded and what, if anything, could have been improved. "Without exception;' Wurdock says, "the chiefs and commanders of both fire and police praised JAS staff for their quick response, attrib- uting a large portion of their success to our preparedness." A full report will be available from the fire department by early summer. Guten Cohen, story development editor Hechtman Fire Update The staff of Jewish Apartments & Services coordinated the move- outs of former Hechtman II residents after the April 9 fire. The goal was to have them completed by May 2, and that was accomplished. Now begins the process of removing loose debris and other damaged material from the building, which is expected to take about three months, says spokesman Pete Wurdock. The Hechtman Fire Relief Fund, coordinated by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit for JAS, has raised $51,000. The . A8 May 15 • 2008 Israel@60: We Are Strong A new Web site, supported by the Jewish Agency for Israel, honors Israel's 60th anniversary of independence with photos, blog entries and samplings of songs from a new CD by Lawrence and Robin Dermer. Israel@60: We Are Strong is a CD that features seven contemporary pop songs co-written by this husband-wife team. The compositions share a theme of peace, unity and independence. The Dermers and their two sons, also musicians, traveled to Israel to record the CD, which also includes voices of top Israeli singers as well as Israeli choirs. Portions of their trip also are shown on the Web site: www.israelwearestrong.org . - Keri Guten Cohen, story development editor Israel Photo Contest JN readers showed their love of Israel by entering our Israel@60 photo contest. The top three winners' photos grace our cover, contents page and the opening page of our Israel@60 special sec- tion. AD the entries can be seen online. From majestic landscapes to people riding camels or frolicking in the Dead Sea, our readers cap- tured the Israel experience. For a look at all the photos, go to JNonline.us and click the photo contest button. Latest From Israel Want the most current news from Israel? Check our streaming news from Ynetnews.com for continu- ous updates and longer news, opinion and feature stories. And look at the center of our Homepage for an Israel story that changes twice daily. Just visit JNonline.us and click on a scrolling story on the left. E-Newsletter Desire notification when stories that interest you in particular are posted on JNonline? It's easy to des- ignate the kinds of stories you like when you sign up for your personalized e-newslet- ter. Only at JNonline.us. Just click on Newsletter on the menu near the top of the page. 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