{"id":47184,"date":"2025-07-11T01:31:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T08:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=47184"},"modified":"2025-07-17T09:30:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T16:30:56","slug":"love-and-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/love-and-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Love and learning\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

People from many cultures show love via food and, of course, Jews are no exception. And what a palate our culture has, since we have lived in so many places. Two children\u2019s books from Collective Book Studio, one new and one from recent years, highlight the flavourful diversity of Jewish culture, while teaching other valuable lessons.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>Coming out this August, Tali and the Timeless Time<\/i> by Mira Z. Amiras, with illustrations by Chantelle and Burgen Thorne, shares the love of a granddaughter for her grandmother, and vice versa. Every Friday, Tali helps her nona get ready for Shabbat. Nona gives hugs, tells stories, still tries to get Tali to nap, even though she\u2019s older now. When Nona dozes off, Tali explores in the backyard, cleans up the small fountain there, feeds the goldfish. When Nona awakes, it\u2019s time to cook.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bake!\u201d says Tali. \u201cToday, it\u2019s bourekas, yummy for eating. Nona makes them with filo (which it turns out is cheating). She says her nona let her \u2019cause it doesn\u2019t need kneading.\u201d<\/p>\n

The week before, the pair made stuffed grape leaves \u2013 yaprakas, dolma or dolmades. Nona\u2019s favourite dish is huevos<\/i> (eggs) cooked in tomatoes with feta and arroz<\/i> (rice).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While Tali\u2019s grandmother might get Tali\u2019s name wrong, or forget a word or two, she has these recipes ingrained in her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m having big thoughts,\u201d says Tali, \u201cbut Nona\u2019s not listening \u2013 she\u2019s singing \u2018chakchouka,\u2019 it\u2019s sometimes called, not just huevos, in the Holy Land, Tunisia and the land of the pharaohs. In Mexico, it\u2019s a lot like huevos rancheros\u2026.\u201d But Nona loses focus, she starts dancing with \u201cher zills and her fans.\u201d Tali finishes making dinner, the pair eat together, then dance some more.<\/p>\n

In another role reversal, Tali tucks Nona into bed for the night, not sure she should leave her alone. Luckily, Tali and her family live nearby.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lovely book, \u201ctimeless time\u201d being a beautiful description of a day spent with a loved one, doing this and that, in no particular order, sharing stories, mixing up past with present, making memories that will adapt over time.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>Family and food are also at the heart of 1, 2, 3 Nosh with Me<\/i>, written by Micah and Joshua Siva, and illustrated by Sviatoslav Franko, which was published a couple of years ago. In it, the dog Buckwheat shows us the yummy food the family eats, starting with the \u201cOne golden challah, to celebrate Shabbat\u2026\u201d We work our way up to \u201cTen crispy latkes, served by candlelight.\u201d In between, we have matzah balls, matzot, kugel, knishes, apples for a sweet new year, sufganiyot, bagels and hamantashen. (It\u2019s not clear why the Hanukkah treats are separated, but that\u2019s a quibble.)<\/p>\n

Tali covers a few Sephardi staples and Buckwheat has the Ashkenazi favourites down. Between the two books, the breadth of world Jewry, as seen through just some of its traditional foods, is impressive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People from many cultures show love via food and, of course, Jews are no exception. And what a palate our culture has, since we have lived in so many places. Two children\u2019s books from Collective Book Studio, one new and one from recent years, highlight the flavourful diversity of Jewish culture, while teaching other valuable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[2219,3461,4946,23668,24185,5780,3076,6073,23628,5914,4328,3462,23900],"class_list":["post-47184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-aging","tag-ashkenazi","tag-childrens-books","tag-collective-book-studio","tag-counting","tag-culture","tag-education","tag-food","tag-generations","tag-identity","tag-learning","tag-sephardi","tag-traditions"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}