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Delightful – and easy – dairy recipes for summer

Leah Schapira’s and Victoria Dwek’s sunflower salad, from their most recent cookbook, Dairy Made Easy. (photo by Daniel Lailah)

There’s almost no need for me to try out the recipes from Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek anymore. Their Made Easy cookbooks are “triple-tested” and I’ve reviewed enough of them to know that the recipes will result in delicious meals. But, an excuse to try a new dish, especially a new dessert – I just can’t pass that up.

This time, using Dairy Made Easy, which was released, appropriately, just before Shavuot, I made the sunflower salad, baked roasted veggie pasta and lemon curd ice cream, but there are other salads, pastas and desserts, as well as soups, appies, pizzas and breakfasts. While Schapira and Dwek favor more packaged/frozen ingredients than I prefer, and a little more salt and sugar, I find their recipes amenable to adaptation and feel completely at ease with replacing, for example, frozen cauliflower with fresh, and using less/more of almost anything. Even if the consistency or look isn’t quite as nice, the taste is every bit as good.

SUNFLOWER SALAD

1 head romaine lettuce, chopped, or 5 cups baby spinach leaves
2 mangos, peeled and diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced

Dressing:
4 oz. (115 grams) goat or feta cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Sunflower brittle:
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup salted hulled sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sugar

In a large bowl, combine lettuce, mango and red onion. Set aside.

Prepare the dressing. In a small bowl, use a fork to mash goat cheese with olive oil, vinegar and Italian seasoning. You can also use a mini chopper for a smoother consistency.

Prepare the brittle. Melt butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add sunflower seeds and toast for 30-60 seconds. Remove from pan and set aside. Add sugar to the pan and stir constantly until sugar is melted, about three minutes. It should be brown and completely smooth. Stir in sunflower seeds, pour into a thin layer onto a sheet of parchment paper and flatten as much as possible. Let harden. Chop into small bits, using a mini chopper or the bottom of a can.

Toss salad with dressing. Top with sunflower brittle. Makes four servings.

BAKED ROASTED VEGGIE PASTA

1 lb fusilli or penne pasta
2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
2 red onions, cut into wedges
1 zucchini, cut into half moons
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
kosher salt, to taste
coarse black pepper, to taste
6 oz. (170 grams) feta cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh or frozen basil

Prepare pasta according to package directions.

Preheat oven to 400°F. In a nine-by-13-inch pan, combine cherry tomatoes, red onions and zucchini. (More veggies can be added to the mix; red peppers substituted for the tomatoes.) Toss with olive oil and garlic powder. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add pasta to vegetables and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to broil and broil for 10 minutes, stirring after five minutes.

Add feta cheese and basil; stir to combine (the heat will melt the cheese). Serve hot or at room temperature. Makes eight servings.

LEMON CURD ICE CREAM

1 graham cracker pie crust
5 egg yolks
juice and zest of 2-4 lemons (about 1/3 cup juice)
1 cup sugar
2 cups heavy (i.e. whipping) cream

1. Crumble piecrust (which can be made using graham cracker crumbs or crushed tea biscuits mixed with some melted butter) and sprinkle crumbs into the bottom of individual serving dishes, or one large serving dish. Set aside.

2. Combine egg yolks, lemon juice, zest and sugar over a double boiler. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, six to eight minutes. Let cool.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream until stiff. Gently fold two-thirds of the lemon curd into the cream, a little at a time. It’s not a problem if there are swirls of yellow in the mixture. Pipe or spoon over crumbled crust. Drizzle with remaining lemon curd. Freeze until ready to serve. Makes eight to 10 servings.

Assortment of salads for summer

For those who can’t make it to Pips Neapolitan Pizza in Jerusalem for its panzanella, pictured above, the bread salad recipe here is similar. (photo by Barry A. Kaplan/Jerusalem)

Admittedly, I am very old-fashioned in my kitchen. I have two sets of antique, wood card-catalogue drawers where I store recipe cards, plus another set of drawers that a former neighbor, a wood worker, made especially for me. And, yes, I use these indexed recipes all the time. I have a variation of Post-it notes with a blue tab sticking up that I attach to any recipe cards I use very often so I can find them easily. When thinking about which recipes to share here, I went to the tab labeled “salads around the world,” and picked out these, as they’re perfect for summer.

BREAD SALAD
Italians call it panzanella. In Arabic, fatt means “crush” and, with the Turkish suffix oush, it becomes fattoush, particularly popular in Lebanon. Any kind of crusty, heavy, dense, day-old bread will work.

3 medium tomatoes, chopped, or 16 cherry or plum tomatoes, halved
3 Kirby cucumbers, cut up, not peeled
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 another color pepper, chopped
4 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup black olives
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
2 cups cubed bread
8 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Three to four hours before serving, combine oil, vinegar, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper in a jar. Close the lid, shake and set aside. In a salad bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, onions, olives and parsley. Add 1/4 cup dressing, mix and refrigerate about two hours.

One to two hours before serving, add bread cubes and toss; refrigerate for half an hour.

When ready to serve, sprinkle chopped eggs over salad and remaining dressing, and mix. Makes four servings.

ANTIPASTO SALAD
Traditionally, an antipasto is the first course served before an Italian meal, but this salad is a nice start for any meal.

2 cups bite-size pieces romaine lettuce
2 cups bite-size pieces head lettuce
1/3 cup shredded white cabbage
1/3 cup shredded red cabbage
1 small red onion, chopped
1 small red pepper, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1/3 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/8 cup chopped black olives
1/2 cup artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/3 cup mozzarella cheese, cubed
1/2 cup any other kosher Italian cheese, cubed

Dressing:
1/3 cup olive or canola oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, crushed
dash paprika
dash oregano
dash basil
dash dry mustard

Mix dressing ingredients in a jar. Close lid and shake well. Set aside.

In a salad bowl, combine lettuces, cabbages, onion, peppers, tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts and cheeses.

Just before serving, pour dressing over salad and toss. Makes four servings.

ASIAN COLESLAW
When I serve Asian food, particularly stir fry, I sometimes would like a side dish other than rice or noodles, and this coleslaw fits. In Israel, we don’t have water chestnuts readily available, so I substitute with cooked kohlrabi, which is readily available and inexpensive.

1 cup shredded bok choy
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 cucumber, diced
1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts or cooked kohlrabi
1/2 diced red pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup bean sprouts

Dressing:
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1/3 cup sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp ginger (optional)

In a salad bowl, combine bok choy, carrots, cucumber, water chestnuts (or kohlrabi), red pepper, cilantro and bean sprouts.

In a jar, combine rice vinegar, oil, sugar, soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Close with a lid and shake well.

Set aside.

Just before serving, add dressing and toss. Makes four servings.

Sybil Kaplan is a foreign correspondent, lecturer, book reviewer and food writer in Jerusalem. She has compiled nine kosher cookbooks. She leads weekly walks in English in the Jewish produce market, Machaneh Yehudah, and writes the restaurant features for Janglo, the oldest, largest website in Israel for English-speakers.

Family-run Domaine du Castel has achieved many firsts

Eli Ben Zaken, centre, with sons Ariel, left, and Eytan. His daughter, Ilana, is also part of the business. (photo from castel.co.il)

The third in a series featuring nine Israeli wine producers features Eli Ben Zaken of Domaine du Castel, in the Judean Hills, 10 miles west of Jerusalem. The first two articles – on Barkan and Shiloh wineries – were published in the Jewish Independent on May 2.

Christopher Barnes: When did you found the estate?

Eli Ben Zaken: There was no official foundation because I never thought of really making a winery. I planted in ’88 a few vines in a small plot next to the house in the Judean Hills, in Moshav Ramat Raziel. We made wine in ’92, we bottled it in ’95, it was a great success. Not many bottles – just about 600.

CB: How fast did you grow?

EBZ: We grew 2,000, 3,000 a year, and then eight, and then 12, 15, 20. By the year 2000, we made 80,000 bottles. Then we stayed around 80,000.

CB: Tell us a little about the terroir, the soils and the climate in the area that you make your wine.

EBZ: It’s a very good wine country. In fact, the region was making wine for the Temple thousands of years ago. It’s very good, it’s clay and limestone, it’s stony, it’s well drained because it’s hilly. It has a good influence from the sea compared to other regions, which are also very good, but different, like Upper Galilee and Golan Heights. They don’t have an influence from the sea because they are more continental. The days would be much warmer, but the nights also much cooler. They will have maybe more color and more body, but certainly they will lack the elegance that we have because of the influence of the sea, which is always keeping us at a balanced level of temperature. Usually, the heat is not too hot, and the summers are less cool, it’s true. Today, we can know the difference.

When I was the first to plant vines, by mistake maybe, in the Judean Hills in [the] modern era, today we have in dunam – a dunam is a 10th of a hectare – we have about 300 dunams, and the region has nearly 3,000 dunams. That means all the industry has understood the importance of the hills around Jerusalem and have planted vines.

CB: How many different wines are you making right now?

EBZ: We were making, at the beginning, one wine. In ’98, we added a second red wine. Our wines are blended wines with Bordeaux grapes, like cabernet, merlot, petit verdot, cabernet franc, malbec, they are always blended. The white is a chardonnay, 100 percent, barrel-fermented, classical Burgundy wine method. We’ve made a rosé for the past four years, which is merlot, cabernet franc, malbec – early picking, pressed like a white wine, and really it is very fresh and light, a nice summer drink.

CB: Tell us a little bit about the influences in terms of your winemaking. You mentioned that you made Bordeaux blends. Was that something intentional that you decided on, or how did you come about that?

EBZ: I really started making the things I like to drink. I was not bored drinking wine and, actually, I didn’t like it [at first] because I was given low-quality wine to taste. When I got into wine I was already in my thirties, and got more and more into gastronomy and drinking wine. When I decided to make some wine at home, it was really as a hobby.

CB: How would you say your wines are unique versus the other types of wines that are made in Israel?

EBZ: I don’t think I like the word unique in the sense that everyone is unique, not mine as opposed to the mass of the others. They’re also unique. As I said, what is very, very interesting is the terroir of the Judean Hills, the elegance of the wines. Someone was pointing out in an article I read lately that all the wines from Israel got top marks from Parker – the really “top, top” were Judean Hills wines. Somehow, at the end of the day, this is what appeals most, but then, I’m biased.

CB: Of course, of course. Is it a family business now?

EBZ: It is, yes. I have three kids. They aren’t kids anymore, the youngest is 41! They’re running the winery. I am the winemaker, but I have to ask for permission to do things. My daughter and my sons are in the business. I have a daughter and two sons. I let them make their own decisions.

I can say, at my age now, I can look back. I was led in that path without [the] intention … of becoming a winemaker or making a business of wine. I was led through that path by God, destiny – it’s hard to tell, but certainly I did things which, by chance, were firsts: the revival of the Judean Hills as a wine region, I brought the petit verdot first in Israel, I made blended wines when blended wines were the cheaper wines in the wineries in Israel and top wines were single varieties. I was lucky in the way I went, doing firsts.

– This article is reprinted courtesy of the Grape Collective, an online publication for all things wine. For more information, visit grapecollective.com.

Israel master chef hopes to foster peace through cooking

Nof Atamna-Ismaeel reacts to her win. (photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 from israel21c.org)

“This is the most exciting night of my life,” said a grinning, teary-eyed Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, upon her selection as winner of the fourth season of Master Chef Israel.

The April 5 broadcast had more than a third of Israel staying at home on a Saturday night to see who among the remaining three finalists would be crowned this year’s culinary champion of the most popular show on local television, even beating its close competition, Chef Games, which debuted this fall.

Israeli-Arab Atamna-Ismaeel ended up besting competitors Ido Kronenberg, a businessman from Savyon, and Meseret Woldimikhal, an Ethiopian-born immigrant in the process of converting from Catholicism to Judaism, who lives in Rishpon.

Atamna-Ismaeel was a judges’ favorite from the get-go. This year’s auditions for the show, based on the British reality program of the same name, involved two steps: a blind tasting of a sandwich prepared behind the scenes by a wannabe contestant, and a second dish cooked on screen by those whose sandwiches met with the judges’ approval.

Healing effects of medical clowns

Talia Safra and Nimrod Eisenberd of Hadassah Mt. Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem interact with a patient. (photo from Dream Doctors Project)

While clowns have brought smiles to the faces of many children, both healthy and sick, the latter clowning generally has been done on a volunteer basis and without the presence of a medical team. Recently, however, Israel became the first place in the world to recognize the medical benefits associated with positive attitude and laughter. Most Israeli hospitals now offer clown therapy and, due to its growing acceptance and success, the University of Haifa will be the first to offer a clown degree.

This all started with Jacob Shriqui, an Israeli shaliach to Geneva who went on to work in Israel’s health-care industry. Once he retired, Shriqui returned to visit some friends in Geneva and was invited to a meeting in a hospital in Lausanne. When he entered the hospital, he got lost and, in his wandering, he happened to walk by the pediatric department. To his surprise, he saw a giggling child out of the corner of his eye. Upon further investigation, he noticed the clown who was making the child smile.

“The idea came to him that if there is a thing like that, it should also be in Israel, because, until then, there was no medical clowning in Israel,” said Daniel Shriqui, Jacob’s son and past director of the Dream Doctor Project.

When he returned to Israel, Jacob Shriqui used his connections from the time he was stationed in Geneva to create the Magi Foundation, with its main function being the Dream Doctors Project in Israel. Built with the help of philanthropic members of the Jewish community in Geneva, in September 2001, the project started off with three clowns. After a year of experiments and positive feedback, he went from hospital to hospital proposing the concept.

“This is how we grew from three clowns to 127 today, in nearly every hospital in Israel,” said his son. “The main thing was, when my father came to the hospital, he said, ‘Look, we have a tool. It’s called a medical clown. We’re going to give him all the best training we can, and you’re going to try this tool like any other medical device. We don’t know exactly what it does or whether or not it will be effective. If it’s not, you can end the project whenever you want. If it is, you have to take on the responsibility of operating it.’”

From the start, the medical clowns in the hospitals were part of the medical team, a situation desired both by the hospitals and by the clowns.

“We work as part of the medical team because we believe that medical clowning is a medical profession, just like any other, and that it can be very successful,” said Daniel Shriqui. “But first, we had to convince the doctors and nurses of the benefits of having a clown when you take blood from the veins of a child. The child doesn’t cry because the clown is acting and playing with him.

photo - David Shilman (Dream Doctors) playing with his patient, and the nurse at Rambam Medical Centre, Haifa — David Shilman (Dream Doctors) playing with his patient, and the nurse at Rambam Medical Centre, Haifa. (photo from Dream Doctors Project)

“Another example is when a child is taken for a repair surgery after being sexually abused. Typically, the first test after that is done by the doctor, and by the clown paralleling, and everything is recorded.

“We see it really facilitating the work, and being able to work more smoothly with the children, [and] with the parents, too.”

Another part of the hospital-clown agreement is that the hospital gets the clowns’ services for one year for free with no obligation and no contract. If after one year, the hospital is happy with the results and wants to continue with the project, the hospital needs to start participating in the payment for the clown services.

“We knew we were here to stay when, last year, the head of the Ministry of Health in Israel called and said, ‘I need your clowns immediately,’” explained Shriqui. “‘We’re going to vaccinate all the children in Israel under nine years old for polio. We’re going to open almost 1,000 vaccination stations and I need all your staff, more than 100 clowns, to be present in the station to help us to do this.’” For the first three months, most of the clowns went from station to station and helped the nurses vaccinate the children.

“I suggested to one of the biggest hospitals in Israel, two years ago, that they use a clown in the oncology department for adults,” said Shriqui. “A few months ago, there was a budget problem and the hospital told the department we have to stop the clown service. A week later, the hospital manager received a letter signed by 70 patients, doctors and nurses, protesting against no longer having the clowns come to the unit twice a week. They explained why it is so very important, that the clowns transform the unit from a sad [one] to more positive.”

The increasing demand for hospital clowns is coming from within the medical field. The project works to fill the requests for services, but sometimes hospital budgets do get in the way.

“Especially in the oncology department, the children often are in the hospital for a really long time,” said Shriqui. “Unfortunately, many times it ends by the death of the child. But, during these months, sometimes years, there is a special relationship formed between the clown and the child, because our clowns work at the same place for years.

“In Israel, it’s a bit different…. The clown gives their own private cellphone numbers to the parents. I remember one case where the parents called a clown when he was off duty, at home, and said, ‘Listen, tomorrow we have to go to chemo and we’d like you to come assist, because the child asked that you to be there.’”

The project held a conference in October 2011, where clowns from around the world came to Israel.

“We help many clowns that come from all over the world and work with us to learn how to do this work better with medical teams, and then to be really involved in the processes and the medical treatments,” said Shriqui. “My philosophy is that a clown has to work freely. To get the best from the clown, you have to free him to be part of the team – and we have proof that if you free the clown, even to be in the operating room, you get unbelievable results.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Bubble tea: artsy, tasty sugar fix

Tapioca pearls cluster at the bottom of a green apple Calpis green tea. (photo by Lauren Kramer)

It’s a typical summer barbeque scene: parents clustered in groups catching up on each other’s lives and kids running amok in games of barefoot tag, stopping only briefly for refreshments as afternoon turns to evening. When they refuel, though, it’s bubble tea they’re reaching for, that sweet, sticky, frothy beverage that’s slurped through giant straws. Part meal, with its candy-like tapioca beans, and part beverage, bubble tea has become a natural choice for many kids and preteens. A mixture of fruit juice and tea, it’s a drink that’s both a plaything and a thirst quencher. What’s more, it delivers an explosion of flavor, an instant sugar rush that’s as fun to drink as it is to look at.

“At bubble tea shops, young people are ordering their bubble tea the way coffee aficionados order their Starbucks,” said Julia Montague, a bubble tea fan and my companion on this hot afternoon. We’ve just taken a seat at Zephyr Tea House in Richmond (7911 Alderbridge Way), positioning our massive pink straws into a shared glass of taro milk tea. A burst of taste that can only be likened to a gummy candy milkshake hits our palates, an energizing, refreshing encounter that brings us right back to childhood.

Enter a bubble tea shop and you have to be decisive. First choice is the type of tea – black, green, milk or herbal? Each category has some 30 varieties, from kiwi black to mango green, pudding milk to sesame and hazelnut milk. Once you’ve narrowed that down, you choose the bubbles you want: pearl, otherwise known as tapioca balls, coconut jelly, pudding, grass jelly or coffee jelly. Finally, you determine if you want your tea hot or cold.

We order a tall glass of Zephyr milk tea next, the house special that comes with coffee jelly, black sugar, creamer and black tea, served with whipped cream on top. The mocha-colored drink is punctuated by balls of black jelly, delivering another major whammy of sweetness – one that almost demands a food accompaniment, just to neutralize the sugar.

Bubble tea made its first inauspicious appearance in Taiwan in the 1980s, when some food entrepreneur mixed the light taste of tea with fruit flavoring, shaking it up to even out the flavors and naming it for the bubbles that would form when the mixture was combined. Later, someone reinforced the name by adding tapioca balls to the drink, as well as a large straw through which they could be consumed.

The beverage became a hit, particularly with younger folk. Bubble tea shops started popping up all over Asia and in parts of North America heavily populated by Asian immigrants, like Vancouver and Richmond, where you don’t have to search hard to find bubble tea and, when you find it, it’s eye candy in the purest form.

At the Pearl Castle Café (3779 Sexsmith Rd.), which is not far from Zephyr, the bubble tea menu features an entire page of listings for each of the black, green, milk and green milk tea. Between innovative flavors like green apple Calpis green tea, tangerine green tea with dried plum, caramel green milk tea and wheat germ green milk tea, it’s hard to narrow it down.

Our Calpis tea arrives looking like a piece of art. A layer of beer-like foam sits on the top, the drink’s bright green hue contrasts with the black tapioca pearls that cluster at the bottom. For contrast, we try hot jasmine green tea, whose soothing, subtle jasmine flavor is combined with sweetened condensed milk, providing another major sugar rush.

We exit the restaurant fired up with energy and ready to take on the day, a heady mixture of calories and sugar coursing through us as four tall glasses of bubble tea work their way through our bodies. One thing’s for sure: this is no end-of-the-day soother.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

This week’s cartoon … July 11/14

For more cartoons, visit thedailysnooze.com.

Evidence for and against pot

Standing, from left to right, are panel facilitator Michael Levy, CFHU board member Stav Adler, Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt, Prof. Raphael Mechoulam and Dr. Kathryn Selby. (photo by Michelle Dodek)

It may be a common occurrence in many parts of the city, but it is still a rare thing to pass through marijuana smoke while entering an Orthodox synagogue. But that was the case on June 24, when a panel discussion took place at Schara Tzedeck on the topic Should I Change My Mind About Weed? A small number of attendees, unsatisfied with a merely academic consideration of the topic, opted for a more psychoactive engagement.

The director of the local Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, Dina Wachtel, was inspired to convene a panel on marijuana after watching Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s CNN documentary on the topic.

Prof. Raphael Mechoulam, a Hebrew University chemist and a leading expert on the subject, said that marijuana has been used in societies from India and China to the Middle East “forever.” Queen Victoria’s doctor, J. Russell Reynolds, used it to treat the queen’s migraines.

Mechoulam said that cannabidiol (CBD), a component in marijuana, may have medical uses “in almost all diseases affecting humans.” Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the component that causes a high, CBD does not deliver a high and has no known side effects. However, there have been almost no clinical trials on humans, probably because pharmaceutical corporations would not be able to patent it and governments, for various reasons, have avoided the matter.

Cannabinoid receptors are abundant in multiple brain regions, he said, including those affecting movement control, learning and memory, stress, cognitive function and links between cerebral hemispheres. Marijuana can impact appetite, blood pressure, cerebral blood flow, the immune system and inflammation.

In tests on mammals, such as mice, marijuana reduced brain trauma and reduced or eliminated cancerous tumors. There was a clinical trial on its use around epilepsy and its effect on patients experiencing 10 to 30 seizures per day. Cannabinoids were tested on people for whom existing drugs do not work and resulted in positive outcomes in large numbers of adult patients. “This is the only clinical trial that has ever been reported – 35 years ago,” he said.

Infants undergoing cancer treatment that causes vomiting were given small amounts of THC. “We saw a complete stop of all vomiting and nausea,” with no side effects, he said.

In treatment of schizophrenia, current drugs have some extremely unpleasant side effects, he noted, while CBD has none. Even so, in most jurisdictions, marijuana is in the same legal category as heroin.

Dr. Kathryn Selby, a clinical professor in the University of British Columbia’s pediatrics department specializing in developmental neurosciences, spoke on marijuana’s effect on the adolescent brain. She spoke of the “enormous plasticity of the teen brain” and said that THC can alter the brain’s structure and function, and that the neurotoxic effects can be lifelong. Maturing of the human brain continues into the 20s, she explained, and the prefrontal cortex, which involves judgment and executive functions, develops last. There are two peaks in brain maturation and cerebral volume, happening in early childhood and then, for boys, at age 14-and-a-half and, for girls, at 11-and-a-half. Trauma, stress, substance abuse and sedentary habits can negatively affect development.

The effects of marijuana use in the short term can be loss of motivation, fatigue and, in about 10 percent of users, addiction. Neuroimaging indicates that the longer-term impact of marijuana use by adolescents is strongly associated with psychoses such as schizophrenia later in life. Selby said there is a 40 percent increase in prevalence of psychosis among users, with a 50 to 200 percent increase in psychoses among heavy users and, among those who use marijuana daily during high school, there is a 600 percent increase in depression and anxiety later in life. Correlations also include lowered IQ, intellectual and emotional issues.

The frontal lobe, which is not completely formed by adolescence, is also the most affected by alcohol and drugs and leaves users vulnerable to the “adverse developmental, cognitive, psychiatric and addictive effects of marijuana.” Selby recommended that, if marijuana is used at all, that it be “as late and as little as possible.”

Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt, Schara Tzedeck Synagogue’s spiritual leader, also has a biochemistry degree. Although the Torah does not say anything specifically about marijuana, Rosenblatt made the comparison to what the Torah and Talmud say about other forms of altered states, particularly drunkenness. If there were any questions about the severity of potential outcomes from inebriation, Rosenblatt said, the drunkenness and castration of Noah is a cautionary tale.

Rosenblatt also mentioned the story of Lot, whose daughters got him drunk and seduced him, resulting in Amnon and Moab, who were both Lot’s sons and grandsons. Rosenblatt cited it as an indication that drunkenness and disinhibition is to be avoided.

The holiday of Purim is of particular interest in this discussion and Rosenblatt said there is a modern interpretation of the old dictum that Jews should become so drunk on Purim that they cannot tell the difference between the names of the villain Haman and the hero Mordechai. The modern view, the rabbi said, is to drink a little, get tired, fall asleep and, when asked who is Haman and who is Mordechai, to roll over and snore.

Rabbis in recent years have overwhelmingly concurred that use of, say, morphine for terminal patients is justified, but the use of untested alternative measures is not.

“Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal evidence,” said Rosenblatt. If studies indicate that marijuana were clinically proven to assist in recovery or treatment for various diseases, he said, it would almost certainly become acceptable.

photo - Raphael Mechoulam at CKNW — Prof. Raphael Mechoulam at CKNW. *(photo from CFHU)*

The panel was moderated by Michael Levy, CKNW radio and Global TV personality. Stav Adler, president of CFHU Vancouver chapter, introduced the evening. Hodie Kahn, president of Schara Tzedeck, invited the audience to stay around for munchies after the event.

Were minds changed? After Mechoulam’s presentation, he received an enthusiastic standing ovation from about half the audience of 200 or so. After her presentation, Selby was greeted with polite applause, while one man jumped to his feet.

Pat Johnson is a Vancouver writer and principal in PRsuasiveMedia.com.

Through blues to happiness with Jill Newman

Jill Newman at Cottage Bistro May 9 singing from her new CD, Lovestruck Blues. (photo by John Endo Greenaway)

Happiness. Perhaps ironically, Jill Newman’s performance at the release party for her latest CD, Lovestruck Blues, exuded happiness. The May 9 show at Cottage Bistro featured bright vocals, skilful (and electric) electric-guitar playing, cheerful interactions with the audience and a playlist of well-written, original songs, many about finding love, but also about losing it – even these, though, exhibit optimism, finding the courage and strength to be on one’s own and true to one’s heart.

Newman’s talents as a songwriter and musician were obvious in her debut recording, Fragile Walls, in 2004. The review in the Independent (“A garden of musical delights,” April 22, 2005) ended with the comment, “It’s been a long road for Newman to reach this creative milestone. Hopefully, it’s the first of many.” A decade later, Lovestruck Blues is another welcome milestone – and there’s nothing fragile about it. It exhibits the confidence and contentment of someone who has, so to speak, come out the other side. As Newman writes in the CD booklet, “It is the story of my journey – of turning my world upside down, taking some risks and being blissfully happy for having done so.”

image - Lovestruck Blues CD cover — *Lovestruck Blues* is Jill Newman’s second CD.

During the period between releases, Newman told the Independent, a lot changed for her personally and musically. “My first CD was the culmination of many years of dreaming of making my own recordings,” she explained. “I was going through a difficult time in my life, including a breakup, so the songs were really all about loss and heartbreak. I had a great producer who took care of almost everything for me, from arranging the songs to organizing and directing the entire recording process.

“Today, I’m in a much better place personally, having just gotten married a few years ago and feeling happy. That does present some challenges for writing the blues – as lately I’ve been writing happy blues songs. I produced Lovestruck Blues myself with support from my engineer, Marc L’Esperance. I made all the final decisions in terms of how I wanted the recording to sound and directed the recording sessions in Seattle and Vancouver. I was not going for a retro sound, but that’s really what comes out. I’ve played in everything from country, punk, blues and even an all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band, so I’m quite eclectic in my approach to music. I’m often told that my music should be in soundtracks for Quentin Tarantino’s films, the less happy songs, that is.

“I’m most at home in front of a live audience rather than in the studio, as I really enjoy the energy and the interaction between the audience and the band,” she added. “I’ve been doing lots of performances and my live shows are definitely stronger than they were 10 years ago. I’ve also been doing quite a bit of vocal work over the past few years. Songwriting is always a challenge, with lots of hours spent struggling with lyrics – I still tend to write the music first or jointly with the words and then fine tune the lyrics.”

Lovestruck Blues includes 10 original songs, one of which – “Too Hard to Handle” – was co-written with Vancouver actor, artist, director, playwright and songwriter Lynna Goldhar Smith.

“I’m originally from Wisconsin, but immigrated to Vancouver Island with my family as a teen. I spent about 25 years living in the Vancouver area, with some brief stints in Washington,” said Newman about her community connections. “I was raised in a secular Jewish household with no religious upbringing, but I identify culturally as Jewish. My most valued connection to the Jewish community was my past involvement with the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture. My daughter, Michelle, participated as a young teen in the b’nai mitzvah program, which was a great experience for both of us. I also enjoyed singing in the Jewish Folk Choir and participating in the Peretz programming.

“I’ve worked for Jewish Family Service Agency in Vancouver and in Seattle and participated in advocacy to address poverty in the Jewish community in Vancouver. I combine my work as a professional guitarist, singer and songwriter with my part-time work as a therapist with teens who are struggling with mental health issues. When I have spare time, I enjoy being in the outdoors kayaking or sailing.”

photo - Jill Newman and her daughter, Michelle Baynton, at the Lovestruck Blues CD release — Jill Newman and her daughter, Michelle Baynton, at the *Lovestruck Blues* CD release. *(photo by John Endo Greenaway)*

A woman with many abilities and interests, Newman’s musical path also started somewhere other than where it led.

“I started in music playing classical flute at age 9 and got involved in community symphony and jazz combos as I got older, with a stint studying jazz in college,” she told the Independent. “My first stringed instrument was the banjo, followed by the acoustic guitar and pedal steel [guitar], but when I first plugged in an electric guitar (Stratocaster copy) at age 15, I was totally hooked. I loved the sound and the power of the electric guitar, especially turned up loud with distortion. A friend who’d been in rock bands taught me how to bend the strings properly and I began specializing in playing lead guitar – something very few girls were doing when I was a teen.

“I played constantly and learned everything I could figure out by Heart, Aerosmith, Yes and Led Zeppelin, but I also started writing my own songs and performing in coffeehouses. By my early 20s, I was making a living as a full-time professional guitarist and, other than recovering from a hand injury, I’ve never stopped playing. I feel strongly that we need more female electric guitarist role models and I volunteered as a guitar instructor for Vancouver Girls Rock Camp in 2012.”

And what draws Newman to the blues? “It’s the raw emotion and the simplicity of the music that grabs me,” she said, reiterating, “I’ve had a longstanding love of the electric guitar and, when I first began listening to blues players like Freddie King and Eric Clapton, I was blown away by the expressiveness of their playing. In recent years, I’ve been focusing a lot on slide guitar, which has a range of expression that emulates the human voice and beyond. There’s nothing more soulful than Roy Rogers playing slide guitar on Elmore James’ song ‘The Sky is Crying,’ or almost anything by Ry Cooder or Derek Trucks.”

Part of the fun of the Cottage Bistro CD release party – in which she was accompanied on stage by Loren Etkin on drums and Brian Scott on bass – was the seemingly spontaneous invitation by

Newman for her daughter, Michelle Baynton, and Cecile Larochelle to join her in a couple of the songs they each performed with Newman on Lovestruck Blues.

“One of the things that was the most special about making this new CD,” Newman admitted, “was getting a chance to record with my daughter, Michelle. She’s just finishing her opera degree at UBC and, despite my doing a very different style of music, we get a lovely vocal blend together. Michelle sang background vocals on my songs, ‘Everything Will Change’ and ‘Without You.’”

Newman, along with Etkin and Cameron Hood (bass), will perform next on July 14, 9 p.m., at Guilt & Co., 1 Alexander St., in Vancouver. For other upcoming performances, keep an eye on jillnewman.net, sign up to receive email updates or like the Jill Newman Blues Facebook page.

With respect to assisted suicide, context is everything

I am an oncologist, and I am Jewish. Fortunately, at this moment, I am not terminally ill, nor do I bear an incurable disease. By virtue of my profession and my age, death, suffering and the indignity that can go with it are familiar to me.

That is my perspective. I lead with that declaration because, when it comes to the business of assisted suicide, context is everything.

The rationale for actively ending a life is always posited on the basis of ending suffering and, hence, preserving dignity. At face value, this appears both straightforward and without controversy. It is not. Whose suffering? What is dignity, and is it realistic to provide some idealized form of dignity in every instance, try as we may? Who is to judge? When to decide, and when to act? Who is to act, and on what authority?

Some years ago, at a palliative-care conference in Israel, I was riveted by a panel where Anglican, Catholic and Jewish physicians discussed suffering. The ordained Anglican, a highly respected surgeon, spoke of the purifying nature of suffering and its role in preparing people for the afterlife. For him, the total relief of pain was at cross-purposes with the spiritual transit of the end of life. For me, as a Jew, this was a striking perspective, certainly far from my understanding that pain of this sort had little redeeming value. Lesson No. 1: Cultural context is important.

More recently, I was asked to see a young man dying of cancer, whose pain seemed uncontrollable. He was desperate to go home. The complex logistics of pain management and support appeared to make this impossible. What to do? We talked, initially rather guardedly, then more openly. It turned out that, more than anything else, he wanted to see his dog. That was why he wanted to go home, for the absence tormented him. We arranged for the dog to make a hospital visit. The pain went away. My patient died quite comfortably in his hospital bed a few days later. Lesson No. 2: Understand the pain; you may be able to relieve it.

Almost 30 years ago, a small group of Winnipeg cancer physicians asked what was then a heretical question: Are we treating cancer, independent of the patient, or are we treating a patient who happens to have cancer? We created the “quality of life” concept, and objective measures of it. What happened to the tumor became less important than what happened to the person – physically, emotionally, socially and functionally. We broadened our understanding of our patients, and so were born the diverse range of interventions and supports we now routinely employ to more than keep people alive. We help our patients live lives. Lesson No. 3: It’s about the person, not the disease.

“Assisted suicide” is a euphemism for ending someone else’s life. Every civilized society holds life sacred. The idea of “Thou shalt not kill” echoes in every faith. The penalties for killing are severe, mitigated by an understanding of intent. Whenever we introduce a legal exception, we run into trouble. Similar arguments about relieving suffering were used by the Nazis to justify first exterminating the weakened and disabled, then the mentally ill, and then non-Aryans on the regime’s hell-bent descent into depravity. In order to execute the policy, a cohort of licensed killers was created. This, in a society once considered the world’s most sophisticated and cultured. Lesson No. 4: Assisted suicide is not a legal matter, it’s a moral one, and we can’t legislate morality.

So, where does this bring me in the consideration of assisted suicide? Full circle, to my ancient role as physician. Not as medical technician, nor as the master of prognostic statistics, derived from groups somehow extrapolated to an individual. I am a member of the one profession whose essential role invokes individual life and death decisions, and acts on risks that necessarily include adverse outcomes causing pain and suffering and death. I’m not doing my job unless I understand context, cause and possibility when it comes to suffering. That takes time, patience and experience. The responsibility is a great harbinger of humility.

Each dying patient has their own context and belief frame for their “suffering.” Each case has its own mix of causes, and things that make it worse or better. My contention is that when we fully understand what’s going on, it is rare that suffering can’t be greatly palliated. It then follows that the perceived need to end life to alleviate suffering is a very rare occurrence.

In this most intimate and delicate interaction between patient and physician, the physician also has context and values. I don’t think they can be legislated away.

For me, as a Jew and as a physician, I can give morphine to relieve pain, but not to end a life. I come down against legalizing assisted suicide as a product of my faith, culture, training and experience. Put as a dichotomy, I’m prepared that a few might suffer more than they can bear, rather than countenance in the name of some kind of generosity of spirit the active taking of a life. I know from history, and I have seen too much of the slippery slope of convenience, to find confidence in any permissive legislative process.

Harvey Schipper is a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. This article originally appeared in the Globe and Mail.