Annabel Cohen

2 months ago | vashtimedia.com | Francesca Newton |Evan Robins |Annabel Cohen

The Pickle — 4 min read Earlier this week, Israel’s police arrested Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna – the owner and his nephew, respectively, of the Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem – and raided two of their shops. (Mahmoud is the co-editor of Daybreak in Gaza, from which Vashti published an excerpt last October). The police confiscated dozens of the shop’s Arabic and English books, looking for anything with the word Palestine or the Palestinian flag.

2 months ago | vashtimedia.com | Evan Robins |Annabel Cohen |Matthew Gordon

The Pickle — 3 min read Once, during the Boris Johnson years, I asked my dad if politics had ever felt as weird to him as it did then. He came of age in the 1980s, with Thatcher and Heseltine and Foot and Scargill. Whatever you think of their respective politics, these were big characters, at times almost self-satirising.

Sep 12, 2023 | thejewishnews.com | Annabel Cohen

Add flavor, color and texture to your traditional end-the-fast Yom Kippur meals. The break-fast meal that ends Yom Kippur is perhaps the most-anticipated meal of the High Holidays. After 25 hours of fasting, most of us enjoy a dairy meal — but don’t forget the bagels and lox!Yet break-fast food should not be confused with breakfast choices. This meal, traditionally eaten at sundown after Yom Kippur, is more of a brunch, and time-tested options are in order.

Aug 30, 2023 | thejewishnews.com | Annabel Cohen

These dishes offer a bit of flair – to liven up the same old same old. Apples and honey: Some aspects of holiday eating simply must not be altered and, often, we serve the same dishes year after year. Don’t get me wrong, tradition and customs are excellent and comforting features of the Jewish way of life. They make us feel part of a family, a group, a culture. Still, each year I get questions regarding serving something else, something a bit different, new or modern.

Aug 24, 2023 | thejewishnews.com | Annabel Cohen

Blending new, traditional holiday recipes are a wonderful way to start the year. Rosh Hashanah is early this year — Sept. 16 and 17, so it’s time to get ready. Our holidays usually come with many symbolic foods, including honey, round challahs, apples dipped in honey and, of course, dinner with many holiday favorites. For some, Rosh Hashanah dinner begins with gefilte fish and matzah ball soup. Others, like me, like to mix it up. Soup and fish are optional at my table.