Steven Cook

Sep 23, 2024 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Mitch Albom |Michael Solomonov |Steven Cook |Frances Malino

Whether you’re hosting a meal this year, attending services, or kibitzing with loved ones over how best to keep those apple slices looking fresh for guests, we hope you’re ushering in the new year with sweetness and perseverance. As JBCers, we always bring reading suggestions (asked or unasked for) to the High Holiday festivities we attend. So this year we’re putting together a Rosh Hashanah tasting menu that we hope can add flavor, spice, and something for everyone to chew on this holiday season.

Sep 23, 2024 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Michael Sandler |Diane Kistner |Michael Solomonov |Steven Cook

Last December, I learned that there was a single Jewish family living in a remote village in the vast, southern region of Argentina known as Patagonia. I was knee-deep in research for my university thesis on rural Jewish communities in Argentina when I heard about their story. The Garodniks were the only Jewish family for hundreds of miles around and they had been living in their hometown, Chimpay, for three generations.

Sep 23, 2024 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Michael Solomonov |Steven Cook

Pistachio Sticky BunsMakes 1 dozenThis is the most popular pastry we sell at K’far, Zahav’s sister restaurant in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. ​“K’far” means ​“village” in Hebrew, and our ​“village” embraces both the town of K’far Saba in Israel, where Mike began to cook, as well as the Israeli restaurant village we’ve built in Philly. We use an Asian method called tangzhong, which involves first cooking a portion of the flour and liquid together, creating a fluffier dough that stays fresher longer.

Sep 20, 2024 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Michael Solomonov |Steven Cook

This past year in the US, we’ve seen censorship on a level we thought we’d left behind decades ago. Book events canceled, online harassment, boycott lists. Each day, we hear more stories of books being banned in schools, book clubs, even bookstores, for a variety of reasons. Our authors have been on the front lines, and Jewish Book Council is there to support them. September 22 to 28 marks Banned Books week, and it feels all the more salient this year for Jewish authors.

Sep 17, 2024 | jewishbookcouncil.org | Dan Ben-Amos |Michael Solomonov |Steven Cook |A. R. Vishny

Okay, but what’s an estrie? It’s the single most common question I get, whenever I mention they’re the subject of my debut novel, Night Owls. The short answer is that they are Judaism’s vampires: women who appear as ordinary members of the community, but feed on the blood of unwitting men. They can shapeshift; and they can fly when their hair is let down; they are healed by bread and salt; the recommended way to kill one is to bury her.