I have enjoyed now for the second time in a week the most delicious breakfast: Eggs and Bacon.

Now hold a second, Rabbi, bacon is trief! Or so I thought.

Jewlicious Festival veteran, and supervisor of culinary arts at the Festival’s VIP wine tasting, Chaim Davids, delivered to me as a house warming gift a package of his home-made Lamb Bacon. LAMB BACON!

Davids is the chef behind The Kitchen Table in Mountain View, CA:

The Kitchen Table serves California Artisinal cuisine with a twist: We are the only certified glatt Kosher restaurant in northern California. We dairy-free and peanut-free, and use only the freshest ingredients. All breads are baked on premises, and the pastrami and corned beef are cured and smoked in-house.

I have not made the pilgrimage to TKT, but those who have – including many of the guests I met at Herzog Wine Cellar’s Tierra Sur Resturant for the Lorne Mackillop & Tomintoul Whisky Dinner last week – rave in superlatives about TKT.

I came across a quote by Anthony Bourdain: “If you want to make people happy, give them bacon.” I get it now. The umami alone is enough to beg for more.

Thank you Chaim Davids, thank you TKT, thank you Rachel. Good Shabbos.

Larry is one of the 1000 faces of Jewlicious Festival.

Larry Forman from Louisville, Kentucky, raises money locally each year to fund his trip to Jewlicious — which he has done the with friends for the last two years. Larry is a leader of Jewish student life in Louisville, and was representing at the GA.

Tickets for Jewlicious Festival go on-sale sometime Monday evening at www.brownpapertickets.com

Congratulations to Ari Teman and JCorps for winning the UJC Heroes contest! Rabbi Yonah, the top vote getter, got nearly 20% of all the votes and the Jewlicious community kicked ass and took no prisoners, but lets not be sad! We were in very august company, Rabbi Yonah got great visibility, we all had a brilliant opportunity to show him and Rachel and the whole Bookstein clan some love, and really, next to that, $25,000 is chump change! Now fuck that noise and lets get ready to ruuuuumble! Jewlicious Festival 06 is coming up – February 19th in Long Beach California. See ya there!

I received this note from Becca Neril, a very active member of Jewlicious during her tenure as an undergrad at the Claremont Colleges, and one of the Jewish leaders on campus. She brought nearly 50 students to the festival last year, thanks to her organizing. Becca is working in Chicago, with AVODAH. Needless to say – we are very inspired by Becca and her work.

Dear friends and family,

Two blocks away from my apartment, on the street where my grandfather attended high school, there are eight deciduous trees whose flaming red and golden yellow leaves rustle in the Chicago autumnal wind. I woke up on Saturday morning to bare ivy vines lining the outside of our apartment windows and to the last remaining leaves, now auburn and dusty brown, solitarily swaying on the now bare tree branches. O how I love the fall here!

This email has been in the works for the past…two months. I have only recently gotten around to finishing it, hence the delayed update on my post-college adventures. In late August, I moved to Chicago to be part of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, which is an intensive Jewish learning program that seeks to educate the Corps Members about how Judaism relates to social justice. I am working full time at a Jewish anti-poverty organization called The Ark, which provides vital human services to the Chicago Jewish community. The Ark has a free community medical clinic, dental clinic, pharmacy, kosher food pantry, job placement and legal services, transitional housing for the homeless, psychological services, and intensive day program for mentally ill patients. Let me just say that I LOVE my job. My boss is so so so wonderful and everyone is really friendly at work. Because I am the youngest person on staff, some of the staff consider me like their own daughter. One case manager, for example, has already tried to set me up with her friend’s son!

My days at work focus mainly around food and drugs. The Ark is home to the largest kosher food pantry in the Midwest and I get to spend two hours every day filling clients’ orders and unpacking and checking hechshers on donated food items. I also have my own caseload of clients who I help prepare for their visit to the food pantry. I often reflect on how for many of these clients, handing us their shopping list strips them of some of their dignity. They are not able to complete one of the most basic tasks-that of supplying food for their family-and have to submit to other people to pick out their food for them. Whenever possible, I ask clients if they want crunchy or creamy peanut butter or whole wheat or white pasta in an attempt to give them back some autonomy that I feel they have lost. I often mull over these ethical issues and would love to discuss them with you! In terms of drugs-I work to secure free medications for our clients by enrolling them in patient assistance programs. I don’t have too many juicy stories about the pharmaceutical companies.

In short-I LOVE my job and I LOVE being part of AVODAH. If you are ever in the Chicago area, please give me a call or email! Also, I would love to hear any updates on your life adventures, whatever they may be.

Warmly,

Becca

We just were supersized.

Our new shabbat tent at Phish Fest! Check it out! In the Lamb on Broadway site next to camping headquarters! Corner of Carpet Crawlers and Gabriel Eno streets.

Thank you camping staff!

After we had to move – fire Marshall orders- they felt bad and gave us this. I joked that this is what happened to our ancestors in Europe. But in Anatevka try didnt get such nice digs.

So sweet and so kind. Shabbat Shalom Y’all from the desert.

We are in the final hours of a contest that I never thought I would be in—let alone be leading. However, thanks to amazing support from around the world, we are a couple thousand votes shy of our goal.

The winner of the UJC Heroes Contest receives $25,000 to donate to the charity of their choice. I have pledged to expand Jewlicious Festival if we win, doing more than ever before.

Can you spare a few seconds to vote? To post a link on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace?

Jewlicious Festival is a place in time for young Jews to gather, to explore, to celebrate being Jewish. It’s an event unlike any other in Jewish history, uniting people from across ethnic, social, religious and political lines.

Jewlicious is Woodstock, Jewish Summer Camp, Mt. Sinai and Burning Man rolled into three non-stop days. We had 1,000 participants last year in just one location – we hope to bring the experience to 10,000 more.

Please – take a second to vote, and spread the good news – Jewlicious Festival, a place of unity that we so badly need in the Jewish world today, is leading the UJC Hero Contest and only a few votes from our goal of 100,000.

Please – pass the word. Don’t delay – we have only until tonight, 9pm PST.

Vote now! http://bit.ly/18HEXA

Check out this Tribute Video also placed below: http://bit.ly/2rMwyy

May all your dreams and prayers this year be realized.

Barbara Babbs Streisand played an exclusive show recently at the Village Gate. Over 40 years since she first audition there, was turned down, then became the Streisand that world loves.

Another Jewish musician played the Village Gate, and was not turned down, and recorded that session for eternity. Shlomo Carlebach’s At the Village Gate remains one of his best live albums, complete with glasses breaking in the background. Recorded in 1963 – 46 years ago – it highlights an era when a Jewish folksinger could be a proud Jew amid the cacophony of movements for social change.

At Jewlicious Festival we highlight contemporary Jewish folksingers whenever we can. They connect with the Festival’s vibe, and bring joy and humor to the stage. They compliment the rock, rap, dj’s, hip-hop, fusion, jazz, and other styles you can find.

If you know a Jewish folksinger that we should have at Jewlicious – shoot us an email. While we don’t have a budget to fly them in, we have spots on the schedule for a handful of up and coming folksingers.

Jewlicious Festival 6.0 – Feb. 19-21, 2010 – Long Beach CA
Tickets go on sale in November!

Tu B’Av is an ancient day of Jewish romance and celebrating the love in our lives on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Av. It’s older than St. Valentine’s Day and Sadie Hawkins Day by a few thousand years. We dusted off this gem of a Holyday which had seen little activity here in LA, and together with JconnectLA created LoveFest last. Over 300 people jammed into the event last year, so we realized that we were intoan annual event, and we had to take this one higher than ever before.

Enter the totally cool and hip vibe at Bungalow Club, on Melrose, Los Angeles’s hipster road. Add some of the best Jewish music in the country: Moshav, Rav Shmuel, Dov Rosenblatt (Blue Fringe), DJ Eric Rosen, DJ Cajami. We have a vendor fair with interesting swag, delicious ala carte dining, special Love Fest drinks at recession prices, and HurryDate®. HurryDate® speed dating is a great way to meet lots of new people in a quick, fun, no-pressure environment. They hold speed dating parties for Jewish singles in cities all across the US each week.

JconnectLA presents a LoveFest of cosmic proportions this year on WED. AUG 5, 8PM. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Hosted by The Bungalow Club, and sponsors Jdate and HurryDate®, LeDoVaDor, JewC, Modern Tribe and Cool Jew.
Make sure to buy your tickets soon for LoveFest – it’ a mini-Jewlicious Festival in the middle of LA, with a full bar.

One Day (new single)

Check out Rob Eshman’s article “ONE DAY” in the Jewish Journal for a backstage look at Matisyahu’s tour this year.

I have seen the Jewish future — it’s loud, and hypnotic, and it reeks of pot.

Last week, for two nights, I became a groupie. The singer Matisyahu came into my life just when I needed him most, and I followed him, like a Deadhead after Jerry Garcia, for two days and two nights.

Matisyahu has a few more shows before his tour is over – it’s been a great tour. Hope you can catch it.