Jewish Journal; June 22, 2009
Read original here
Suzanne Tracht, executive chef and owner of Los Angeles chophouse, Jar, will feed hungry locals (although not necessarily her creations, to their misfortune) after winning both the Quickfire Challenge and elimination challenge of the second episode of “Top Chef Masters,” a new spin-off of Bravo’s popular cooking competition, “Top Chef.” The new show is designed for chefs who have already achieved their fame the old-fashioned way.
Challenged to create a dish inspired by the television show “Lost” using ingredients that could be found on a remote island, Tracht conceived of shrimp and coconut risotto. While surviving a deserted island may not be conducive to kosher eats (her recipe incorporates shrimp, sea urchins, clams, prawns, and oyster), the dish made-up for it by winning $10,000 earmarked for tzedakah.
Tracht will help locals survive the city through her charity of choice, SOVA, a non-sectarian program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles dedicated to alleviating hunger and poverty in part through its three food pantries, one of which is located a few blocks away from Jar on Beverly Boulevard.
“Sova is part of my community, and with the economy being as it is, there is more of a need to help those less fortunate by providing food,” Tracht told the Journal through e-mail.
A member of Temple Israel of Hollywood, Tracht’s contributions to SOVA, alongside her other charitable endeavors, is her way of giving back to the community. She’s considered one of the leading women chefs in the US; since Jar’s opening in 2001, the restaurant has earned international recognition and been inducted into the Fine Dining Hall of Fame by Nation’s Restaurant News in May 2007. Jar’s sister chophouse, Tracht’s, is located at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel.
Tracht’s winning recipe earned her a place in the champion round of the competition, where the six winners of previous episodes will cook-off for the grand prize of $100,000 and the title of Top Chef Master.
“Of course I want to win as a chef, but I also want to win for SOVA,” she said.
How does she plan to take the title?
“By doing what I do best: I will cook from my heart.”
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tying the Knot After 40
Jewish Journal; June 17, 2009
Read original here
To rephrase the opening line of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”: It is a truth universally acknowledged — especially by Jewish mothers — that a Jewish single man in possession of a good fortune and over the age of 35 must be in want of a wife ... who is in her 20s.
Matchmakers can substantiate this apparent truth with their own experience.
“Men explicitly say to me they want significantly younger women, no matter what age they are,” said Judith Gottesman, founder of Berkeley-based Soul Mates Unlimited, a statewide matchmaking service. “For men in their late 30s and up, it’s an issue for them.”
Ilana Gutman, owner of Global Match, an Encino matchmaking service specializing in the Israeli American community, faces the same preference among her male clients. “When a man comes to my office and he’s around 40 years old, the first thing he wants is to have a family, so he doesn’t want to be with someone who has a limit on having kids,” she said.
But a few local wives have proven to Jewish matchmakers and mothers worldwide that a single woman can take pride in being in her 30s and meet an eligible man not prejudiced by her age.
Michelle Kleinert Bader, 43, always dreamed of her wedding day, but by the time she reached 39, she wondered if she would ever tie the knot.
“There were times when I was down and out and didn’t think it would happen, but I remained positive and focused on all the things I was grateful for in my life,” she said.
Pressured by the ticking of her biological clock, societal expectations, her Moroccan mother’s worries and readiness to move on to the next phase of her life, she considered marriage proposals from men she knew weren’t her beshert (fated), but she maintained faith in her path and resolved to enjoy a fulfilled life filled with family, friends and a satisfying career.
At age 42, a few months into her new job as executive director of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment’s philanthropic department, she started dating Jeff, 44 years old at the time and never married. After a year and a half of dating, they signed their ketubbah on Jan. 18, 2009.
“He has everything that I want in a guy and more,” said Kleinert Bader, a former marketing and communications director for The Jewish Journal. “He had qualities I didn’t even know to look for in a partner.”
Elementary school counselor Lisa Diamond, 42, suffered from a fear commonly associated with men: marriage phobia.
“Honestly, I really didn’t want to get married for a long time,” she said. “I think I was really just scared. At some point, I said you better get over the fear or you’re not getting married.”
She met Scott through JDate, a service she had used on and off for years, alongside single events, speed dating and setups — basically, she tried everything. (“It’s not that it works, it’s that you work it,” she said of JDate.) They’re celebrating their first anniversary on June 22.
“When I started dating Scott, each time we went out, it wasn’t scary; he didn’t pressure me,” she said. “I didn’t feel scared with him. It was really easygoing. Each time I said I can do this, and I tried not to jump ahead, and I went with the flow. I think that’s what did it.”
Women in their late 30s or 40s who may feel discouraged about their prospects for marriage can glean tips from Kleinert Bader’s and Diamond’s experiences.
First, women should consider men who are not their long-cherished “type” while not lowering their standards.
Kleinert Bader and her groom-to-be had socialized in the same circles for years, but the timing was never right because “I was too busy liking guys who were wrong for me, but I did learn from all of them, and they prepared me for the right one.”
Likewise, Diamond opened her heart to men she would have normally dismissed in her 30s. “Typically, I think I would kind of brush people off.”
On their first date she didn’t experience instant fireworks with Scott, rather, a spark of love that grew brighter with every date.
“People say you can’t be so picky,” Kleinert Bader said. “I think there are natural courses that change. You can say you’ll marry someone who is divorced or who has kids, but you shouldn’t lower standards to ‘I should go out with just anybody.’ Then you lower your self-esteem.”
Gutman of Global Match offers similar advice to female clients above the age of 35. “You don’t need to compromise on his character ... but you may need to compromise about his age, his economic situation or whether or not he has kids.”
Second, women should enjoy their lives without a mate.
“You know when it happens?” Kleinert Bader said. “It’s true what they say, when you relax and go on with your own life.”
Diamond, too, always maintained an active and busy life. “I really wasn’t that lonely,” she said.
Third, the question of bearing children shouldn’t hinder the natural progress of a relationship.
“I think he was more interested in meeting the right person, believing the kid thing would work itself out somehow,” Diamond said of her husband.
And Kleinert Bader has now shifted her focus from getting married to having children, while seeking to maintain the undemanding attitude that characterized her courtship. “You don’t want to have that biological clock in your relationship,” she said.
As a matchmaker, Gottesman encourages male clients to reconsider their preoccupation with marrying a younger woman, whom they perceive as more fertile, believing that men and women within the same age range are naturally more compatible and more likely to share similar values, goals and lifestyles.
“You shouldn’t be looking at a woman as a baby-maker but as a partner in your life,” she stressed. “If you love each other, you’ll figure out a way to have children.”
Fourth, have faith.
Kleinert Bader held out and got a fairy tale ending with a twist of reality. As an executive at ABC, Jeff surprised her with a marriage proposal staged on the set of her favorite reality television show, “The Bachelor.”
He led her to the rose ceremony room where the show televises the elimination round. “Bachelor” host Chris Harrison presented Jeff with a single rose on a tray, mimicking the scene in which the starring bachelor chooses his desired match: “Jeff, this is the final rose. Whenever you’re ready,” he said to Jeff. The scene was filmed for the couple’s own keepsake.
“So when you hold out and have faith and believe, it can really happen for you,” she said.
It’s advice Gottesman, single at 39, gives both herself and her clients. “The Jewish concept of a soul mate is that God predestined you to be together, so one way or another he will be there,” she said.
Read original here
To rephrase the opening line of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”: It is a truth universally acknowledged — especially by Jewish mothers — that a Jewish single man in possession of a good fortune and over the age of 35 must be in want of a wife ... who is in her 20s.
Matchmakers can substantiate this apparent truth with their own experience.
“Men explicitly say to me they want significantly younger women, no matter what age they are,” said Judith Gottesman, founder of Berkeley-based Soul Mates Unlimited, a statewide matchmaking service. “For men in their late 30s and up, it’s an issue for them.”
Ilana Gutman, owner of Global Match, an Encino matchmaking service specializing in the Israeli American community, faces the same preference among her male clients. “When a man comes to my office and he’s around 40 years old, the first thing he wants is to have a family, so he doesn’t want to be with someone who has a limit on having kids,” she said.
But a few local wives have proven to Jewish matchmakers and mothers worldwide that a single woman can take pride in being in her 30s and meet an eligible man not prejudiced by her age.
Michelle Kleinert Bader, 43, always dreamed of her wedding day, but by the time she reached 39, she wondered if she would ever tie the knot.
“There were times when I was down and out and didn’t think it would happen, but I remained positive and focused on all the things I was grateful for in my life,” she said.
Pressured by the ticking of her biological clock, societal expectations, her Moroccan mother’s worries and readiness to move on to the next phase of her life, she considered marriage proposals from men she knew weren’t her beshert (fated), but she maintained faith in her path and resolved to enjoy a fulfilled life filled with family, friends and a satisfying career.
At age 42, a few months into her new job as executive director of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment’s philanthropic department, she started dating Jeff, 44 years old at the time and never married. After a year and a half of dating, they signed their ketubbah on Jan. 18, 2009.
“He has everything that I want in a guy and more,” said Kleinert Bader, a former marketing and communications director for The Jewish Journal. “He had qualities I didn’t even know to look for in a partner.”
Elementary school counselor Lisa Diamond, 42, suffered from a fear commonly associated with men: marriage phobia.
“Honestly, I really didn’t want to get married for a long time,” she said. “I think I was really just scared. At some point, I said you better get over the fear or you’re not getting married.”
She met Scott through JDate, a service she had used on and off for years, alongside single events, speed dating and setups — basically, she tried everything. (“It’s not that it works, it’s that you work it,” she said of JDate.) They’re celebrating their first anniversary on June 22.
“When I started dating Scott, each time we went out, it wasn’t scary; he didn’t pressure me,” she said. “I didn’t feel scared with him. It was really easygoing. Each time I said I can do this, and I tried not to jump ahead, and I went with the flow. I think that’s what did it.”
Women in their late 30s or 40s who may feel discouraged about their prospects for marriage can glean tips from Kleinert Bader’s and Diamond’s experiences.
First, women should consider men who are not their long-cherished “type” while not lowering their standards.
Kleinert Bader and her groom-to-be had socialized in the same circles for years, but the timing was never right because “I was too busy liking guys who were wrong for me, but I did learn from all of them, and they prepared me for the right one.”
Likewise, Diamond opened her heart to men she would have normally dismissed in her 30s. “Typically, I think I would kind of brush people off.”
On their first date she didn’t experience instant fireworks with Scott, rather, a spark of love that grew brighter with every date.
“People say you can’t be so picky,” Kleinert Bader said. “I think there are natural courses that change. You can say you’ll marry someone who is divorced or who has kids, but you shouldn’t lower standards to ‘I should go out with just anybody.’ Then you lower your self-esteem.”
Gutman of Global Match offers similar advice to female clients above the age of 35. “You don’t need to compromise on his character ... but you may need to compromise about his age, his economic situation or whether or not he has kids.”
Second, women should enjoy their lives without a mate.
“You know when it happens?” Kleinert Bader said. “It’s true what they say, when you relax and go on with your own life.”
Diamond, too, always maintained an active and busy life. “I really wasn’t that lonely,” she said.
Third, the question of bearing children shouldn’t hinder the natural progress of a relationship.
“I think he was more interested in meeting the right person, believing the kid thing would work itself out somehow,” Diamond said of her husband.
And Kleinert Bader has now shifted her focus from getting married to having children, while seeking to maintain the undemanding attitude that characterized her courtship. “You don’t want to have that biological clock in your relationship,” she said.
As a matchmaker, Gottesman encourages male clients to reconsider their preoccupation with marrying a younger woman, whom they perceive as more fertile, believing that men and women within the same age range are naturally more compatible and more likely to share similar values, goals and lifestyles.
“You shouldn’t be looking at a woman as a baby-maker but as a partner in your life,” she stressed. “If you love each other, you’ll figure out a way to have children.”
Fourth, have faith.
Kleinert Bader held out and got a fairy tale ending with a twist of reality. As an executive at ABC, Jeff surprised her with a marriage proposal staged on the set of her favorite reality television show, “The Bachelor.”
He led her to the rose ceremony room where the show televises the elimination round. “Bachelor” host Chris Harrison presented Jeff with a single rose on a tray, mimicking the scene in which the starring bachelor chooses his desired match: “Jeff, this is the final rose. Whenever you’re ready,” he said to Jeff. The scene was filmed for the couple’s own keepsake.
“So when you hold out and have faith and believe, it can really happen for you,” she said.
It’s advice Gottesman, single at 39, gives both herself and her clients. “The Jewish concept of a soul mate is that God predestined you to be together, so one way or another he will be there,” she said.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Documentaries Expose Mysteries of Fate
Jewish Journal; May 27, 2009
Read original here
Two documentaries, two mysteries: the life and death of a family of Holocaust survivors attempting to rebuild their lives in an Israel ravaged by war; the other reveals the life and death of a Greek musician attempting to build his career as a pop star in Israel, seeking normalcy through music. Together, these films showing at the Israel Film Festival highlight starkly contrasting realities in the development of the State of Israel.
“The Green Dumpster Mystery,” which aired last year on Israel’s documentary channel, is a straightforward chronicle of director Tal Yoffe’s quest to figure out the story behind a stack of family portraits mysteriously trashed in a dumpster in south Tel Aviv.
“The Mystery of Aris San,” which aired to high ratings this year on Israel’s major television network, is executed like an episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music,” telling the story of a Greek musician who rose to Israeli stardom.
Whereas “Aris San” takes us to nightclubs, homes of celebrities and through the streets of New York, “Green Dumpster” visits gravesites, homes of Holocaust survivors and the streets of Tel Aviv.
From the first scene, recreating Yoffe’s encounter with the photographs, the tone of “Green Dumpster” is laconic and staid, signaling a tale of a tragedy and loss.
“I immediately went to my house and Googled the information I found,” said Yoffe in a phone interview from his home in Ramat Gan, describing the day that altered his filmmaking career. “Immediately I knew there was a film behind the photographs, because here was a couple, probably Holocaust survivors, whose son was an IDF casualty.”
In frame after frame, Yoffe painstakingly recreates the family tree of the Volkovich family, using Internet searches, interviews and logical deductions. Their story, as told in the film, starts with the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, when Yaakov and Pola Volkovich fled their hometown of Lodz for Russia, only to be sent to a Siberian labor camp.
After the war, they had three children who didn’t live to survive them: Sarah, Rivi and Shoa. Shoa, described as a fun-loving young man with many friends, was killed in the Yom Kippur War. Rivi, a beautiful clinical psychologist, died at 42 while giving birth to her second child. Sarah’s death is revealed only toward the end of the film.
“It started as a curiosity, and little by little I got attached to this family, then it almost turned into an obsession,” said Yoffe, who credits his Zionist curiosity to his upbringing at Kibbutz Maoz on the banks of the Jordan River. “At the end, I almost felt like I was a member of the family, and I felt a big responsibility. I thought it was on my shoulders to tell their story.”
By contrast to the tone of “Green Dumpster,” “The Mystery of Aris San” opens with the famed musician sporting his signature wig and wearing an unrelenting smile beneath a Clark Gable mustache, dancing with his guitar against a psychedelic backdrop. His appeal is immediately apparent: Here is a talented guitar virtuoso who left his Greek hometown in 1957 to embrace the culture of the new Jewish country, bringing with him a musical act bursting with joie-de-vivre and romance.
“At the time there weren’t so many people allowing themselves to become a superstar, because Israel was still in its socialist stage, where you’re not really supposed to have an ego,” said Dani Dothan, who co-directed and produced the film with his creative and life partner, Dalia Mevorach. He spoke from their home in Tel Aviv.
San’s success doesn’t last, however. Like an Israeli-Greek Elvis, he goes from pop icon to flabby performer at second-rate venues, to medication junkie, to a dead man some believe is actually still alive.
Even today, many Israelis love Greek music for its hybrid of Eastern and Western sounds. And San, born Aristod Saisanas in 1940, first won Israeli hearts as a teenager performing at a Greek club in Jaffa. He didn’t swing his hips like the American “king,” but he swung his guitar with an ease and joy that spellbound even the Israeli political royalty at the time, including Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, who invited him to perform at the double wedding of his children. The Israeli government even granted him, a non-Jew, Israeli citizenship.
“We knew Aris was a not a Jew, but he was so much an Israeli,” said actress Gila Almagor, one of the Israeli celebrities interviewed in the film.
At 25, San began singing in Hebrew, and a musical collaboration and, at-times, abusive affair with Israeli singer Aliza Azikri (whose revealing interview was fortunately captured prior to her death this year) catapulted him into the Israeli mainstream. San’s hits, “Sigal” and “Boom Pam,” remain among the country’s greatest hits.
But just at the peak of his fame in Israel, he moved to Manhattan to open the hotspot Sirocco, a Greek nightclub frequented by Anthony Quinn, Harry Belafonte, Telly Savalas and the Gallo mafia clan, whose patronage eventually got him sent to prison for two years — an ordeal from which he never fully recovered.
“He was a very strange character in the ’60s in Israel,” said Dothan. “For us, it was like a detective story, trying to solve the riddle of who Aris San was. We didn’t want to find out if he’s dead or alive — we wanted to unravel his mysteries, what made him tick, how he became a great guitarist, why he came to Israel and why he left.”
Yoffe sees the “Green Dumpster” story as characteristic of a particular era: “I think there are thousands of families with not exactly the same story but families with Holocaust survivors as grandparents and great-grandparents, with IDF soldiers who got killed,” Yoffe said. “It’s a typical family, and a tragic family. Everything that could have happened to them, happened to them.”
San’s story is more unique, but it reveals another side of Israeli life, showing how in the midst of the pain of Israeli’s creation, Israelis sought joy and levity through music.
“It’s strange,” Dothan said. “It doesn’t happen a lot. I think his magic was something we were very captivated by.”
Read original here
Two documentaries, two mysteries: the life and death of a family of Holocaust survivors attempting to rebuild their lives in an Israel ravaged by war; the other reveals the life and death of a Greek musician attempting to build his career as a pop star in Israel, seeking normalcy through music. Together, these films showing at the Israel Film Festival highlight starkly contrasting realities in the development of the State of Israel.
“The Green Dumpster Mystery,” which aired last year on Israel’s documentary channel, is a straightforward chronicle of director Tal Yoffe’s quest to figure out the story behind a stack of family portraits mysteriously trashed in a dumpster in south Tel Aviv.
“The Mystery of Aris San,” which aired to high ratings this year on Israel’s major television network, is executed like an episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music,” telling the story of a Greek musician who rose to Israeli stardom.
Whereas “Aris San” takes us to nightclubs, homes of celebrities and through the streets of New York, “Green Dumpster” visits gravesites, homes of Holocaust survivors and the streets of Tel Aviv.
From the first scene, recreating Yoffe’s encounter with the photographs, the tone of “Green Dumpster” is laconic and staid, signaling a tale of a tragedy and loss.
“I immediately went to my house and Googled the information I found,” said Yoffe in a phone interview from his home in Ramat Gan, describing the day that altered his filmmaking career. “Immediately I knew there was a film behind the photographs, because here was a couple, probably Holocaust survivors, whose son was an IDF casualty.”
In frame after frame, Yoffe painstakingly recreates the family tree of the Volkovich family, using Internet searches, interviews and logical deductions. Their story, as told in the film, starts with the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, when Yaakov and Pola Volkovich fled their hometown of Lodz for Russia, only to be sent to a Siberian labor camp.
After the war, they had three children who didn’t live to survive them: Sarah, Rivi and Shoa. Shoa, described as a fun-loving young man with many friends, was killed in the Yom Kippur War. Rivi, a beautiful clinical psychologist, died at 42 while giving birth to her second child. Sarah’s death is revealed only toward the end of the film.
“It started as a curiosity, and little by little I got attached to this family, then it almost turned into an obsession,” said Yoffe, who credits his Zionist curiosity to his upbringing at Kibbutz Maoz on the banks of the Jordan River. “At the end, I almost felt like I was a member of the family, and I felt a big responsibility. I thought it was on my shoulders to tell their story.”
By contrast to the tone of “Green Dumpster,” “The Mystery of Aris San” opens with the famed musician sporting his signature wig and wearing an unrelenting smile beneath a Clark Gable mustache, dancing with his guitar against a psychedelic backdrop. His appeal is immediately apparent: Here is a talented guitar virtuoso who left his Greek hometown in 1957 to embrace the culture of the new Jewish country, bringing with him a musical act bursting with joie-de-vivre and romance.
“At the time there weren’t so many people allowing themselves to become a superstar, because Israel was still in its socialist stage, where you’re not really supposed to have an ego,” said Dani Dothan, who co-directed and produced the film with his creative and life partner, Dalia Mevorach. He spoke from their home in Tel Aviv.
San’s success doesn’t last, however. Like an Israeli-Greek Elvis, he goes from pop icon to flabby performer at second-rate venues, to medication junkie, to a dead man some believe is actually still alive.
Even today, many Israelis love Greek music for its hybrid of Eastern and Western sounds. And San, born Aristod Saisanas in 1940, first won Israeli hearts as a teenager performing at a Greek club in Jaffa. He didn’t swing his hips like the American “king,” but he swung his guitar with an ease and joy that spellbound even the Israeli political royalty at the time, including Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, who invited him to perform at the double wedding of his children. The Israeli government even granted him, a non-Jew, Israeli citizenship.
“We knew Aris was a not a Jew, but he was so much an Israeli,” said actress Gila Almagor, one of the Israeli celebrities interviewed in the film.
At 25, San began singing in Hebrew, and a musical collaboration and, at-times, abusive affair with Israeli singer Aliza Azikri (whose revealing interview was fortunately captured prior to her death this year) catapulted him into the Israeli mainstream. San’s hits, “Sigal” and “Boom Pam,” remain among the country’s greatest hits.
But just at the peak of his fame in Israel, he moved to Manhattan to open the hotspot Sirocco, a Greek nightclub frequented by Anthony Quinn, Harry Belafonte, Telly Savalas and the Gallo mafia clan, whose patronage eventually got him sent to prison for two years — an ordeal from which he never fully recovered.
“He was a very strange character in the ’60s in Israel,” said Dothan. “For us, it was like a detective story, trying to solve the riddle of who Aris San was. We didn’t want to find out if he’s dead or alive — we wanted to unravel his mysteries, what made him tick, how he became a great guitarist, why he came to Israel and why he left.”
Yoffe sees the “Green Dumpster” story as characteristic of a particular era: “I think there are thousands of families with not exactly the same story but families with Holocaust survivors as grandparents and great-grandparents, with IDF soldiers who got killed,” Yoffe said. “It’s a typical family, and a tragic family. Everything that could have happened to them, happened to them.”
San’s story is more unique, but it reveals another side of Israeli life, showing how in the midst of the pain of Israeli’s creation, Israelis sought joy and levity through music.
“It’s strange,” Dothan said. “It doesn’t happen a lot. I think his magic was something we were very captivated by.”
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Meet Mr. and Mrs. Jdate
Jewish Journal; May 13, 2009
Read original here
According to Jewish tradition, a person who makes three Jewish matches that lead to marriage earns shares in the world to come. If true, Joe Shapira is a big stockholder in heaven.
As the founding partner of JDate in 1997, he’s among the most prolific shadchanim (matchmakers) in Jewish history. No exact statistics are available on the number of marriages arising from the popular Jewish online dating brand, but more than 21,000 JDate couples reported their marriages to their cyber-yenta in 2008 alone. The site spans England, France and Israel, with Russian and Spanish sites in development.
Shapira’s success and personal allegiances become clear from the minute you step into the foyer of his Beverly Hills home, where the flags of America and Israel flank a view of a lush backyard. Born Yoav Shapira in the Tel Aviv suburb of Givatayim, it’s safe to say the immigrant to America of 30 years has realized the American dream.
“When I came to Los Angeles, I worked for the guy who developed this entire community, and I was the person who delivered the house to new buyers. Those houses looked to me like palaces, and I never imagined in my wildest dreams I would own one.”
Busts of George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani adorn the living-room coffee table. On the mantle are pictures of other notable politicians (Democrats included) posing with Shapira and his wife of five years, Nickie, 33, who wasn’t Jewish when they met. Her roots are half-Japanese, one-quarter Chinese, an eighth Korean, and an eighth native Hawaiian.
“She converted and she’s one of the most revered pro-Israel activists in town,” he said. Indeed, the Princeton alumna was recently made president of the World Alliance for Israel Political Action Committee (WAIPAC), a position she juggles with her production company, 8th Wonder Entertainment, specializing in urban entertainment. Shapira credits Nickie with his systematic approach to pro-Israel philanthropy, and the couple will be honored for their contributions on Sunday, May 17, at the Israel Cancer Research Fund gala to be held at the Century Plaza Hyatt Regency.
“Converts are usually more committed to tradition than people who were born Jewish, especially Israelis,” Shapira, 56, said. “We who come from Israel for the most part don’t practice tradition in Israel. I very seldom had a Shabbat dinner before she converted.”
In 2004, Shapira resigned as CEO of Spark Networks, the parent company of JDate, four years after taking the company public, a process that he says took the fun out of sustaining Jewish continuity (“Who wants to live with lawyers and accountants all day?”). He holds shares in Spark for sentimental value and now serves as president of Java Equities, a real estate acquisitions and management conglomerate — a job he describes as “less exciting but stable.”
Shapira founded JDate with partner Alon Carmel a few years after divorcing his first wife, with whom he has three kids, but he never used JDate for himself, mostly, he said, “because I have a very outgoing personality, so I never had a problem starting a conversation with someone I liked. I met women everywhere — traffic lights, the supermarket.”
But without JDate, he probably wouldn’t have met Nickie. She came to his office in search of subjects to interview for a book she was writing at the time, a practical guide for finding and marrying Mr. Right. “I was very attracted to her but I couldn’t hit on her in the office because there were other people there, and I kept a strict code of behavior in the office,” he said.
Nickie had her eye on him from day one, too; she even told her sister after the meeting that she was going to marry him.
She sent him a thank-you e-mail, to which he responded with a tactical P.S.: “Let me know when you get tired of your boyfriend.”
“I didn’t know if she had a boyfriend; I was fishing,” he said. Yet she fed his flirtation by calling again for “business” only to leave her number with his secretary. They went out three nights in a row, and the rest is (non)-JDate history.
Toward the end of the interview, Nickie stepped down the staircase decked out in a black cocktail dress, about to head out to a dinner party with Bill Clinton, but she took a few minutes to tell her version of the love story. “His humor and politics, his stature because he’s a tall guy,” she said were the qualities that immediately attracted her to her future husband.
“I wasn’t so involved in any pro-Israel causes prior to meeting him, but I was always a fan of politics. After Sept. 11, I became a lot more hawkish, so that’s when I started to follow Middle East and Israel issues.” Her love for Israel grew with their travels together; she has since learned Hebrew.
Nickie never published her book. “It would’ve been too revealing. I think I got a little older, and I didn’t want those things out there for everyone to see forever.” Although it seems the principles worked.
“I didn’t want to get married,” Shapira admitted, probably much like many who dabble on JDate. But he’d met his match: “She’s a closer.”
Her secret, according to Shapira: “Become the best thing that ever happened to him.”
And for Shapira? “I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her, and I knew she wouldn’t stick around. She had an agenda, things she wanted to accomplish — she wouldn’t let me interfere with that agenda.”
Nickie offered some advice for women seeking a mate: “I think a lot of them roll with it without thinking about it in a methodical, organized process.”
Says Shapira, “Our process was very organized.”
Read original here
According to Jewish tradition, a person who makes three Jewish matches that lead to marriage earns shares in the world to come. If true, Joe Shapira is a big stockholder in heaven.
As the founding partner of JDate in 1997, he’s among the most prolific shadchanim (matchmakers) in Jewish history. No exact statistics are available on the number of marriages arising from the popular Jewish online dating brand, but more than 21,000 JDate couples reported their marriages to their cyber-yenta in 2008 alone. The site spans England, France and Israel, with Russian and Spanish sites in development.
Shapira’s success and personal allegiances become clear from the minute you step into the foyer of his Beverly Hills home, where the flags of America and Israel flank a view of a lush backyard. Born Yoav Shapira in the Tel Aviv suburb of Givatayim, it’s safe to say the immigrant to America of 30 years has realized the American dream.
“When I came to Los Angeles, I worked for the guy who developed this entire community, and I was the person who delivered the house to new buyers. Those houses looked to me like palaces, and I never imagined in my wildest dreams I would own one.”
Busts of George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani adorn the living-room coffee table. On the mantle are pictures of other notable politicians (Democrats included) posing with Shapira and his wife of five years, Nickie, 33, who wasn’t Jewish when they met. Her roots are half-Japanese, one-quarter Chinese, an eighth Korean, and an eighth native Hawaiian.
“She converted and she’s one of the most revered pro-Israel activists in town,” he said. Indeed, the Princeton alumna was recently made president of the World Alliance for Israel Political Action Committee (WAIPAC), a position she juggles with her production company, 8th Wonder Entertainment, specializing in urban entertainment. Shapira credits Nickie with his systematic approach to pro-Israel philanthropy, and the couple will be honored for their contributions on Sunday, May 17, at the Israel Cancer Research Fund gala to be held at the Century Plaza Hyatt Regency.
“Converts are usually more committed to tradition than people who were born Jewish, especially Israelis,” Shapira, 56, said. “We who come from Israel for the most part don’t practice tradition in Israel. I very seldom had a Shabbat dinner before she converted.”
In 2004, Shapira resigned as CEO of Spark Networks, the parent company of JDate, four years after taking the company public, a process that he says took the fun out of sustaining Jewish continuity (“Who wants to live with lawyers and accountants all day?”). He holds shares in Spark for sentimental value and now serves as president of Java Equities, a real estate acquisitions and management conglomerate — a job he describes as “less exciting but stable.”
Shapira founded JDate with partner Alon Carmel a few years after divorcing his first wife, with whom he has three kids, but he never used JDate for himself, mostly, he said, “because I have a very outgoing personality, so I never had a problem starting a conversation with someone I liked. I met women everywhere — traffic lights, the supermarket.”
But without JDate, he probably wouldn’t have met Nickie. She came to his office in search of subjects to interview for a book she was writing at the time, a practical guide for finding and marrying Mr. Right. “I was very attracted to her but I couldn’t hit on her in the office because there were other people there, and I kept a strict code of behavior in the office,” he said.
Nickie had her eye on him from day one, too; she even told her sister after the meeting that she was going to marry him.
She sent him a thank-you e-mail, to which he responded with a tactical P.S.: “Let me know when you get tired of your boyfriend.”
“I didn’t know if she had a boyfriend; I was fishing,” he said. Yet she fed his flirtation by calling again for “business” only to leave her number with his secretary. They went out three nights in a row, and the rest is (non)-JDate history.
Toward the end of the interview, Nickie stepped down the staircase decked out in a black cocktail dress, about to head out to a dinner party with Bill Clinton, but she took a few minutes to tell her version of the love story. “His humor and politics, his stature because he’s a tall guy,” she said were the qualities that immediately attracted her to her future husband.
“I wasn’t so involved in any pro-Israel causes prior to meeting him, but I was always a fan of politics. After Sept. 11, I became a lot more hawkish, so that’s when I started to follow Middle East and Israel issues.” Her love for Israel grew with their travels together; she has since learned Hebrew.
Nickie never published her book. “It would’ve been too revealing. I think I got a little older, and I didn’t want those things out there for everyone to see forever.” Although it seems the principles worked.
“I didn’t want to get married,” Shapira admitted, probably much like many who dabble on JDate. But he’d met his match: “She’s a closer.”
Her secret, according to Shapira: “Become the best thing that ever happened to him.”
And for Shapira? “I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her, and I knew she wouldn’t stick around. She had an agenda, things she wanted to accomplish — she wouldn’t let me interfere with that agenda.”
Nickie offered some advice for women seeking a mate: “I think a lot of them roll with it without thinking about it in a methodical, organized process.”
Says Shapira, “Our process was very organized.”
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Israel Cafe Culture Rocks Sunset
Jewish Journal; April 29, 2009
Click here for original
Last September, when the Israeli Consulate raised the Israeli flag over Wilshire Boulevard at a festive ceremony with the mayor, it was seen as an historic symbol of deepening Israeli-Angeleno ties. Around the same time, however, another significant event took place blocks away, on Sunset Boulevard, as Israeli Angelenos raised their first mugs of hafuch (cappuccino) at the opening of Aroma Bakery & Café’s Hollywood branch.
First established in Encino in 2005, Aroma is more than a cafe — it’s like an unofficial branch of the Israeli Consulate. Walk in, and you might as well be in Israel. Cute Israeli waitresses serve customers like they’re still jet-lagged from their flight here. Tel Aviv-style Israeli posses dressed in nightclub gear spread their chairs and legs out like they own the place, cigarettes in tow, cell phones on tabletops. And like back home, the action takes place late into the night.
For many Israeli transplants, Encino’s Aroma is an absorption center, community center and employer. “It’s the first place you take Israelis,” said Shanni Sabban, 19, waiting in line for a table at Aroma Encino one Wednesday night.
As I waited for a seat on the packed patio, the hostess related it was her first job after she landed. Her thick Israeli accent probably wouldn’t suffice as a Starbucks barista; here, English isn’t required.
“Shalosh!” (three!) demanded one lady. “Eser dakot!” (10 minutes), the hostess replied over an Israeli rock song.
The Sunset branch, however, is poised to spread Israeli cafe culture to L.A. residents who could care less about Zion. Located on the site of the former “Rock ‘n’ Roll” Denny’s (nicknamed so for its proximity to the Guitar Center and the Sunset Strip), it has imported design motifs from Encino: a wide outdoor patio conducive to people watching; a fireplace for that “home away from home” vibe; and valet parking (“so Israelis can show off their cars,” said one patron).
Whereas the Encino branch respects Jewish tradition with its all-dairy menu (not kosher certified, though) and a day of rest on Saturday, the Sunset branch is more chiloni (secular). The spiral-bound menu reads like an illustrated book for Middle Eastern Californian cuisine, with prices more befitting a restaurant than a cafe. Ahi tuna shwarma with hummus and ahi tuna kabob are a few of the more creative dishes served with pastas, sandwiches, steaks and Israeli comfort foods like shakshuka, malawach and burekas. A glass showcase features gargantuan desserts, among them Middle Eastern specialties like khadif and baklava.
One Saturday afternoon, the restaurant was full, but no waiting list. Israeli patrons were identifiable not only from appearance, but from their loud decibel of Hebrew. I was greeted unofficially by a party promoter, who immediately added me to his SMS party invite list. I felt like I was back in Tel Aviv, where cafes are prime recruitment ground for partiers.
Sitting inside was another Israeli nightlife player, Motti Aivas, owner of the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood, dipping pita in hummus with two friends. “The food reminds me of ha’aretz [the Land] — and the people, sometimes you want to be with Israelis,” he said.
Not Rami, though, a yored (immigrant from Israel) since 1994. His friends dragged him there. “It’s mostly for arsim, and people who don’t know what arsim are.” For those who fit into the latter category, arsim refers, usually pejoratively, to uncouth Israelis. As for the menu, “It reminds of me of Kapulski” (the once-popular Israeli cafe chain that’s now a favorite among pensioners). He says he prefers the boutique cafes on Third Street for menus — and clientele — with a little more sophistication.
Rami was part of the entourage of an Israeli musician known as HaSaruf, The Burnt Man. With unmistakable long, stringy hair, he got the nickname from a publicity stunt he pulled in 2000, when he made an album disguised as a man crippled from severe burns. (He eventually revealed the scam and took on a new stage name, Zino.)
“What are you doing in Los Angeles?” I asked.
“Working for the agalot,” he joked, referring to the carts at malls manned by Israelis. In fact, he was in Los Angeles for a music convention. Other Israeli musicians touring here have made a stop at Aroma, too — among them Hadag Nachash and Shlomo Artzi.
But Aroma Sunset wants American celebrities and entertainers to feel at home there, too.
Local singer Alexis Miranda had no idea it’s an Israeli hangout. “It was always packed, like 24-7.” She figures the food must justify the crowd. “It was amazing. Grade A,” she said of the chocolate soufflé and chocolate cake.
Actor Eric Reinholt was also there for the first time. “It was the best pizza I ever had,” he said, although he found the service lacking. “I think she was new,” he offered with classic American politeness.
But Aroma Sunset isn’t always packed. On one early Monday morning, Mark Shields from West Liberty, Iowa, population 3,000, was among five patrons. He was in Los Angeles as part of a traveling exhibition on the Oregon Trail. “We passed by yesterday and thought this looks like a great place to spend time,” he said over coffee and two chocolate croissants.
When I told him it’s an extension of a cafe in Encino, he was floored. Turns out he had eaten at the Encino branch last year. He had just passed by and liked it. “It feels ethnic, cultured,” he said. “Everyone sitting around tables, drinking, eating, being happy. Maybe I should go to Israel if this is what it’s like.”
Click here for original
Last September, when the Israeli Consulate raised the Israeli flag over Wilshire Boulevard at a festive ceremony with the mayor, it was seen as an historic symbol of deepening Israeli-Angeleno ties. Around the same time, however, another significant event took place blocks away, on Sunset Boulevard, as Israeli Angelenos raised their first mugs of hafuch (cappuccino) at the opening of Aroma Bakery & Café’s Hollywood branch.
First established in Encino in 2005, Aroma is more than a cafe — it’s like an unofficial branch of the Israeli Consulate. Walk in, and you might as well be in Israel. Cute Israeli waitresses serve customers like they’re still jet-lagged from their flight here. Tel Aviv-style Israeli posses dressed in nightclub gear spread their chairs and legs out like they own the place, cigarettes in tow, cell phones on tabletops. And like back home, the action takes place late into the night.
For many Israeli transplants, Encino’s Aroma is an absorption center, community center and employer. “It’s the first place you take Israelis,” said Shanni Sabban, 19, waiting in line for a table at Aroma Encino one Wednesday night.
As I waited for a seat on the packed patio, the hostess related it was her first job after she landed. Her thick Israeli accent probably wouldn’t suffice as a Starbucks barista; here, English isn’t required.
“Shalosh!” (three!) demanded one lady. “Eser dakot!” (10 minutes), the hostess replied over an Israeli rock song.
The Sunset branch, however, is poised to spread Israeli cafe culture to L.A. residents who could care less about Zion. Located on the site of the former “Rock ‘n’ Roll” Denny’s (nicknamed so for its proximity to the Guitar Center and the Sunset Strip), it has imported design motifs from Encino: a wide outdoor patio conducive to people watching; a fireplace for that “home away from home” vibe; and valet parking (“so Israelis can show off their cars,” said one patron).
Whereas the Encino branch respects Jewish tradition with its all-dairy menu (not kosher certified, though) and a day of rest on Saturday, the Sunset branch is more chiloni (secular). The spiral-bound menu reads like an illustrated book for Middle Eastern Californian cuisine, with prices more befitting a restaurant than a cafe. Ahi tuna shwarma with hummus and ahi tuna kabob are a few of the more creative dishes served with pastas, sandwiches, steaks and Israeli comfort foods like shakshuka, malawach and burekas. A glass showcase features gargantuan desserts, among them Middle Eastern specialties like khadif and baklava.
One Saturday afternoon, the restaurant was full, but no waiting list. Israeli patrons were identifiable not only from appearance, but from their loud decibel of Hebrew. I was greeted unofficially by a party promoter, who immediately added me to his SMS party invite list. I felt like I was back in Tel Aviv, where cafes are prime recruitment ground for partiers.
Sitting inside was another Israeli nightlife player, Motti Aivas, owner of the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood, dipping pita in hummus with two friends. “The food reminds me of ha’aretz [the Land] — and the people, sometimes you want to be with Israelis,” he said.
Not Rami, though, a yored (immigrant from Israel) since 1994. His friends dragged him there. “It’s mostly for arsim, and people who don’t know what arsim are.” For those who fit into the latter category, arsim refers, usually pejoratively, to uncouth Israelis. As for the menu, “It reminds of me of Kapulski” (the once-popular Israeli cafe chain that’s now a favorite among pensioners). He says he prefers the boutique cafes on Third Street for menus — and clientele — with a little more sophistication.
Rami was part of the entourage of an Israeli musician known as HaSaruf, The Burnt Man. With unmistakable long, stringy hair, he got the nickname from a publicity stunt he pulled in 2000, when he made an album disguised as a man crippled from severe burns. (He eventually revealed the scam and took on a new stage name, Zino.)
“What are you doing in Los Angeles?” I asked.
“Working for the agalot,” he joked, referring to the carts at malls manned by Israelis. In fact, he was in Los Angeles for a music convention. Other Israeli musicians touring here have made a stop at Aroma, too — among them Hadag Nachash and Shlomo Artzi.
But Aroma Sunset wants American celebrities and entertainers to feel at home there, too.
Local singer Alexis Miranda had no idea it’s an Israeli hangout. “It was always packed, like 24-7.” She figures the food must justify the crowd. “It was amazing. Grade A,” she said of the chocolate soufflé and chocolate cake.
Actor Eric Reinholt was also there for the first time. “It was the best pizza I ever had,” he said, although he found the service lacking. “I think she was new,” he offered with classic American politeness.
But Aroma Sunset isn’t always packed. On one early Monday morning, Mark Shields from West Liberty, Iowa, population 3,000, was among five patrons. He was in Los Angeles as part of a traveling exhibition on the Oregon Trail. “We passed by yesterday and thought this looks like a great place to spend time,” he said over coffee and two chocolate croissants.
When I told him it’s an extension of a cafe in Encino, he was floored. Turns out he had eaten at the Encino branch last year. He had just passed by and liked it. “It feels ethnic, cultured,” he said. “Everyone sitting around tables, drinking, eating, being happy. Maybe I should go to Israel if this is what it’s like.”
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Next American-Israeli Idol
Jewish Journal; April 27, 2009
Click here for original
Last week a handful of yordim (Israelis who “descended” to America) were given the rare opportunity to make aliyah; that is, to rise back up to Israel—and to stardom. Kochav Nolad (“A Star is Born”), Israel’s “American Idol” knock-off, came to Hollywood, literally, to scout talent for its seventh season. After stops in New York, Florida, and Atlanta, the show’s director, host, and two judges held a round of auditions at the Vanguard nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard for Israeli ex-pats aspiring to become Zion’s Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood but whose Hebrew accents would probably horrify “Idol” judge Simon Cowell.
Auditions were advertised in the American-Israeli press, and singers were asked to prepare two songs—at least one in Hebrew—along with a Hebrew song written specially for the show. The Hollywood leg of the tryouts culminated in an Independence Day party hosted by DJ Eliran and DJ Tal at Vanguard on April 23, where the top five L.A. contenders auditioned live on stage for a few hundred of the show’s fans. For the record, this reporter was among the unsuccessful auditioners.
The party was an Israeli pop culture fest with nary an English word heard amidst a techno version of the hora and other Israeli disco tunes, although the dance floor only reached a quarter capacity—probably due to the hefty $35 entrance fee at the door.
Nevertheless, toward midnight, the crowd managed to squish together near the stage to watch Tzvika Hadar, Israel’s Ryan Seacrest, (although much more round and informal than the “Idol” host), move along the audition. The show’s veteran judges, Israeli singer Margalit “Margol” Tzanani and journalist/filmmaker Gal Uhovsky, raked the talents with true Simon Cowell severity, choosing only two potential “stars” from the batch. The evening ended with a classically tacky tribute to America with Tzanani singing a dance remix of Springstein’s “Born in the USA.”
Footage of the American auditions will be aired as part of the program in the summer, broadcast in the U.S. on the Israeli Channel. Israeli-Angelenos who made the cut have good reason to exile their Hollywood dreams to the Holy Land. Kochav Nolad has been a ratings hit from the start—a favorite among the tweens—launching successful careers of several pop and television stars, including Ninette Tayeb, Shiri Maimon, and Harel Skaat.
Click here for original
Last week a handful of yordim (Israelis who “descended” to America) were given the rare opportunity to make aliyah; that is, to rise back up to Israel—and to stardom. Kochav Nolad (“A Star is Born”), Israel’s “American Idol” knock-off, came to Hollywood, literally, to scout talent for its seventh season. After stops in New York, Florida, and Atlanta, the show’s director, host, and two judges held a round of auditions at the Vanguard nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard for Israeli ex-pats aspiring to become Zion’s Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood but whose Hebrew accents would probably horrify “Idol” judge Simon Cowell.
Auditions were advertised in the American-Israeli press, and singers were asked to prepare two songs—at least one in Hebrew—along with a Hebrew song written specially for the show. The Hollywood leg of the tryouts culminated in an Independence Day party hosted by DJ Eliran and DJ Tal at Vanguard on April 23, where the top five L.A. contenders auditioned live on stage for a few hundred of the show’s fans. For the record, this reporter was among the unsuccessful auditioners.
The party was an Israeli pop culture fest with nary an English word heard amidst a techno version of the hora and other Israeli disco tunes, although the dance floor only reached a quarter capacity—probably due to the hefty $35 entrance fee at the door.
Nevertheless, toward midnight, the crowd managed to squish together near the stage to watch Tzvika Hadar, Israel’s Ryan Seacrest, (although much more round and informal than the “Idol” host), move along the audition. The show’s veteran judges, Israeli singer Margalit “Margol” Tzanani and journalist/filmmaker Gal Uhovsky, raked the talents with true Simon Cowell severity, choosing only two potential “stars” from the batch. The evening ended with a classically tacky tribute to America with Tzanani singing a dance remix of Springstein’s “Born in the USA.”
Footage of the American auditions will be aired as part of the program in the summer, broadcast in the U.S. on the Israeli Channel. Israeli-Angelenos who made the cut have good reason to exile their Hollywood dreams to the Holy Land. Kochav Nolad has been a ratings hit from the start—a favorite among the tweens—launching successful careers of several pop and television stars, including Ninette Tayeb, Shiri Maimon, and Harel Skaat.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thinking Outside the Matzah Ball Box
Jewish Journal; March 28, 2009
Click here for original
When the Israelites rushed out of Egypt, Pharaoh’s men on their heels, they hurriedly bundled their belongings, food included, to carry as much as they could on their backs and donkeys. Seeking to nourish themselves throughout their desert journey to the Promised Land, they rolled together unleavened bread crumbs, eggs and oil to create a round, nutritious finger food. They heated these in water jugs, along with chicken bone scraps, to preserve them and give them flavor. And that’s how matzah ball soup was born.
At least that’s how the matzah ball legend should read. The round dumpling traditionally made of matzah meal, eggs, and some kind of fat is so entrenched in Jewish tradition that its history seems to date back to the Torah itself. The icon of Jewish pop culture, the staple of deli menus, the culinary gem of bubbies worldwide, matzah ball soup is the unofficial symbol of Jewish cuisine, the soup of the one God.
But like many dishes generally regarded as “Jewish foods,” like gefilte fish and cholent, matzah ball soup originated in Eastern Europe. The Yiddish word for matzah balls, “knaidelach,” comes from the German word for dumpling, “knödel.” The matzah ball may very well have been the vanguard Jewish food of its time, an adaptation of the gentile dumpling suited to Passover restrictions and pantries, invented by the Martha Stewart of the shtetl, her (or his?) name now lost in obscurity.
Since then few Jewish chefs, professional and amateur, have dared to tamper with the matzah ball. In that sense, the matzah ball is the “ultra-Orthodox” Jewish food. The most popular recipe for many home cooks today may very well be the one on the matzah meal box. But with the growing sophistication and cross-fertilization of many types of cuisines, that’s changing.
“I think traditional cooks are breaking out; they’re more sophisticated,” said Adeena Sussman, a recipe developer, food writer and cooking instructor based in New York. “Everyone is traveling more and interested in ethnic cuisine. There are a lot of kosher Web sites where you can get kosher gourmet products. Actually, I think Jews who keep Passover strictly are those who are seeking the most innovative ideas because they are those who follow the laws for eight days and are trying to keep their families well-fed and interested for eight days.”
One of the most popular maverick matzah ball soup recipes has been Susie Fishbein’s tri-color matzah ball soup, as featured years ago in her popular “Kosher by Design Entertains” cookbook (Mesorah Publications, 2005) and on “The Today Show” with Katie Couric. The recipe calls for a green maztah ball made with pureed spinach, a yellow matzah ball made with turmeric and a red matzah ball made with tomato paste.
“It was a funky spin on something traditional, and that’s what I do,” said Fishbein from her home in New Jersey. She sought a matzah ball soup that wasn’t only flavorful, but visually appealing and healthful, especially for the children. “I’ve had mothers come up to me in shul and say ‘I only make the green ones, and they’re called ‘Shrek matzah balls,’ and my boys love them.’”
Matzah balls are like a “blank canvas,” ripe with possibilities for adding flavor and color. Last year Sussman developed a “dill-infused chicken soup with herbed matzah ball gnocchi” recipe featuring matzah balls shaped like the Italian potato dumpling and rolled with spinach, parsley and dill. Green herbs are intuitive additives, because they often compliment the flavor of the chicken soup and also reflect the spirit of spring. Sussman recommends ground chicken, ground beef and horseradish as other nontraditional additives.
But not every ingredient works. “There were definitely things that were not winners,” said Fishbein, recalling her own experimentation. “Blueberry matzah balls are hideous. Carrot matzah balls covered with carrot juice were hideous.”
Like the Torah, matzah balls are open to a variety of interpretations and subject to intense debate. Surprisingly, some of Southern California’s top chefs believe the matzah ball is sacred.
“I don’t want to recreate the matzah ball; I think it tastes fine how it is, as long as it has a light texture,” said Suzanne Tracht, executive chef at LA’s Jar chophouse on Beverly Boulevard. “They shouldn’t be too hard. You shouldn’t use them for weapons….The most important part of the matzah ball, since it’s basically a dumpling, is the broth — that’s where it comes out.”
Every year, Tracht holds a Passover seder at her restaurant, and this year she’s making a consommé with lemongrass, galangal and ginger. “We make it so intense that we clarify the broth, as well, so that it has a more rich and intense flavor.”
Todd Aarons, executive chef at the gourmet kosher restaurant Tierra Sur at the Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard puts his “stock” in the broth, as well. “I’m a purist. I would play around with the broth first, and I’d probably keep the matzah ball intact.” For his own matzah ball soup, Aarons likes to use duck and chicken bones for a deeper flavor. “When I eat it, though, it doesn’t remind me of my mom’s, which is okay.”
He became convinced of the powerful absorption properties of the matzah ball after his Yemenite wife served regular matzah balls with her Yemenite soup, traditionally made with chicken, beef and exotic herbs, including hawaij, a Yemenite spice mix consisting of cumin, coriander, pepper, cardamom, cloves and turmeric. He likens matzah balls to bread used for dipping. “Every culture has a chicken soup. You can explore all different kinds of chicken soup and throw a matzah ball in, and it would work.”
In fact, the matzah ball is the only Ashkenazi food that has been warmly embraced by Sephardic traditions, especially in Israel. “Sephardic cooking is much more popular in Israel now than Ashkenazi cooking — Israel is a warm country, the ingredients are more suitable for Middle Eastern food,” said Janna Gur, editor-in-chief of Israel’s leading gastronomic magazine, Al HaShulchan, and author of “The Book of New Israeli Food” (Schocken, 2008). “Many recipes make the crossover to Ashkenazi households, but not vice versa, except for matzah ball soup.”
Another (chicken or beef?) bone of contention among chefs and cooks relates to texture: dense or light and fluffy?
Cookbook author and food writer Judy Zeidler, also a bubbe of seven, prefers fluffy matzah balls, hands down. “When I got married, my mother-in-law always made sinkers — matzah balls so hard they sink to the bottom of the pot. I grew up with my mother’s matzah balls. Like clouds, they floated to the top of the soup. My husband thought they were ridiculous, but he thought they were so much easier to eat and so much more flavorful.”
To make matzah balls as fluffy as her mother’s, she recommends separating the yolk and whites and then folding the yolk and matzah meal into egg whites beaten into soft peaks. Seltzer is recommended instead of water to increase fluffiness, and chilling matzah balls plays an important part in determining texture.
“Chilling will make it much easier to roll so you can manipulate them,” said Fishbein. “If you can roll them right at the outset you have a lot of matzah meal in them, and they probably won’t be very fluffy.”
Sussman is the only one interviewed for this article who prefers dense matzah balls, or, as she likes to call them, “matzah balls al dente”, an Italian term to describe pasta that is firm but not overcooked.
But home cooks shouldn’t feel discouraged if they can’t think out of the matzah meal box. “My mother used to make matzah balls from scratch,” said Sussman, “but one year we actually tried the mix and found that it worked quite well and started making them from the mix, not because we couldn’t make it from scratch, but because we liked them.”
Click here for original
When the Israelites rushed out of Egypt, Pharaoh’s men on their heels, they hurriedly bundled their belongings, food included, to carry as much as they could on their backs and donkeys. Seeking to nourish themselves throughout their desert journey to the Promised Land, they rolled together unleavened bread crumbs, eggs and oil to create a round, nutritious finger food. They heated these in water jugs, along with chicken bone scraps, to preserve them and give them flavor. And that’s how matzah ball soup was born.
At least that’s how the matzah ball legend should read. The round dumpling traditionally made of matzah meal, eggs, and some kind of fat is so entrenched in Jewish tradition that its history seems to date back to the Torah itself. The icon of Jewish pop culture, the staple of deli menus, the culinary gem of bubbies worldwide, matzah ball soup is the unofficial symbol of Jewish cuisine, the soup of the one God.
But like many dishes generally regarded as “Jewish foods,” like gefilte fish and cholent, matzah ball soup originated in Eastern Europe. The Yiddish word for matzah balls, “knaidelach,” comes from the German word for dumpling, “knödel.” The matzah ball may very well have been the vanguard Jewish food of its time, an adaptation of the gentile dumpling suited to Passover restrictions and pantries, invented by the Martha Stewart of the shtetl, her (or his?) name now lost in obscurity.
Since then few Jewish chefs, professional and amateur, have dared to tamper with the matzah ball. In that sense, the matzah ball is the “ultra-Orthodox” Jewish food. The most popular recipe for many home cooks today may very well be the one on the matzah meal box. But with the growing sophistication and cross-fertilization of many types of cuisines, that’s changing.
“I think traditional cooks are breaking out; they’re more sophisticated,” said Adeena Sussman, a recipe developer, food writer and cooking instructor based in New York. “Everyone is traveling more and interested in ethnic cuisine. There are a lot of kosher Web sites where you can get kosher gourmet products. Actually, I think Jews who keep Passover strictly are those who are seeking the most innovative ideas because they are those who follow the laws for eight days and are trying to keep their families well-fed and interested for eight days.”
One of the most popular maverick matzah ball soup recipes has been Susie Fishbein’s tri-color matzah ball soup, as featured years ago in her popular “Kosher by Design Entertains” cookbook (Mesorah Publications, 2005) and on “The Today Show” with Katie Couric. The recipe calls for a green maztah ball made with pureed spinach, a yellow matzah ball made with turmeric and a red matzah ball made with tomato paste.
“It was a funky spin on something traditional, and that’s what I do,” said Fishbein from her home in New Jersey. She sought a matzah ball soup that wasn’t only flavorful, but visually appealing and healthful, especially for the children. “I’ve had mothers come up to me in shul and say ‘I only make the green ones, and they’re called ‘Shrek matzah balls,’ and my boys love them.’”
Matzah balls are like a “blank canvas,” ripe with possibilities for adding flavor and color. Last year Sussman developed a “dill-infused chicken soup with herbed matzah ball gnocchi” recipe featuring matzah balls shaped like the Italian potato dumpling and rolled with spinach, parsley and dill. Green herbs are intuitive additives, because they often compliment the flavor of the chicken soup and also reflect the spirit of spring. Sussman recommends ground chicken, ground beef and horseradish as other nontraditional additives.
But not every ingredient works. “There were definitely things that were not winners,” said Fishbein, recalling her own experimentation. “Blueberry matzah balls are hideous. Carrot matzah balls covered with carrot juice were hideous.”
Like the Torah, matzah balls are open to a variety of interpretations and subject to intense debate. Surprisingly, some of Southern California’s top chefs believe the matzah ball is sacred.
“I don’t want to recreate the matzah ball; I think it tastes fine how it is, as long as it has a light texture,” said Suzanne Tracht, executive chef at LA’s Jar chophouse on Beverly Boulevard. “They shouldn’t be too hard. You shouldn’t use them for weapons….The most important part of the matzah ball, since it’s basically a dumpling, is the broth — that’s where it comes out.”
Every year, Tracht holds a Passover seder at her restaurant, and this year she’s making a consommé with lemongrass, galangal and ginger. “We make it so intense that we clarify the broth, as well, so that it has a more rich and intense flavor.”
Todd Aarons, executive chef at the gourmet kosher restaurant Tierra Sur at the Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard puts his “stock” in the broth, as well. “I’m a purist. I would play around with the broth first, and I’d probably keep the matzah ball intact.” For his own matzah ball soup, Aarons likes to use duck and chicken bones for a deeper flavor. “When I eat it, though, it doesn’t remind me of my mom’s, which is okay.”
He became convinced of the powerful absorption properties of the matzah ball after his Yemenite wife served regular matzah balls with her Yemenite soup, traditionally made with chicken, beef and exotic herbs, including hawaij, a Yemenite spice mix consisting of cumin, coriander, pepper, cardamom, cloves and turmeric. He likens matzah balls to bread used for dipping. “Every culture has a chicken soup. You can explore all different kinds of chicken soup and throw a matzah ball in, and it would work.”
In fact, the matzah ball is the only Ashkenazi food that has been warmly embraced by Sephardic traditions, especially in Israel. “Sephardic cooking is much more popular in Israel now than Ashkenazi cooking — Israel is a warm country, the ingredients are more suitable for Middle Eastern food,” said Janna Gur, editor-in-chief of Israel’s leading gastronomic magazine, Al HaShulchan, and author of “The Book of New Israeli Food” (Schocken, 2008). “Many recipes make the crossover to Ashkenazi households, but not vice versa, except for matzah ball soup.”
Another (chicken or beef?) bone of contention among chefs and cooks relates to texture: dense or light and fluffy?
Cookbook author and food writer Judy Zeidler, also a bubbe of seven, prefers fluffy matzah balls, hands down. “When I got married, my mother-in-law always made sinkers — matzah balls so hard they sink to the bottom of the pot. I grew up with my mother’s matzah balls. Like clouds, they floated to the top of the soup. My husband thought they were ridiculous, but he thought they were so much easier to eat and so much more flavorful.”
To make matzah balls as fluffy as her mother’s, she recommends separating the yolk and whites and then folding the yolk and matzah meal into egg whites beaten into soft peaks. Seltzer is recommended instead of water to increase fluffiness, and chilling matzah balls plays an important part in determining texture.
“Chilling will make it much easier to roll so you can manipulate them,” said Fishbein. “If you can roll them right at the outset you have a lot of matzah meal in them, and they probably won’t be very fluffy.”
Sussman is the only one interviewed for this article who prefers dense matzah balls, or, as she likes to call them, “matzah balls al dente”, an Italian term to describe pasta that is firm but not overcooked.
But home cooks shouldn’t feel discouraged if they can’t think out of the matzah meal box. “My mother used to make matzah balls from scratch,” said Sussman, “but one year we actually tried the mix and found that it worked quite well and started making them from the mix, not because we couldn’t make it from scratch, but because we liked them.”
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Boteach Pitches Shabbat for All
Jewish Journal; March 4, 2009
Click here for original
Jewish tradition has it that if every single Jew observed two full Sabbaths, the Messiah would arrive. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s new initiative, “Turn Friday Night Into Family Night,” might not bring the Messiah, but he hopes that getting Americans to observe a Shabbat-style dinner will be one step toward perfecting America, and ultimately the world.
“Let’s not get them talking about Brangelina and their family. Let’s get them talking about their own family and dreams,” said Boteach at the initiative’s West Coast launch on Feb. 5 at the Beverly Hills home of Sunny Sassoon, CEO of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
Boteach, a prolific writer whose most recent book is “The Kosher Sutra,” called Shabbat “the Jewish community’s gift to the American people.” He envisions American families sitting down every Friday night, using a “two-by-two-by-two” formula: two hours “unplugged” from phones or televisions, two topics for family discussion and two guests. The initiative will be publicized through talk shows, public service announcements and celebrity endorsements.
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stopped by to share his belief in the “the power of the meal.” Addressing the mixed crowd of well-dressed Hollywood types, kippah-wearing Jewish leaders and city officials, Villaraigosa related how his single mother made sure to have dinner with her children every night, no matter how hard she worked that day to support them. “She talked to us about her dreams for us and a world for us to grasp.”
Rachel Hunter, the 1990s “It” supermodel, became a supporter of the initiative after Boteach explained it to her at a birthday party for Kerry “Krucial” Brothers, singer Alicia Keys’ songwriter-producer boyfriend.
Standing two feet taller than Boteach, Hunter, a single mother of two teenagers with ex-husband Rod Stewart, is sure to add a shiksa goddess appeal to the Shabbat queen, saying how important it is for parents to give their children undivided attention. “No matter what time of day it is, I sit at the edge of the bed and listen to them.”
Jewish American spiritual guru Marianne Williamson was also on hand at Sassoon’s home to ruminate on the humbling of America amid the current economic crisis and its readiness for a concept of Shabbat to soothe them.
“It’s beyond values,” she said. “The nervous system is hard-wired. We’re moving too fast.” — Orit Arfa, Contributing Writer
Click here for original
Jewish tradition has it that if every single Jew observed two full Sabbaths, the Messiah would arrive. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s new initiative, “Turn Friday Night Into Family Night,” might not bring the Messiah, but he hopes that getting Americans to observe a Shabbat-style dinner will be one step toward perfecting America, and ultimately the world.
“Let’s not get them talking about Brangelina and their family. Let’s get them talking about their own family and dreams,” said Boteach at the initiative’s West Coast launch on Feb. 5 at the Beverly Hills home of Sunny Sassoon, CEO of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
Boteach, a prolific writer whose most recent book is “The Kosher Sutra,” called Shabbat “the Jewish community’s gift to the American people.” He envisions American families sitting down every Friday night, using a “two-by-two-by-two” formula: two hours “unplugged” from phones or televisions, two topics for family discussion and two guests. The initiative will be publicized through talk shows, public service announcements and celebrity endorsements.
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stopped by to share his belief in the “the power of the meal.” Addressing the mixed crowd of well-dressed Hollywood types, kippah-wearing Jewish leaders and city officials, Villaraigosa related how his single mother made sure to have dinner with her children every night, no matter how hard she worked that day to support them. “She talked to us about her dreams for us and a world for us to grasp.”
Rachel Hunter, the 1990s “It” supermodel, became a supporter of the initiative after Boteach explained it to her at a birthday party for Kerry “Krucial” Brothers, singer Alicia Keys’ songwriter-producer boyfriend.
Standing two feet taller than Boteach, Hunter, a single mother of two teenagers with ex-husband Rod Stewart, is sure to add a shiksa goddess appeal to the Shabbat queen, saying how important it is for parents to give their children undivided attention. “No matter what time of day it is, I sit at the edge of the bed and listen to them.”
Jewish American spiritual guru Marianne Williamson was also on hand at Sassoon’s home to ruminate on the humbling of America amid the current economic crisis and its readiness for a concept of Shabbat to soothe them.
“It’s beyond values,” she said. “The nervous system is hard-wired. We’re moving too fast.” — Orit Arfa, Contributing Writer
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Bashir's Folman Reacts to Oscar Loss
Jewish Journal; February 25, 2009
Click here for original
“Waltz With Bashir” is a movie that expresses filmmaker Ari Folman’s hatred for war. But the run up to the Academy’s announcement for best foreign-language film felt like a war zone of the spirit, with Israeli Oscar dreams crushed by the Japanese.
“I was really hyped and tense. Then it was a drop of adrenaline immediately after the announcement of ‘Departures,’” Folman told The Circuit at the post-Oscar bash at the Beverly Hilton.
He described the exact mood at the Hilton’s International Ballroom, where the Israeli production team — not lucky enough to attend the actual ceremony at the Kodak Theater — watched the Oscars at a viewing banquet held by Jewish philanthropist Daphne Ziman’s Children Uniting Nations and co-sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and 93.5 FM The Beat.
Ziman spread her hope for Zionist victory by reserving several tables for the “Waltz With Bashir” brigade, engaging in hasbara (publicity) by leaving brochures about the film for some 600 guests, including Oscar Nunez (“The Office”), William “Billy” Baldwin, Jane Seymour and Tia Tequila.
The battle was long and drawn out as the best foreign-language film was announced more than two hours into the ceremony.
“It was a total build-up with five categories, then four categories, commercial breaks, sitting here feeling like my heart will jump out of my body,” said Tel Aviv-based animator Neta Holzer, moments after the Japanese bomb fell.
Israeli Consul-General Yaakov Dayan, on hand with consulate staff to provide support, shared the disappointment.
Folman, dashing in a tuxedo, acted like the dignified general as he graciously took time to speak with Israeli reporters, rehashing the same sound bites to give each warring network some individuality, all with the same basic message: “It’s a letdown, but on the other hand, we got so far,” he told them in Hebrew, “that it’s not so bad now.”
He now looks forward to going back to Israel and spending quality time with his family — in real peace. — Orit Arfa, Contributing Writer
Kosher Good Life in Oxnard
Add 10 tables of more than 200 assorted top kosher wines, stir in a buffet of chef Todd Aarons’ gourmet delicacies and simmer in the elegant expanse of the Tierra Sur, a gourmet kosher restaurant in Oxnard, and what do you get? The second annual International Food and Wine Festival hosted by Herzog Wine Cellars on Feb. 18.
The atmosphere was merry yet refined as CEO David Herzog and his nephew, Joseph Herzog, vice president of operations, showcased the best of kosher wines from Spain, Italy, France and California, with an entire hall dedicated to Israeli wines.
Winemakers shared their libations with a crowd of about 200 sprinkled with foodies and wine lovers of all religious shades, members of the Herzog Wine Club, Oxnard Mayor Tom Holden and renowned wine critic Daniel Rogov, who commented on “the increasing level of awareness among both Jewish and non-Jewish wine consumers that there need be no contradiction between fine wine and kosher wine.”
With cigars being hand-rolled in the corner, the evening certainly undid any stereotype that kosher keepers can’t enjoy the good life. — Orit Arfa, Contributing Writer
Click here for original
“Waltz With Bashir” is a movie that expresses filmmaker Ari Folman’s hatred for war. But the run up to the Academy’s announcement for best foreign-language film felt like a war zone of the spirit, with Israeli Oscar dreams crushed by the Japanese.
“I was really hyped and tense. Then it was a drop of adrenaline immediately after the announcement of ‘Departures,’” Folman told The Circuit at the post-Oscar bash at the Beverly Hilton.
He described the exact mood at the Hilton’s International Ballroom, where the Israeli production team — not lucky enough to attend the actual ceremony at the Kodak Theater — watched the Oscars at a viewing banquet held by Jewish philanthropist Daphne Ziman’s Children Uniting Nations and co-sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and 93.5 FM The Beat.
Ziman spread her hope for Zionist victory by reserving several tables for the “Waltz With Bashir” brigade, engaging in hasbara (publicity) by leaving brochures about the film for some 600 guests, including Oscar Nunez (“The Office”), William “Billy” Baldwin, Jane Seymour and Tia Tequila.
The battle was long and drawn out as the best foreign-language film was announced more than two hours into the ceremony.
“It was a total build-up with five categories, then four categories, commercial breaks, sitting here feeling like my heart will jump out of my body,” said Tel Aviv-based animator Neta Holzer, moments after the Japanese bomb fell.
Israeli Consul-General Yaakov Dayan, on hand with consulate staff to provide support, shared the disappointment.
Folman, dashing in a tuxedo, acted like the dignified general as he graciously took time to speak with Israeli reporters, rehashing the same sound bites to give each warring network some individuality, all with the same basic message: “It’s a letdown, but on the other hand, we got so far,” he told them in Hebrew, “that it’s not so bad now.”
He now looks forward to going back to Israel and spending quality time with his family — in real peace. — Orit Arfa, Contributing Writer
Kosher Good Life in Oxnard
Add 10 tables of more than 200 assorted top kosher wines, stir in a buffet of chef Todd Aarons’ gourmet delicacies and simmer in the elegant expanse of the Tierra Sur, a gourmet kosher restaurant in Oxnard, and what do you get? The second annual International Food and Wine Festival hosted by Herzog Wine Cellars on Feb. 18.
The atmosphere was merry yet refined as CEO David Herzog and his nephew, Joseph Herzog, vice president of operations, showcased the best of kosher wines from Spain, Italy, France and California, with an entire hall dedicated to Israeli wines.
Winemakers shared their libations with a crowd of about 200 sprinkled with foodies and wine lovers of all religious shades, members of the Herzog Wine Club, Oxnard Mayor Tom Holden and renowned wine critic Daniel Rogov, who commented on “the increasing level of awareness among both Jewish and non-Jewish wine consumers that there need be no contradiction between fine wine and kosher wine.”
With cigars being hand-rolled in the corner, the evening certainly undid any stereotype that kosher keepers can’t enjoy the good life. — Orit Arfa, Contributing Writer
Monday, January 26, 2009
Working for a Song
Jerusalem Post; January 25, 2009
Click here for original
Songwriter Sheppard Solomon won't be watching the eighth season of American Idol, which is now in full swing - even though the singing contest has gotten him a lot of work.
His latest single, "Feels Like Tonight," performed by American Idol's fifth season finalist Chris Daughtry, reached the top of the charts last year, helping American Idol's most successful rockster clinch the best band award at the American Music Awards.
Solomon has written album tracks for other American Idol winners and finalists: Kelly Clarkson, David Cook and David Archuleta, not to mention artists who made it the "old-fashioned" way, like Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Enrique Iglesias and Paris Hilton.
The singing contest bores the Jewish 39-year-old bachelor, and it reflects his growing disillusionment with the mainstream music business. "It's become more about the wrong things," he says during an interview at his home in the Hollywood Hills. "That's why people don't buy records. They don't feel attached. It's not real. It's more plastic. People like Elton John, Bob Dylan, Sting, Jim Morrison - they were real artists with points of view."
There's another reason people don't buy records: the rise of the Internet. Artists no longer rely on record labels to get their music heard or distributed. Music fans now download their favorite songs or watch videos on YouTube. A songwriter has to produce a genuine radio hit to make a small fortune. "The scope, the range of opportunity is closing in," Solomon says. "You have a lot of people chasing a minimum amount of opportunity. It creates a feeding-frenzy kind of environment. You have 10 records being made that are important and you have 1,000 songwriters writing songs for them."
The New York City native has been writing songs since he was a teenager fronting a rock band. He got his first real songwriting break in 1994 with UK hit single entitled "Just A Step From Heaven," performed by the girl group Eternal. Since then, he's been hustling to stay on top of a business he describes as "political and weird," and often that means lending his melodies and lyrics to manufactured pop stars. "And you don't know where that smash will come, either."
Case in point: "Feels Like Tonight" was first developed in a jam session with Lukasz Gottwald (a.k.a. Dr. Luke, producer of Spears's latest hit, Circus) after working on Paris Hilton's album together. The song lay fallow for several months until they played it to another Swedish hitmaker, Max Martin (also producer for Spears classics, including "Baby One More Time"). Martin further shaped the melody and brought it to the attention of legendary BMG music exec Clive Davis.
"Basically, Clive Davis loved the song and wanted Taylor Hicks to sing it as the winning song for American Idol. They recorded a version of it, but it didn't have the right sound to it. It wasn't convincing. They scrapped that. So six months later they were making the Daughtry record. Clive Davis said we should have him cut it."
EVEN THOUGH he's worked with the biggest names in the industry, Solomon doesn't feel like his career is established.
"Nobody is ever established. It's yes or no. It's a trendy business, like fashion. You always have to be in with the times. Unless you're writing country music - then it doesn't matter," Solomon said.
For now, he has tempered his ambition. "As you get older, you get less infatuated with the rat race. You want the simpler things in life. Being with someone you love. Having a good life. Not running around like a mad person trying to conquer the world."
Seeking fulfillment, depth and a sense of rootedness after working decades in a competitive business that left him feeling tired and empty, Solomon took his first trip to Israel about five years ago and immediately felt a connection. "When you go out in Israel, you don't have to pretend to be something else. You are who you are."
Having gone to Sunday school as a child, he never practiced Judaism seriously. "I'm definitely Jewish and aware of my Jewishness, but I like all religions."
But he felt a sense of belonging in Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, and the simplicity and grittiness of life there charmed him. Now he counts many Israeli ex-pats living in Los Angeles as his good friends. "I need that. I need something removed from my work," he said.
He doesn't have any plans to move to Israel, though. "Last time I went, it was kind of boring. A part of me really loves it. It has a soul to it that's very interesting."
Click here for original
Songwriter Sheppard Solomon won't be watching the eighth season of American Idol, which is now in full swing - even though the singing contest has gotten him a lot of work.
His latest single, "Feels Like Tonight," performed by American Idol's fifth season finalist Chris Daughtry, reached the top of the charts last year, helping American Idol's most successful rockster clinch the best band award at the American Music Awards.
Solomon has written album tracks for other American Idol winners and finalists: Kelly Clarkson, David Cook and David Archuleta, not to mention artists who made it the "old-fashioned" way, like Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Enrique Iglesias and Paris Hilton.
The singing contest bores the Jewish 39-year-old bachelor, and it reflects his growing disillusionment with the mainstream music business. "It's become more about the wrong things," he says during an interview at his home in the Hollywood Hills. "That's why people don't buy records. They don't feel attached. It's not real. It's more plastic. People like Elton John, Bob Dylan, Sting, Jim Morrison - they were real artists with points of view."
There's another reason people don't buy records: the rise of the Internet. Artists no longer rely on record labels to get their music heard or distributed. Music fans now download their favorite songs or watch videos on YouTube. A songwriter has to produce a genuine radio hit to make a small fortune. "The scope, the range of opportunity is closing in," Solomon says. "You have a lot of people chasing a minimum amount of opportunity. It creates a feeding-frenzy kind of environment. You have 10 records being made that are important and you have 1,000 songwriters writing songs for them."
The New York City native has been writing songs since he was a teenager fronting a rock band. He got his first real songwriting break in 1994 with UK hit single entitled "Just A Step From Heaven," performed by the girl group Eternal. Since then, he's been hustling to stay on top of a business he describes as "political and weird," and often that means lending his melodies and lyrics to manufactured pop stars. "And you don't know where that smash will come, either."
Case in point: "Feels Like Tonight" was first developed in a jam session with Lukasz Gottwald (a.k.a. Dr. Luke, producer of Spears's latest hit, Circus) after working on Paris Hilton's album together. The song lay fallow for several months until they played it to another Swedish hitmaker, Max Martin (also producer for Spears classics, including "Baby One More Time"). Martin further shaped the melody and brought it to the attention of legendary BMG music exec Clive Davis.
"Basically, Clive Davis loved the song and wanted Taylor Hicks to sing it as the winning song for American Idol. They recorded a version of it, but it didn't have the right sound to it. It wasn't convincing. They scrapped that. So six months later they were making the Daughtry record. Clive Davis said we should have him cut it."
EVEN THOUGH he's worked with the biggest names in the industry, Solomon doesn't feel like his career is established.
"Nobody is ever established. It's yes or no. It's a trendy business, like fashion. You always have to be in with the times. Unless you're writing country music - then it doesn't matter," Solomon said.
For now, he has tempered his ambition. "As you get older, you get less infatuated with the rat race. You want the simpler things in life. Being with someone you love. Having a good life. Not running around like a mad person trying to conquer the world."
Seeking fulfillment, depth and a sense of rootedness after working decades in a competitive business that left him feeling tired and empty, Solomon took his first trip to Israel about five years ago and immediately felt a connection. "When you go out in Israel, you don't have to pretend to be something else. You are who you are."
Having gone to Sunday school as a child, he never practiced Judaism seriously. "I'm definitely Jewish and aware of my Jewishness, but I like all religions."
But he felt a sense of belonging in Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, and the simplicity and grittiness of life there charmed him. Now he counts many Israeli ex-pats living in Los Angeles as his good friends. "I need that. I need something removed from my work," he said.
He doesn't have any plans to move to Israel, though. "Last time I went, it was kind of boring. A part of me really loves it. It has a soul to it that's very interesting."
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