Blogs

When you land in Israel, what’s your go-to food you’ve been dreaming about and salivating over? Is it savory — sabich, falafel or shawarma?

With all of the heavy, tragic news emanating from seemingly every corner on earth, we can’t forget that it’s still Chanukah and there is still a lot of room for joy and celebration.

With Purim on the horizon, flour, butter, eggs and jams are found on kitchen counters in Jewish homes — including ours. The title “Best Hamantaschen Recipe Ever” certainly captured our attention. That’s what Shannon Sarna of The Nosher calls the hamantaschen recipe below.

Considering its prosaic nature, the ordinary onion garners its share of poetic prose. Take this line from Mark Kurlansky’s ode to the allium, The Core of an Onion: “The onion is an extraordinary lily, certainly more talented than other lilies.”

The nine days, which began Monday, Aug. 5, is a period of heightened mourning in the Jewish calendar, culminating with Tisha b’Av, the Ninth of Av. During this mourning period, anything associated with joy or celebration is traditionally forbidden. That includes the consumption of meat, with some exceptions, including Shabbat or if one is making a siyyum, a ceremony upon completing a unit of Torah study.

When Elite Candy’s factory temporarily shut down a couple of years back due to a fire, Israeli candy lovers everywhere went into withdrawal. We know of one Denverite (hint: you’ll typically find her on Page 2 of the IJN) who deeply missed her regular Egozi bar top-ups delivered by a faithful brother.

When you find out that one of your Shabbat or holiday guests is vegetarian — or worse, vegan — do you panic? Where among the shmaltz-laden potato kugel and roasted chicken are the dishes your dietarily restricted guest can tuck into? And when Passover rolls around, with all of its own added restrictions, does your panic hit new levels?

Nearly five months to the day after Oct. 7, Sagi Gabay and Avigail Olman are sat in the IJN conference room, recounting the hell they’ve lived through. This isn’t the first time they’re telling their stories, not even the first time that day. They’ve come from a meeting at the Colorado State Capitol with the Jewish members of the House and Senate.

Consideringus Jews have a whole leap month (that we’re currently in), it’s not surprising that Leap Day, Feb. 29, doesn’t have much significance in the Jewish world.

Oct. 7 hasn’t left much headspace for meandering trips down memory lane. In fact, we haven’t published a From the Archives post since September. Current events overtook. As for many …

Fifty years ago next week war broke out in Israel. It was the holiest day in the Jewish calendar and the country was caught unawares.

pomegranate has become synonymous with Rosh Hashanah. Images of the fruit are mainstays of Rosh Hashanah cards, Jewish jewelry and a range of Jewish ritual objects, and the fruit itself makes frequent appearances in Jewish cuisine.

One of the best things about a visit to the IJN archives is that you never know where you’ll end up. Example: Intending to write a post about this year’s summer movies, both of which have a Jewish connection, we instead wound up discovering this incredible front page from the IJN’s Rosh Hashanah edition from 1948.

Have you heard of the Colorado Jewish Indian who fought in an 1868 battle near Wray? Neither had we! OK, he wasn’t actually an Indian, the headline in the July 26, 1951 edition of the IJN led us slightly astray.

Ahead of the publication of its 110th Anniversary Magazine, the Intermountain Jewish News peruses its archives to see how earlier anniversaries were marked, particularly the 40th.

When you kibbitz with your friends, does your babble ever lead to a big brouhaha? English words with Jewish linguistic origins.

A search through the IJN archives on Parade Day celebrating the 2022-2023 Denver Nuggets NBA championships reveals a forgotten earlier iteration of the Denver Nuggets.

Seventy-nine years after D-Day, a search through the IJN archives for how Denver Jewry recognized the Allied invasion of Europe.

On the 28th of Iyar in 1967, during the Six Day War, Jerusalem was reunited under Israeli sovereignty after years of Jordanian rule. Since then, this historic day, today called Jerusalem Day, is celebrated with great enthusiasm and joy by the people of Israel and many Jews worldwide.

to the natural clash between the lunar and solar calendar, Shavuot can fall out either in May or June. Imagine our delight when we discovered that May is American Cheese Month, and that this year Shavuot falls in May!

Ahead of Charles III’s coronation, a search through the IJN archives for how past coronations of British kings and queens were covered.

When it comes to marriages, reaching the 75-year milestone is a rarity — for countries, however, 75 is relatively young! Some reflections on 75 and 1948 on Israel’s 75th.

How did the IJN report the birth of the state of Israel, 75 years ago, and what else was making news at the time?

As a parent, I’ve realized that the mitzvah of educating your children about the story of the Exodus from Egypt begins earlier — not at the seder, but before, in the kitchen.