Jewish Celiacs Blog-In

Well, today I am 65. I was born on the second day of Shavuot, Sivan 7, 5703 (June 10, 1943), towards the end of WW II and the Holocaust that had taken the lives of approximately six million Jews and five million non-Jews. No one, when they are a teenager, can ever imagine what it is like to be 65, or older for that matter. However, here I am and the most that matters now is that I try to leave this world in whatever time is left, G-d willing, in a better shape than when I came into it. Why? Why not! I once told Lance Haver, who presently is the head of the Mayor’s Office For Consumer Affairs (in Philadelphia, PA) and had previously inherited the leadership of CEPA, Consumers Education & Protective Association, from the late founder, Max Weiner, that “It doesn’t make sense to be alive if you cannot do something for someone else.” He agreed. That’s why I joined and served on the board of directors of CEPA and walked the picket lines for other consumers. That’s why I agreed to be the administrator of the Holocaust Awareness Museum, founded by the late Yaakov Riz, from 2000 until 2005, and that’s why I created Jewish Celiacs and Jewish Celiacs Newsletter in early 2000. B’ruch HaShem!

It is always exciting when you do something differently, or something new. This year (2008 / 5768-69), I finally trademarked Jewish Celiacs with the help of fellow photographer / videographer and Holocaust archiver, Lenny Friedman, who spent a good deal of his adult life documenting the life and times of Yaakov Riz and many Delaware Valley Holocaust survivors. Thanks, Len.

What’s also new? Well, Jewish Celiacs marched in a parade to honor Israel’s 60th Birthday on May 18, 2008, and I have a photo taken by someone with my, new, Canon Powershot S5 IS camera, showing me with a sign that had taken me a little more than a while to make up the night before. I took a lot of shots that day. One of mine appears on the front page of this edition, Vol. 3, No. 2. Also, in this edition, I was able to get two writers to give the readers of Jewish Celiacs Newsletter a glimpse into what it is like to get involved with Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo “Blood Type Diet” (My Trip To Dr. D’s Blood Type Clinic by Olga Powell) and just what “Autism” has to do with Celiac Disease (Autism, CD & The Gluten-Free Diet by Robert Eckstein). I’m sure the readers of JCN will walk away with a fairly good insight to both Autism and the Blood Type Diet. Look forward to the next column by Robert this September, and Olga said that she might be willing to give us an update in the near future. Cool!

My cover story, Celiacs In Israel, was as good as it gets for now because, though it gives you a good idea of what’s happening with Celiac Disease in Eretz Yisrael as well as a slight peek into how CD affects non-Jews in the Middle East, percentage-wise, it could have gone much deeper. I will try to uncover more for the next edition. Shane! In addition, I included a piece called “A New Study: Is Celiac Disease Under-diagnosed?,” which revealed that it is now “1 out of 100″ Americans that may have Celiac with “5% diagnosed.” Previously, it was 1 out of 133 and 3% were diagnosed. There’s more about that news too. Besides my Editorial and Letter To Editor, I reviewed a very hip book on allergies that included information on Celiac. The name, “Allergy Free” by Conrad Kail, N.D. and others.” This book was really full of good data. Each edition, I give out important information under the heading, “Jewish Diseases.” This edition, I featured the lowdown on “Factor XI Deficiency,” which affects Ashkenazim. Each time that I publish JCN, I feature what are commonly referred to as Jewish diseases like Tay Sachs, etc. There are a number of them that either affect Ashkenazim, or Sephardim specifically, but it should be possible that many Y’hudeem who are the offspring one Ashkenazic parent and one Sephardic parent could get any one attributed to both. In any event, you can go to Jewish Celiacs Newsletter, look to your right for Jewish Diseases, click on the link, and read all about them. I will be featuring my second one that effects Sephardim in my next edition of my newsletter. If you have any questions, e-mail me at sid.karp at jewishceliacs.com. And… don’t forget to try to patronize the businesses that advertise in Jewish Celiacs Newsletter. It supports the cause!

Shalom until next time, G-d willing!

Shalom. I had mentioned in my last blog, in closing, that I would be going to Kosherfest 2007, which was held “on Veterans Day and Veterans Day [Observed], November 11 and 12 at the Javitts Center in New York City.” The story about this huge event appears as the front page story in the first edition of Jewish Celiacs Newsletter (Vol. 3, No. 1) for 2008/5768. JCN is available in and around Philadelphia at such places as Harry’s Natural Foods (215-742-3807), Natural Goodness Market & Cafe (215-977-7749), Essene Market & Cafe (215-922-1146), Mr. Ritt’s Gluten-Free Bakery (215-627-3034), Espresso Cafe & Sushi Bar (215-745-0130), Mama’s Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant (215-751-0477), Singapore Kosher Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant (215-922-3288), the JCC Klein Branch (215-698-7300) and other spots that are listed in the paper edition and on line. I am including their phone numbers so you can get directions to their businesses from anyone, or all of them. They all have, or still do advertise with JCN, except for JCC Klein Branch, and I want to thank all of them for their support!

My friend, Nira Eckstein, and I, along with a friend of hers who did not attend the kosher extravaganza, but who had come to the Big Apple (NYC) for other reasons, did make the trip to this big once-a-year event. Nira and I, as members of the press, in our case Jewish Celiacs Newsletter, spent several hours going from booth to booth looking for “kosher, gluten-free food,” but for Nira, that same food also had to be “casein-free.” Her son, Avi, who has Austism, is on a “gluten-free/casein-free diet,” which some say does help those who have Autism. For those who are not too familiar with Autism, here’s the scoop so to speak. It is described in The American Heritage Science Dictionary on line as, “A developmental disorder characterized by severe deficits in social interaction and communication and by abnormal behavior patterns, such as the repetition of specific movements or a tendency to focus on certain objects.” It also says, “Autism is evident in the first years of life.” and that “Its cause is unknown.” American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition on line describes Autism [(aw-tiz-uhm)] as, “A serious disorder appearing in childhood and characterized by the child’s refusal to relate to other people and severely limited use of language.” It continues with saying that, “The cause of autism in children is unknown, but researchers generally feel that it lies in a malfunction of the central nervous system, not in the way parents have treated them or in other aspects of their environment.” It then adds that, “The term is sometimes applied, more loosely, to adults who are extremely self-absorbed and who see things in terms of their hopes and fantasies rather than realistically.”

I know Nira’s son, Avi, and he is as active as many young boys his age. He is just as inquisitive, or as self-absorbed, as other youngsters that I have known. He appears to be quite intelligent and he talks more these days than he did when I had first met him, but there are moments when he appears to be day-dreaming too much, or he may go overboard in his pursuit of fun, but my gut feeling is that with his parents’ help, Avi will work it out in time. Nira and her husband, Robert, feel that a “gluten-free/casein-free diet” will probably help him in the long run too. I agree. Some scientists even think that there may be a relationship between Celiac Disease and Autism, or at least there are a number of symptoms they have in common. Nira hopes to have an article on Autism and the Gluten-Free/Casein-Free diet for the next edition in May. I am looking forward to it. Nira is a new staff member of Jewish Celiacs Newsletter and for now Autism is her beat.

Besides my report on Kosherfest 2007, which was pretty exciting though I (and Nira) had expected something more magnanimous though I want to congratulate the people who put it on for a job well done, I am going to shortly mention some of the other things that I published for this edition. About Kosherfest 2007, I wrote, “I cannot swear to the numbers, but Kosherfest 2007 reports, ‘More than 10,000 professional attendees, exhibitors, and press converged at the collocated Cultural Food New York event featuring Kosherfest, Expo Comida Latina and All Asia Food.’ Since I could only attend the first day, November 11, I will say that the number of folks who wandered in and out on that day alone may have been at least several thousand, which is quite a number anyway.” I did get to see quite a variety of kosher, food products as well as mostly non-kosher, foods products from Expo Comida and All Asia Food, both of which shared the same overall, but separate spaces, on the first floor with Kosherfest. On the whole and considering the time we had to spend because we got there a little late, I also met a lot of friendly people everywhere.

NOTE: I should be able to have this paper edition of JCN up on line with a link from it on my right-column bar to the page where you can see this and other past editions in a week, or so from this writing (Feb. 7, 2008). Make a note and go to Jewish Celiacs Newsletter to see if it’s up and running. If not, again, please stop back later.

Other stories, besides the headliner, “Looking For Gluten-Free Food at Kosherfest 2007” and the regular three under the heading, Kosher Food News, I included “S. Florida Gluten Free Fair,” “Kosher Blog: Gluten-Free Bay,” “NOW®’s “Gluten Digest”: A Celiac’s Dream Come True?,” “China Goes Kosher To Stop The U.S. Backlash,” “Celiacs & What Food Is Right For Your Blood Type,” “Book Review: Allergies For Dummies,” “Jewish Diseases: Cystic Fibrosis (Ashkenazic),” “Symptoms and Results of Celiac Disease,” “Celiac Restaurants (GF Menus Only!), Bakeries & Shops,” “Kosher Restaurants & Shops in the Philadelphia Area,” “New Guidelines For Advertising In This Newsletter Or On JCN’s Web Site,” the “JCN Editorial” and the “Letters to Editor.”

To repeat, go to Jewish Celiacs Newsletter to read it on line if you cannot get a paper edition copy. If it’s not up and running by the time you will be reading this, or later when you come back, you can send your name and address along with $2 for postage, mailing and handling, and I will send you a copy of the paper edition via U.S. mail if your mailing address is in the U.S. Add $2 more for overseas. Subscriptions: You can also subscribe to the paper edition for $10 a year, or $15 for 2 years. This way, you can have it delivered to your door three times a year, or three times in a row. Add $6, or $12, respectively for overseas. Send the amount(s) mentioned as a check, or money order, to Subscriptions, Jewish Celiacs Newsletter, P.O. Box 58059, Philadelphia, PA 19102-8059. Make the check, or money order, out to Jewish Celiacs. NOTE: In the case of a check, when it clears, then I will send the paper edition off to you. In the case of a subscription, the second and third editions will go out automatically.

G-d willing, I will be reporting more Kosher food and Celiac Disease news and views. Stay tuned!

Shalom and welcome once again to Jewish Celiacs Blog-In for 2007, or 5767-5768, and a belated Happy Rosh HaShanah to one and all.

The Hebrew-Jewish High Holidays are over for the Christian-Business year, 2007 and we are now into 6768, but nothing much has changed as far as anti-Semitism is concerned. In fact it is getting worse all around the world and our ancestral, G-d-given Homeland, Yisrael, is in more danger than ever before. Let’s hope that we get through 5768 and years to come. B’ruch HaShem!

As a former administrator of the Holocaust Awareness Museum, founded by the late, Yaakov Riz, and a Jewish War Veteran who had served during the Cuban Crisis and for the first year of the Vietnam War stateside, thank G-d, we must win the battle against our enemies if we are to survive. Let’s hope and pray that we do!

On the Celiac Disease/Kosher food front, which is what this blog is all about, Jewish Celiacs Newsletter has already published its three editions for the C-B year of 2007 and it wasn’t easy, especially as far as finances go. If it weren’t for my wonderful advertisers, my supporters and a few generous friends who are also my supporters who lent me funds to publish, thank G-d, JCN may not have been able to go to bed and hit the streets as it is said in the publishing world.

Vol. 2, No. 1 and Vol. 2, No. 2 featured Part 1 and Part 2, respectively, of a piece called “Kosher, Asian Food Companies,” which tried to show what part Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian countries played in the manufacture of Kosher foods for export to the U.S., Israel and elsewhere. OU and Circle K were the main certifiers involved. I did a piece called “Is It Really Safe For Celiacs To Eat Oats?” and I had several heated arguments on it. I still say no to oats! “Vitamin K and Celiac Disease” is something I will bring up in 2008 again. I recalled an old friend who had passed away in December 2006 in my article, “Bill Kishi, Center City Restaurateur and Friend Passed On.” He’s one of several, close friends that I won’t ever forget. New advertisers, Natural Goodness Market & Cafe, Mr. Ritt’s Gluten-Free Bakery and Essene Market & Cafe joined Mama’s Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant, Espresso Cafe & Sushi and Harry’s Natural Food Store. Other advertisers who came on board in 2007 were the ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) - Greater Philadelphia District, Len Friedman’s ad for his book, “A Student’s Introduction To Holocaust Studies,” and Nira Eckstein’s ad for Hebrew Tutor.

I also ran my continuous column, Jewish Diseases. Do we Jews have our share of diseases! There’s ones like Tay Sachs, Canavan, Gaucher’s and many more for mainly Ashkenazim, but there are several others for Sephardim as well. Plus, there are ones that many Jews, more than than others in the U.S., suffer from and they are Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis and in author, Mary J. Shomon’s words, “Celiac disease and ulcerative colitis are more common in people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent (from eastern or central Europe).” The bad news just keeps piling up. Oy gevault!!!

In Book Review, I reviewed a few books, “Jewish Cooking For Dummies by Faye Levy,” “Living Gluten-Free for Dummies,” and “A Primitive Diet.” I also ran a free ad, ACDA Launches Survey to Assist FDA on Gluten-Free Labeling, which I thought was most important for all Celiacs to be aware of. I reviewed “Review: GIG - Gluten Intolerance Group,” one of several, Celiac self-help organization that are championing the cause. Wheat gluten is not only a problem for us humans, but for animals who are people’s pets and I decided to bring that up in “Gluten, Melamine and the Deaths of People’s Pets.” Communist China is still being raked over the coals for that as well as a million other health problems. U.S. companies who imported their products that had made their way into the animals’ food are to blame as well. Even though I no longer down a few beers now and then, I did a piece, “Beer: Ramapo Valley, Gluten-Free and Kosher Too.”

I started my Editorial and Letters in Vol. 2, No. 2 and by Vol. 2, No. 3, I changed them to JCN Editorial and Letters to Editor, respectively. Every publication should have those two columns. In No. 2, I place a “Subscription” blank and I began to get some subscriptions, which in case you want to know, are $10 a year, which includes three (3) editions mailed to your door! I covered a very important development, which I ran as “A Cure for CD? - Alba Therapeutics Reports on AT-1001.” This has to be followed more closely as time marches on. Let’s not forget “Kosher Food News” too!

The big event of the year 2007, before the upcoming Kosherfest 2007 will probably be pretty equal to at this writing, for me was The Gluten-Free Cooking Spree, held at Philadelphia’s Regency Hyatt at Penn’s Landing. I had the opportunity to lend my support to the cause for Celiac Disease by participating in a cooking contest and with none other than the TV star of Christina Cooks, Christina Pirello, as a reporter and an assistant chef. We (Christina, Dr. Edward Jones of Chestnut Hill Hospital and me) got to prepare Christina’s recipe, Kasha Tabouleh Salad with Mini Eggplant Lasagnas. All teams created gluten-free dishes. Many hospitals, food companies and news organizations, including Jewish Celiacs Newsletter, took part in this terrific event. Several kids and an adult were the judges and the winning recipe was… gluten-free pizza. What else would a bunch of kids pick. Right? I wrote it up as “Philadelphia: The Gluten-Free Cooking Spree” in Vol. 2, No. 2. Go to Jewish Celiacs Newsletter online and check it out when I get the edition up online by mid-November. Yes, I am and I have been as busy as a bee.

I also had the pleasure in 2007 of speaking at the Northeast Chapter of the Fibromyalgia Support Groups for Beginners on August 27, 12 PM. I spoke at their Advanced Group in 2006. I also shared a table at the Annual Health Fair at the Philadelphia Health Center #10 on September 26, 2007 with the Fibromyalgia group. Those two events will appear in the next edition in January 2008. I also interviewed Dr. Donna M. Skerry of the Amazing Wellness Center. I wrote in Vol. 3, No. 3, “She is a chiropractor, nutritional consultant, acupressurist, and a mind and body professional who treats disease with alternative medicine. Her patients have included Celiacs and those with Dermatitis Herpetiformis, a skin disease and a symptom of Celiac.”

In 2008, the first edition of JCN, Vol. 3, No. 1, will feature a story on Kosherfest 2007, which is taking place beginning on Veterans Day and Veterans Day [Observed], November 11 and 12 at the Javitts Center in New York City. I am a Veteran, but don’t ask me yet why they picked those two days in the middle of WW IV, but they did! Shane g’nug! I am going to this huge, two-day event with the wife of a close friend, Robert Eckstein. Nira Eckstein, who recently joined JCN’s staff, and I will be there on the 11th. She and I will be co-authoring the lead story on Kosherfest 2007. I will be returning to the Big Apple (NYC) on the 12th since there will be more to see, hear and (of course) eat. Going there with Nira on the 11th will also free me up to take photos and do some side stories and perhaps conduct an interview. Nira’s son, Avi, has Autism and is on a gluten-free and a dairy-free diet and this event is of particular interest to her and Robert. It should be a great two days. Go to Jewish Celiacs Newsletter in January 2008 to read it online if you cannot get a paper edition copy. You can subscribe to the paper edition for $10 a year and have it delivered to your door three (3) times a year (three times in a row). Send the aforementioned amount as a money order (no checks, or cash) to Subscriptions, Jewish Celiacs Newsletter, P.O. Box 58059, Philadelphia, PA 19102-8059. Make the money order out to Sid Karp and not to Jewish Celiacs Newsletter.

Stay tuned in late November, or early December 2007 for a brief, pre-next edition, report on Kosherfest 2007 with news on what is the latest in Kosher, Gluten-Free food and more.

Note: If there is something that you wish to relay to me right away, which I may include in this blog, or in my paper edition of my next newsletter, which does end up online after it hits selective spots in the Delaware Valley - Philadelphia area, you can e-mail me at sid.karp at jewishceliacs.com. — Cut and paste the former and the latter words before the word “at” and add a “@” in between both words in your e-mail address space and send your comments, questions and even suggestions to me.

Finally! Stay tuned. I have been working on JCN’s mailing list for some time. I do plan to have it done shortly. Thanks and have a Happy Chanukah too

Shalom.

Welcome to Jewish Celiacs Blog-In, formerly located at Blogger, owned by Google, which, Jewishly-speaking gave me enough bad vibes in 2006 to make me set up my own WordPress blog on my Jewish Celiacs Newsletter web site. WordPress is really cool and easy to manage. You can either set up your own blog, or blogs on their site, or install it on your own server, or one you pay rent to use. I use BlueHost, which is one of the best in the business and pretty inexpensive, or you you could say, cheap! It’s also well-supported by the free source community that also supports Linux and FreeBSD as opposed to Microsoft, etc.

Beginning with this year, 5765 (2006-2007), I hope to be able to do more reporting on the Celiac and Kosher scene between working on my paper, the on-the-street edition of Jewish Celiacs Newsletter.

See you soon and shalom.

Happy Rosh Hashanah once again! It has been over a year (Friday, September 24, 2004, or Tishri 9, 5765) since I had written the initial post for this blog, Jewish Celiacs Blog-In. Since that time, there has not been a response from anyone to my first post, so I have decided to use this blog as a news hangout instead. I did some advertising of this site, but that did not seem to do the trick. I was very busy with being the Administrator of the Holocaust Awareness Museum, America’s first Holocaust museum, founded by the late Yaakov Riz, for the last four years and ending this past June. I quit that gig for reasons that I will not go into here and now and decided to put more time into my Celiac site Jewish Celiacs Newsletter, which I created in 1999-2000. It is located online at http://www.jewishceliacs.com/. I am also going to put more time into my photography site, SGK Photos, which can be found at http://www.sgkphotos.com/, and its companion blog, SGK Photo BlogIn at http://sgkphotoblogin.blogspot.com/.

As soon as I discover something about Celiac Disease and Kosher food that I feel you should know about, I will try to post it here first, rather than on my web site, Jewish Celiacs Newsletter, because it will much quicker and easier to post to and it’s one page to concentrate on. Look for some new items soon. Among the coming news, will be that (1) - I am putting out a paper edition of the Jewish Celiacs Newsletter for all of those who do not have a computer, or who have some kind of computer phobia and (2) - I hope to be organizing a Jewish Celiacs Support Group in the very near future. More about that soon. Meanwhile, visit Jewish Celiacs Newsletter. Questions, comments, or suggestions? To eliminate spam, and I get plenty of it at this address, e-mail me at sidkarp at jewishceliacs.com. I substituted the @ sign with the word “at” to give spammers a hard time. See you on the web.

Shalom and welcome to the beginning of Jewish Celiacs Blog-In at the very beginning of the Jewish New Year, 5765, which roughly corresponds with the world-wide, business calendar year, 2004. May things get better for all of us, whether we have, or never have had Celiac Disease. Happy Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur to everyone!

It’s not fun to have to restrict yourself to certain kinds of foods, though many of us have had to get used to not eating wheat bagels, rye bread, beef-barley soup, oat meal cookies, all kinds of cakes, pizza and even matzo after we had discovered that we had Celiac Disease, or Sprue as it is sometimes called. Finding tasty substitues that weren’t made from wheat, rye, barley and also oats was a real chore at first. However, white, brown and various wild rices, not to mention some other grains, began to taste mighty good to us. Many, like myself, began to eat more corn and soy products too. I imagine that a whole new world opened up for most of us eventually. Right?

Since most brands of ketchup (catsup), mustard, mayonnaise and even soy sauce contain wheat-derived vinegar, which puts them on the forbidden list, we have had to find either those food dressings without vinegar, or something entirely different like olive oil and lemon juice to pour on our meals. Where there is a will, there is a way! Nu?

Many Jews already enjoy going to Chinese restaurants, so it wasn’t hard for many of us with Celiac Disease to steer clear of most Euro-American restaurants, or markets, where the forbidden grains are the norm on the menu, or on the shelves and to have started going elsewhere; to Asian-American places. If you live in the U.S., and this is probably true for European, Canadian, Australian and Israeli Celiacs who are not native Asians, or Africans, that is mostly the case. Those who know are already aware that almost everything on the menu has that flour in it, or all you can see, row after row, in your local Acme, or Super Fresh (no plugs intended), is boxes of wheat cereals, wheat and rye breads, various cakes and so on. So, many of us probably have moved on towards Asian-American restaurants and markets, where the emphasis is on rice!

Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese and even Indian-American restaurants and markets carry a lot of very interesting and tasty items, which can be prepared in a kosher way at home, except for the fresh beef, poultry and fish, but it’s also like that in non-Asian-American markets. There are more than several kosher, Asian-American restaurants, practically all of which are vegetarian, so if you like beef, chicken and fish with your rice and vegetables, you will have a problem eating out if you are strictly kosher without going into further details. When you shop, you always can go to a kosher butcher.

When it comes to kosher, price can also be a limiting factor. However, I’m not suggesting that you give up being kosher, but I’m just stating the facts. You can eat entirely kosher and gluten-free at home and go to a kosher Asian-American restaurant once in a while, or as often as you like to. Euro-American, kosher restaurants (Jewish restaurants) serve lots of bread and pasta, but you can always ask if they will substitute something for the bread that comes with the meal. Otherwise, you will end up paying for bread that you cannot eat! Do you want to do that if you are on a limited, or fixed income? Probably not! You might have to wonder if some pasta “accidentally” fell into your salad by mistake at the places you used to go to often too. I experienced that problem and ended up in a hospital for five days where they kept bringing me meals with the forbidden grains! Five times!!! I had to complain to three dieticians and the cooks, or the dieticians still couldn’t get it right. Go figure! Right???

Those of you who live anywhere else than in the U.S. on G-d’s good Earth can join in and tell the rest of us here how you make out where you are. That includes our brethern in Yisrael and non-Jews everywhere. I invite everyone to visit Jewish Celiacs Newsletter, located at www.jewishceliacs.com, which I happily created in late 1999 to help my fellow Celiacs, and especially Jewish Celiacs with the added problem of finding good Kosher food. Log in and look around and stop back here to add your two cents to the equation.

Note: When you Post, or Reply to a post, please remember to check the time and the date on your post before you press Publish Post, or your time and date could be wrong.

Try to be kosher and gluten-free!

Shalom aleichem and L’chaim!