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.