Challah

For Rosh Hashanah this Friday night, Jews of Ashkenazic descent, whose roots are primarily in Eastern Europe, will probably have gefilte fish and matzoh ball soup on their tables. Members of a second branch of Judaism, the Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors were expelled from Spain to the Middle East and elsewhere during the Inquisition, are more likely to serve jellied striped bass and autumn vegetable soup. The two groups' culinary traditions have about as much in common as, say, Italian and Mexican "Christian" food.

The sky was still dark Wednesday when the faithful started to arrive at Roling's Bakery in Elkins Park. Some carried crumpled lists, moist from the morning mist, others had memorized their marching orders. "Five raisin and five plain," Deb Goldberg said in a breathy rush. "Every year I come from Center City. It's an annual ritual. " She refers to the ritual buying of the holiday challah. This shop is so small (three's a crowd) that the Roling family sets up a tent in its minuscule parking lot off Montgomery Avenue to sell round loaves of challah for the Jewish High Holy Days.

The sky was still dark Wednesday when the faithful started to arrive at Roling's Bakery in Elkins Park. Some carried crumpled lists, moist from the morning mist; others had memorized their marching orders. "Five raisin and five plain," Deb Goldberg said in a breathy rush. "Every year I come from Center City. It's an annual ritual. " She refers to the ritual buying of the holiday challah. This shop is so small (three's a crowd) that the Roling family sets up a tent in its minuscule parking lot off Montgomery Avenue to sell round loaves of challah for the Jewish High Holy Days.

As Rosalie Alexander showed two freshly baked loaves of challah to the group of fledgling bakers, a debate arose over whether one should break the traditional Jewish bread or cut it with a knife. "A knife is a weapon of war," Alexander told the nine women who had gathered Tuesday night in the basement kitchen of the Kaiserman Branch of the Jewish Community Center in Lower Merion. "Some Jews believe that it should not be introduced on the Sabbath. " The women, young and old, had come to the JCC to learn to make challah, a braided bread traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath.

At Zeke's Fifth Street Deli in Society Hill, owners Paul Cohen and Mark Krause offer a Monte Cristo sandwich with a twist. Zeke's version of this popular sandwich spins in the restaurant's Jewish-deli style by using challah French toast with turkey, ham and Swiss cheese. Of course, a Monte Cristo is not a Monte Cristo unless it is served with a side of maple syrup. Mark says this sandwich is for when "someone likes something different. " With its sweet and savory combinations, surely, this sandwich is fit for a king - or at least a count.

Makes 10 one-cup servings 1. Wash all vegetables and set aside. Mix challah breadcrumbs with olive oil, salt and pepper and set aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a deep 8-by-12-inch rectangular baking dish. 2. Slice all vegetables in 1/8-inch thick rounds. Layer the sweet potatoes in a slightly overlapping arrangement on the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and 1/4 of the cheese. Repeat this layering process with the rutabagas, butternut squash, and turnips.

The Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework begins its new year of programs on Wednesday at the Jewish Community Center of Southern New Jersey, 2395 West Marlton Pike, Cherry Hill. The organization includes chapters in Canada, Israel and South Africa, said Fradele Feld, publicity chairwoman for the group. Overall, there are about 600 to 700 members, including about 30 people from New Jersey, Philadelphia and suburban Pennsylvania who make up the Delaware Valley Chapter. The local guild was founded about 12 years ago by a group of women in New York, Feld said.

By Sidney B. Kurtz On the fourth Friday of each month, about 1:15 p.m., you can see her entering the front door of the Kresson View Center, a nursing home in Voorhees, to get ready for Shabbus (Sabbath) services. A couple of tables have been pushed together and chairs placed around them in the dining room or in the conference room, whichever is available. Hilda Isaacson, with the blessing of the Jewish Family Service and with her trademark silvery-white hair neatly coiffed, spreads out white tablecloths and sets out two candelabras, a bottle of grape juice, printouts of Hebrew prayers with transliteration for those not familiar with the age-old language, and a fresh, twist challah - the traditional bread eaten on the Sabbath.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish holy day that ushers in the most hallowed 10 days in the Jewish calendar, begins this year at sundown Friday. This period of prayer and introspection, called the Days of Awe, ends at sundown Oct. 9, after the Yom Kippur fast. Jews believe that during the Days of Awe a heavenly tribunal judges everyone's fate for the coming year, which explains why the traditional Rosh Hashanah Hebrew greeting asks that loved ones be inscribed in the Book of Life for a good year.

Charles Kazinetz, 103, a Russian immigrant who worked for six decades as a Philadelphia baker, died Wednesday in his South Philadelphia home of 65 years. Mr. Kazinetz, who had served nearly three years in the czar's army in Siberia in the early 1900s, immigrated to the United States in 1911, immediately settling in Philadelphia and quickly establishing himself as a baker. "He had a reason for being a baker," said a son-in-law, Henry Nalitt. "He used to say, 'Even if you were poor, you could bring bread in the house if you were a baker.

The sky was still dark Wednesday when the faithful started to arrive at Roling's Bakery in Elkins Park. Some carried crumpled lists, moist from the morning mist; others had memorized their marching orders. "Five raisin and five plain," Deb Goldberg said in a breathy rush. "Every year I come from Center City. It's an annual ritual. " She refers to the ritual buying of the holiday challah. This shop is so small (three's a crowd) that the Roling family sets up a tent in its minuscule parking lot off Montgomery Avenue to sell round loaves of challah for the Jewish High Holy Days.

Every cuisine exists as part of a story. One part of the story told by Jewish foods is of migration, assimilation, and now-vanished worlds. Eastern Europe, Spain, Russia, Yemen, Greece, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and Bukhara in what is now Uzbekistan were all once home to large and vibrant Jewish communities. As these old communities were forced to disband and regroup in the diaspora, the foods of their past became an important link in their new lines. So the story of modern Jewish food is one of a dynamic, multicultural cuisine.

The sky was still dark Wednesday when the faithful started to arrive at Roling's Bakery in Elkins Park. Some carried crumpled lists, moist from the morning mist, others had memorized their marching orders. "Five raisin and five plain," Deb Goldberg said in a breathy rush. "Every year I come from Center City. It's an annual ritual. " She refers to the ritual buying of the holiday challah. This shop is so small (three's a crowd) that the Roling family sets up a tent in its minuscule parking lot off Montgomery Avenue to sell round loaves of challah for the Jewish High Holy Days.

Makes 10 one-cup servings 1. Wash all vegetables and set aside. Mix challah breadcrumbs with olive oil, salt and pepper and set aside. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a deep 8-by-12-inch rectangular baking dish. 2. Slice all vegetables in 1/8-inch thick rounds. Layer the sweet potatoes in a slightly overlapping arrangement on the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and 1/4 of the cheese. Repeat this layering process with the rutabagas, butternut squash, and turnips.

In the light of day, on a cafe table at the edge of Rittenhouse Square, the challah roll strikes a pose, clasping in its jaws the 13-ounce Rougeburger, one of the town's undisputed jefes . And over at the Grill off the rotunda of the Ritz-Carlton, a longer golden roll enfolds the luxe lobster salad, garnished with shaved radish, tomato and pea tendrils. And here and there - perhaps at Ansill or Marigold or Snackbar or other trendy rooms, or the occasional country club, or catered affair or, on Sunday mornings, the farm market at Head House Square - a cheese plate is finished with tiles of sour-cream crackers, baskets bulge with black-olive flatbreads, or an exotic, soy-seasoned, peanut-crusted focaccia may make a memorable debut.

By Sidney B. Kurtz On the fourth Friday of each month, about 1:15 p.m., you can see her entering the front door of the Kresson View Center, a nursing home in Voorhees, to get ready for Shabbus (Sabbath) services. A couple of tables have been pushed together and chairs placed around them in the dining room or in the conference room, whichever is available. Hilda Isaacson, with the blessing of the Jewish Family Service and with her trademark silvery-white hair neatly coiffed, spreads out white tablecloths and sets out two candelabras, a bottle of grape juice, printouts of Hebrew prayers with transliteration for those not familiar with the age-old language, and a fresh, twist challah - the traditional bread eaten on the Sabbath.

Last year, as we gathered for Rosh Hashanah, one thought upstaged all the others: Michael is fine. Our cheerful, rosy-cheeked, funny son-in-law managed to get out of the area near the World Trade Center and had come home unscathed to our daughter and their two young sons. Immediately there was that intensely personal, almost selfish, relief. We were fine. But after a year of processing, we realize that we are not fine. In fact, another son-in-law, a psychiatrist, might say we're in denial, daily trying to escape our lingering dark thoughts.

On Friday night, Jews around the world will usher in the year 5763 as they celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This year Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, the weekly observance of the Sabbath that U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman calls "a sanctuary to put the outside world on hold and concentrate on what's really important - your faith and your family. " Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, did just that during the 2000 presidential campaign. Every Friday just before nightfall, the Connecticut Democrat - who was Al Gore's running mate - took off his watch and put away his speeches.

At Zeke's Fifth Street Deli in Society Hill, owners Paul Cohen and Mark Krause offer a Monte Cristo sandwich with a twist. Zeke's version of this popular sandwich spins in the restaurant's Jewish-deli style by using challah French toast with turkey, ham and Swiss cheese. Of course, a Monte Cristo is not a Monte Cristo unless it is served with a side of maple syrup. Mark says this sandwich is for when "someone likes something different. " With its sweet and savory combinations, surely, this sandwich is fit for a king - or at least a count.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish holy day that ushers in the most hallowed 10 days in the Jewish calendar, begins this year at sundown Friday. This period of prayer and introspection, called the Days of Awe, ends at sundown Oct. 9, after the Yom Kippur fast. Jews believe that during the Days of Awe a heavenly tribunal judges everyone's fate for the coming year, which explains why the traditional Rosh Hashanah Hebrew greeting asks that loved ones be inscribed in the Book of Life for a good year.