Thursday, December 13, 2007

Koshering the White House


According to Nathan Guttman, over at The Forward, Bush had a "day full of Jews yesterday."

Bush’s Hanukkah tradition exceeds any other Jewish celebration offered by his predecessors. While former presidents held one “holiday celebration” for all religions, it was Bush who started the tradition of having a Hanukkah event for the Jewish community, as well as an Iftar dinner for Muslims during the month of Ramadan.

We don't often have reason to say this, but good for him.

The bigger event was the evening Hanukkah celebration. For the past three years, the party has offered a chance for the White House to make its entire kitchen kosher for a day. The operation was overseen by Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Chabad’s Washington representative. Shemtov said it was first lady Laura Bush who insisted the whole kitchen be koshered instead of bringing in only a limited amount of kosher food.

Well, my goodness, at least something is kosher in the White House. It's a shame that it lasted for only a day . . .

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Chanukah Sameach!

Contrary to what you might think, this is not a virtual menorah. It is a virtual chanukiah. I learned this only today, from Tamar Fox, over at Jewcy.com.