RSS
Marlena Spieler, globetrotting writer of Jewish cookbooks, dies at 74
(JTA) — In an essay she wrote in June, Marlena Spieler reminisced about her grandfather’s neighborhood in San Francisco in one long, exuberant sentence:
It was basically a small shtetl transplanted to San Francisco, with delis redolent of pickle barrels, bookshops that sold holy books and ritual items, shops full of used furniture and junk, and my favorite: the Ukraine Bakery, where we bought poppyseed studded Kaiser rolls, the air smelled heavenly of baked goods, and where flour-dusted women would grab me and kiss me, pinch my cheeks and stuff cookies into my hands and pockets when I went out and about with Papa.
If that reads like the memory of a future food writer with a deep love of place, that is exactly what it is. Spieler wrote the Roving Feast recipe column for the San Francisco Chronicle from 2000 to 2010 and wrote or contributed to over 70 cookbooks during her career, including “The Jewish Heritage Cookbook” (2001) and “The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking” (2011).
“She would travel the world and bring back wonderful tales of food and adventure, and relate them all to what we were all eating and feeling here in Northern California,” Miriam Morgan, former food editor at the Chronicle, told the newspaper. “Her recipes sparkled with life and were incredibly popular with readers.”
Spieler died July 6 at her home outside of London. She was 74. News of her death led to an outpouring on social media.
“She was one of the people who opened my eyes to the excitement of food, flavor and cultures, ultimately leading me to a career in food and drink,” wrote Jo Aspin, a step-niece and a marketing consultant for restaurants.
“When I think of her, it’s her sharing something delicious and giggling and laughing,” wrote Steve Sando, founder of Rancho Gordo, the specialty bean business. “I think her non-seriousness was off-putting to certain pedantic types. I think many people loved reading her columns, and the world has been better off with her in it.”
Spieler won numerous awards and was lauded both in California, where she was born and grew up, and in England, where she moved around 1990 and where she met her husband, Alan McLaughlan. She earned a James Beard Award in 1992 for “From Pantry to Table: Creative Cooking from the Well-Stocked Kitchen,” and was twice the recipient of the Guild of Food Writers Award, a top prize in the U.K. She won the International Cookbook Award for her 2000 book “Feeding Friends.”
In 2007, she wrote another book titled “Yummy Potatoes”; the next year she was invited as an ambassador to the United Nations’ International Year of the Potato conference in Peru.
She also worked as a caterer and book illustrator and contributed to her Substack newsletter until shortly before she passed away.
Spieler was born in Sacramento on April 16, 1949. She wrote that her grandparents’ generation were mostly Yiddish speakers who “fled terrible things” in Europe. Her grandfather’s second wife was from a family active in the Jewish community in Harbin, China.
Spieler attended California College of the Arts, then in Oakland. She lived in Israel for a year and was working as an artist in Greece when a publisher noticed the recipes she had included with her drawings of food. The subsequent book of recipes (minus the drawings) launched her career as a food writer, broadcaster and columnist.
In 2011, Spieler lost her sense of smell and taste after suffering from a head injury in a car accident. She described her halting recovery in a New York Times essay, remembering the taste of “a sardine sandwich at Brooklyn’s Saltie [that] made me nearly cry with pleasure, as did the ripe peach I ate as I walked down the street.” A friend remarked, “Even damaged no one appreciates flavor the way you do.”
In “The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking,” Spieler traced the history of a British staple — fish and chips — to its roots in London’s Jewish East End, and before that to the first Sephardic Jews to come back to England after the Jews’ expulsion in the 13th century.
The book also includes recipes from Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, India and Latin America. Spieler celebrated such culinary diversity in a recent column about Passover, writing, “Pesach is a holiday in which Jews from all over the world… bring their own traditions to the table. To me it says: we are all different, and yet we are all one.”
She is survived by her husband Alan, a daughter, grandson and step-daughter.
—
The post Marlena Spieler, globetrotting writer of Jewish cookbooks, dies at 74 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the terrorist group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
The post Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two.
Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two.”
Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?”
“There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could get an not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear program totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said.
Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday he would discuss Iran with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location.
Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, adding that Iran did want to meet with him.
Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.
The post Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – As Israeli leaders weigh the contours of a possible partial ceasefire deal with Hamas, the families of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza issued an impassioned public statement this weekend, condemning any agreement that would return only some of the abductees.
In a powerful message released Saturday, the Families Forum for the Return of Hostages denounced what they call the “beating system” and “cruel selection process,” which, they say, has left families trapped in unbearable uncertainty for 638 days—not knowing whether to hope for reunion or prepare for mourning.
The group warned that a phased or selective deal—rumored to be under discussion—would deepen their suffering and perpetuate injustice. Among the 50 hostages, 22 are believed to be alive, and 28 are presumed dead.
“Every family deserves answers and closure,” the Forum said. “Whether it is a return to embrace or a grave to mourn over—each is sacred.”
They accused the Israeli government of allowing political considerations to prevent a full agreement that could have brought all hostages—living and fallen—home long ago. “It is forbidden to conform to the dictates of Schindler-style lists,” the statement read, invoking a painful historical parallel.
“All of the abductees could have returned for rehabilitation or burial months ago, had the government chosen to act with courage.”
The call for a comprehensive deal comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for high-stakes talks in Washington and as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Doha within the next 24 hours, according to regional media reports.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement Friday confirming its readiness to begin immediate negotiations on the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release framework.
The Forum emphasized that every day in captivity poses a mortal risk to the living hostages, and for the deceased, a danger of being lost forever. “The horror of selection does not spare any of us,” the statement said. “Enough with the separation and categories that deepen the pain of the families.”
In a planned public address near Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, families are gathering Saturday evening to demand that the Israeli government accept a full-release deal—what they describe as the only “moral and Zionist” path forward.
“We will return. We will avenge,” the Forum concluded. “This is the time to complete the mission.”
As of now, the Israeli government has not formally responded to Hamas’s latest statement.
The post Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.