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The original article is published at JPost.com

This restaurant one of a kind in the New York and perhaps North American kosher scene.

At Tsion Café – an Ethiopian vegan kosher restaurant situated in a somewhat unlikely location for those in search of kosher – the fresh, well-seasoned food, which includes dishes featuring such names as injera, sambusa, wot, messer, shiro, atakilt, and gomen, is only a small part of the experience.

The African art, eclectic collection of books, piano, occasional poetry nights, elaborate bar, homemade Ethiopian spices and foods available for purchase – and, of course, the chance to schmooze with the restaurant’s Ethiopian Israeli New Yorker owner Beejhy Barhany – make this restaurant one of a kind in the New York and perhaps North American kosher scene.

The café, which opened in 2014, recently came under kosher vegan certification after previously serving such (non-kosher and obviously non-vegan) dishes as filet mignon and shakshuka. It is located in Sugar Hill, the iconic 10-square block historic area in Manhattan’s Harlem and Hamilton Heights neighborhoods. Sugar Hill became a popular place for wealthy African Americans to live during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and ‘30s. 

“Our mission is to nourish the body and soul with delightful culinary delights and fine art – we’re a place with Pan-African love, Black Israeli pride,” Barhany proudly notes on the restaurant’s website.

Culinary delights and fine art: Black Israeli pride

Barhany, affectionately known as Chef Beejhy, is regularly present and available to chat with customers. She recounts that her family’s journey from Ethiopia to Israel took place in 1980, “before operations” (including Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1991) and involved, among other things, “an uncle in the Mossad” and “travel through Kenya.” After growing up in Israel and completing her army service, Barhany traveled throughout South and North America before settling in New York.

SAMOSA ORDERED for appetizer: Well-seasoned pastries filled with lentils and sun-dried tomato. (credit: HOWARD BLAS)

THE RESTAURATEUR, who lives in the neighborhood, notes that there is quite a bit of Jewish life nearby, including several synagogues (there is the Chabad of Hamilton Heights three blocks away) and the JCC Harlem. The Conservative Movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary on 122st Street and Orthodoxy’s Yeshiva University on 185th are reasonably close as well, though her restaurant is the only kosher establishment for many blocks. Barhany, proud of her many identities, is the founder of the nonprofit Beta Israel of North America (BINA) Cultural Foundation, which showcases the culture of Ethiopian Jews and all Jews of Color.

Beejhy’s daughter – similarly smiley and friendly – also works at Tsion Café. She warmly welcomed our party of three, and informed us that there are no printed menus but that we can use our phones to scan the QR code to view the day’s offerings. Diners of a certain age not in the habit of scanning can study the menu on the very informative website on a screen at home, or on an iPhone while seated at the restaurant.

For those unfamiliar with Ethiopian cuisine, key terms with definitions are offered in rotation at the top of the website’s main menu: injera (made from teff, a flat, highly sour bread served with Ethiopian dishes) and tej (Ethiopian honey wine – legend has it that it was the first alcoholic beverage that humans consumed) alternate with the terms “Tsion” and “community” on the screen.

A tab on the website titled “Ethiopian Cuisine” offers a general introduction to the Ethiopian dining experience, as well as a more detailed description of menu items. It starts by permitting and encouraging eating with your hands (“We Ethiopians share a communal quality to consuming food and beverages. Not only do we eat with our hands, but we literally feed each other with delicate gurshas – mouthfuls of food – as a sign of love”) and often needed definition of terms.

In addition to a more detailed explanation about injera, which involves a three- to five-day fermentation process and is the “utensil” for eating, the link notes that wot are stews; messer are red lentils; shiro are chickpeas; gomen are collard greens; ataklit are cabbage, carrots and potatoes; and kil alicha are yellow split peas. All are cooked with flavorful Ethiopian spices such as berbere.

OUR DINING adventure started with an appetizer of sambusa. Given our appetites and desire to jump right into the dining experience, we opted for four (not just two) sambusa, the hot, crispy, fried, well-seasoned triangular pastries filled with lentils and dipped in a zesty sun-dried tomato sauce. They arrived pretty quickly, though we had a longish wait for our three entrées. Watching them being prepared fresh by chefs in the kitchen just beyond the well-stocked bar was fun, and the wait was forgiven when all arrived together – hot, well seasoned, and visually appealing.

As relative newbies to Ethiopian cuisine, we went with the Ethiopian Veggie Combo, which had a little of everything, including shiro, atakilt, messer, kik alicha, and gomen, presented as five distinct circular mounds atop a rectangular injera on a rectangular white plate.

Our second entrée, Oyster Mushroom Wot, was spicy, well seasoned, and something we’d never dream of preparing at home. We were in awe of how the flavors of the oyster mushrooms (no actual oysters here, of course!), tomatoes, jalapenos, fresh herbs, and awaze melded together. I had never tasted awaze, a traditional Ethiopian sauce consisting of berbere, honey, and other spices. And it is not often that a dish is presented to the table in a black skillet!

Our final entrée, Duba Wot with Jollof Rice, was a bit more filling than the other dishes, as it was rice-based. The spicy pumpkin (the vegetable has deep historical roots in Ethiopian cuisine) and sweet potato stew with jollof rice and plantaini (crispy green plantains), drizzled with creamy tahini, cilantro, and lime sauce, offered a different flavor profile from the other dishes. The savory stew was nicely presented in a bowl-like white plate which kept it safely contained.

Ethiopian food has a reputation for being super flavorful and not very filling. We found the food to be very flavorful and appreciated the introduction to food with which we had no familiarity. The portions were indeed small, but we did not leave hungry. We opted out of dessert, though that may have been a tactical error, as the malawach with silan, and the halvah looked delicious. Fellow diners enjoyed the Ethiopian coffee and Ethiopian spice tea.

THE WEBSITE notes that the restaurant is a place to experience “Ethiopian and Israeli culture firsthand.” The chef is indeed Ethiopian-Israeli, and there are a few menu items remotely connected to Israel (pita and Tel Aviv Quinoa salad to name two), but playing up “Israeli culture” is a bit of a stretch; it is essentially an Ethiopian restaurant – and an excellent one at that. The eatery offers great food, a lovely ambiance, and a chance to purchase artwork, as well as Tsion’s Awaze ($10), Berbere Spice Blend ($12), and Injera chips bag ($8).

I look forward to returning when the outdoor patio is open in the warmer months. It is the perfect New York destination for live music and poetry readings, and it will be a nice place for a drink on a summer evening. There is a good assortment of kosher wines, and the mixed drinks have such names as Redd Fox (tequila, sorrel, agave, ginger, lime juice, jalapeno); X (bourbon, lemon juice, agave, pinotage); and Kafa martini (vodka, Ethiopian coffee, amarula, berbere).

Many reflect the rich heritage of the neighborhood and the building. Jimmy’s Chicken Shack was the former occupant of the building, and such people connected to the Harlem Renaissance as Redd Fox, Charlie Parker, Malcolm X, and Billie Holiday once passed through. The development of this neighborhood served as a mecca for Black culture including music, art, and literature from approximately 1910 through the mid-1930s. Despite its proximity to several heavily populated Jewish neighborhoods, the number of Jewish residents of Sugar Hill is small.

Getting to Tsion is a bit of a challenge and may require taking two subways or buses – but it is worth it! 

  • www.tsioncafe.com/
  • 763 St. Nicholas Ave., New York City
  • (212) 234-2070
  • Ram Kosher (K-V Pareve – Kosher Vegan Certification by Rabbi Andre Malek)
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The original article is published at JPost.com

I never asked the late Senator Joe Lieberman directly about his favorite source of information about Israel and the Jewish world – but I am fairly sure he would have said it was The Jerusalem Report. He once took my personal copy of the Report from the prayer book and chumash holder in synagogue –and proceeded to spend the next hour reading it!

When we moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 2003, we joined the local Orthodox synagogue – which does not have assigned High Holy Day seats. To be sure I wasn’t sitting in a member’s coveted seat, I chose a seat two rows from the back, on the right, about seven seats in – right next to the mechitza – a seat sure to be near no one. I sat, put on my tallis, opened my machzor, and prepared for a long day of prayers. I unpacked the two pieces of reading material I had brought along in case of boredom – Jewish Education News and The Jerusalem Report.

To my surprise, a man with a great head of white hair and an even finer smile passes in front of me and sits right next to me. I was a bit star struck as it was obviously Senator Lieberman, the man who was on the ticket with Al Gore three years earlier and was contemplating a bid for the 2004 presidency of the United States of America! Instead of introducing myself or asking the obvious question of who he was, I pointed to my magazines and said, “If you get bored, feel free to help yourself.”

“No thanks, I will read my machzor,” he replied. Ten minutes later, the senator asked, “What have you got?” I showed him his choices, he looked carefully, and chose The Jerusalem Report. I vividly remember the cover – it was an in-depth look at the security fence whose first phase – around three parts of Jerusalem – was approved in March of 2003. Later proposed phases would separate the West Bank from Jerusalem. The senator, who moments earlier seemed intent on focused prayer, was now deep into a series of articles on the multitude of complex issues around the building of the fence.

Ironically, as I watched the senator read my Jerusalem Report, I had been writing fairly regularly for the publication – mainly providing interesting anecdotes from the Jewish World for the Up Front section. This was the “best article I could never write.” I needed to respect his privacy. This was congregant and community member Joe who was here to daven and celebrate the holiday with family and friends.

When the holiday ended, I raced to my computer to share this story with Sharon Ashley, who was at the time the deputy editor. I suggested she and the Report send an anonymous subscription to The Jerusalem Report to Senator Lieberman’s Washington, DC office.

I can only assume that he continued to read every issue cover to cover and that the fair, in-depth coverage of even the most complex issues continued to shape his views – and in turn, US government policy.

The hundreds of tributes following the senator’s sad and untimely death, on March 27 from all parts of the Jewish world – and from both sides of the aisle – captured what a sensible and good man Senator Joe Lieberman was. He was truly liked by all. Despite his ability to get along with everyone, I suspect he usually had to dress and act the part of an elected official.

In our Westville neighborhood of New Haven, Joe Lieberman will be remembered mostly as a member of the Westville Synagogue and a community member. He ate and socialized at the same Kiddush, danced with us at community simchas, and came to morning minyan when he was in town. He drove himself to shul in his car with tinted glass and even wore blue jeans and flannel shirts. He made the same 30-minute walk to shul through our quiet neighborhood each Shabbat and holiday when he was in town – though he was the only community member with Secret Service members walking with him and driving right next to him.

And he got through the boring parts of shul by reading such fine publications as The Jerusalem Report!

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The original article is published at JPost.com

Check out the original article as featured in the JPost magazine here.

The troubling story of Michael Laudor leaves many unanswered questions, including the central one: How do we respect the autonomy and decision-making of a person with serious mental illness?

When author Jonathan Rosen was growing up in the New York suburbs of New Rochelle in the 1970s, he had no idea that he and his friend Michael Laudor, two smart Yale-bound Jewish boys, sons of professors with similar backgrounds, would ultimately encounter such different life paths.

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness and the Tragedy of Good Intentions is Rosen’s latest and longest book (by far), which reportedly took 10 years of time, research, and emotional energy to write. It is part memoir, part history of mental health and mental illness, and part psychology text.

Rosen and Laudor went on to graduate from Yale. Rosen then completed coursework toward a PhD in literature at University of California, Berkeley; married a rabbi; had two children; and began to write and edit for such publications as The New York Times and The Forward. He has written five books so far – two novels and three nonfiction books.  

Laudor, the more naturally gifted of the two, graduated Yale summa cum laude within three years. Subsequently, he worked for a year in a high-pressured job in management consulting at the prestigious firm of Bain and Company.

His life then took an unexpected turn when he began to experience auditory hallucinations and paranoia.Laudor was hospitalized for eight months in a locked ward at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Following a stint in a halfway house where it was suggested that he might ease back into life by working as a clerk at Macy’s department store, he surprisingly decided to attend Yale Law School.

1933 caricature of Aldous Huxley by cartoonist David Low. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Thanks to the support and kindness of professors, deans, and fellow students, Laudor managed to graduate, although he wasn’t able to secure employment as a lawyer in a firm. He did, however, achieve notoriety and an extremely highly paid book and movie deal when his story was featured in a 1995 New York Times article titled “A Voyage to Bedlam and Partway Back: Yale Law Graduate, a Schizophrenic, Is Encumbered by an Invisible Wheelchair.”

Laudor ultimately had difficulty making progress on the book and eventually went off his medication and experienced worsening symptoms of psychosis and paranoia.

In 1998, Laudor killed his live-in girlfriend and future wife, who, the reader painfully learns, was pregnant with their first child. Laudor was ultimately found not responsible for the killing “by reason of mental disease or defect” (also known as “not guilty by reason of insanity”). He has spent the last 25 years at the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center, a secure psychiatric facility 55 miles northwest of New York City, where Rosen has visited him on several occasions.


The Best Minds represents Rosen’s attempt to examine their unremarkable suburban New York childhoods, their mostly similar but ultimately very different paths, and the multiple ways the mental health establishment failed Laudor and society at large.

It has taken Rosen over 500 pages to chronicle this heartbreaking story, with an additional three pages of “notes on the sources” and a 21-page index, all well worth the time, effort, and emotional energy the reader will need to invest in this book.

Rosen’s former department in the literature graduate program at UC Berkeley might retrospectively consider granting him the PhD he never received when he failed to complete his doctoral dissertation.

The dense, heavy book contains beautiful prose and consists of four distinct parts, of eight to 15 chapters each.

The parts of the book

Rosen has a keen memory and an eye for detail and recounts many events small and large from childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, making important connections to world events, larger societal trends, and phenomena.

PART I: “The House on Mereland Road” poignantly and playfully recounts the two men’s childhood, capturing the sights, sounds, and smells of the late 1960s and early ‘70s with references to everything from Jim Croce and Jethro Tull to Annie Hall and Rosen’s anxiety-filled bar mitzvah.

Part II: “The House of Psychiatry” weaves his experience at Berkeley, describing brilliant creative types such as Aldous Huxley who lived life with mental illness, and recounts a period in psychiatry when schizophrenia was considered by some to be a “social construct,” and hallucinations were equated with genius. Rosen has clearly dedicated an inordinate amount of time to reading and learning about the history of mental health and policy in America, including deinstitutionalization [a movement advocating the transfer of mentally disabled people from institutions, back to their families or into community-based homes] and the community mental health movements.

Part III: “The House of Law” describes the supportive environment Laudor found at Yale Law School, the school he had deferred while in the hospital and in the halfway house. Rosen describes surprisingly supportive professors and deans (many who helped write decisions about deinstitutionalization which would impact mental health policy) while clerking for Supreme Court justices who were invested in making things work for Laudor but may have inadvertently done him a disservice through their coddling and protecting of him while in law school.Rosen writes, “Michael found an adoptive Jewish father behind every classroom door. These brilliant, egotistical, softhearted men, as impossible to please as they were idealistic, terrorize students without even knowing it.” 


Part IV: “The House of Dreams” details an important New York Times article about Laudor; his $600,000 book deal with Scribner; the movie in the works by actor and director Ron Howard, with Brad Pitt slated to be the lead actor; and Laudor’s life in Hastings-on-Hudson with his fiancée, Caroline Carrie Costello, known affectionately as “Carrie.” The harrowing story of Laudor’s time on the lam before being caught, featured on the cover of the New York Post with the simple caption “Psycho,” and his long-term fate are chronicled in this final part of the book.In many ways, the title of the book says it all and, at the same time, requires some rabbinic unpacking.  The reference to “best minds” refers to the brilliance of Laudor, as well as to the legal and medical experts, judges, Yale Law School professors, mental health advocates, the Beat generation who saw people with mental illness as misunderstood geniuses, and even New York Times writers, book publishers, and movie houses that embody what Rosen refers to in the subtitle as The Tragedy of Good Intentions.


It was their “good intentions” that led to the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill – even when there were not adequate community services available to support the formerly institutionalized. Their intentions also led to articles in leading papers focusing more on the accomplishments than the struggles of people living with and sometimes “battling” schizophrenia, such as Laudor and University of Southern California (USC) Gould Law School’s Elyn Saks, professor of law, psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences.  

It was those with “good intentions” that helped create a system where psychotic people who refuse medication can only be “committed” against their will once they are a true danger to self or others – even while worried family members beg for police and psychiatric intervention.  

“Best minds” also refers to a line in a 1954 Allen Ginsberg poem titled “Howl” or “Howl for Carl Solomon.” Ginsberg met Solomon while both were hospitalized at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Ginsberg, no stranger to mental illness, grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic mother. “Howl” includes the line “I’ve seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.”

Rosen provides the reader with hours of material to read and digest.

In the end, however, the troubling story of Michael Laudor leaves many unanswered questions, including the central one: How do we respect the autonomy and decision-making of a person with serious mental illness – through the calm phases and when he or she decides to go off medication? And how do we protect family members and society from a person and a system that can do nothing until he or she is dangerous to himself or others?  

THE BEST MINDS: A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP, MADNESS, AND THE TRAGEDY OF GOOD INTENTIONS By Jonathan Rosen Penguin 562 pages; $25

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The original article is published in Relix Jan/Feb, 2023. Page 17


“Steely Dead started as a big ‘what if’ question,” explains founder and lead guitarist Dave Abear. “We’ve all been playing Dead songs forever,” adds drummer Chris Sheldon. “At the same time,” Abear jumps back in, “we were always big Steely Dan fans.” Sheldon, Dave, Dave’s brother Matt Abear (bass) and Dylan Teifer (keys) first came together five years ago. After drawing a few hundred fans to their initial shows in Colorado, the musicians had a break-through moment when they sold out Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads shortly before COVID hit.

Though Steely Dan’s tightly scripted songs and the Grateful Dead’s long-winding improvisational jams may seem like an unnatural match, those bands actually shared an intertwined history long before Abear started his project. The Steely Dan hit “Kid Charlemagne” even references Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the Dead’s legendary sound engineer and LSD chemist. “We like to say we Dead down the Dan and Dan up the Dead,” Dave says. “We stretch out the Dan stuff and tighten up the Dead.” The band pairs songs based on their feel. Classic combos like “Dealin’ in the Years,” a swirl of “Deal” and “Reelin’ in the Years,” “just work so well together,” says Dave, noting their perfect match of “grooves and keys.” The tune-which often serves as a set closer-starts and ends with “Deal,” sandwiching the Steely Dan melody in the middle. Other prearranged combos include “Fezeree” (“Fez” and “Sugaree”) and “Truck Friday” (“Truckin’ and “Black Friday”).

Similar to many jambands, their sets are determined on the fly, with band members using hand signals or audibles to indicate the next song. Some mashups are determined live onstage, so “you might not hear the same combo every time,” says Chris. And the fans are kept guessing about the second half of each number. Chris, though, is used to the challenge, as the longtime drummer in mashup band DeadPhish Orchestra. Does the band ever get stuck trying to find a perfect match for a given song? Absolutely, admits Dave, who
says there’s only one solution. “We just ask ourselves, ‘What would Jerry do?””

steelydead.com

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