Judy Bart Kancigor
Jewish cooks are very territorial about their kugels. You bind noodles with eggs, enrich them with fat (butter, margarine, chicken fat, or oil), pepper the mixture with an endless variety of colorful and tasty additions, such as vegetables, fruit, and/or cheese – and, to quote my mother, “What could be bad?”
Often you find a hostess serving the same kugel year in year out, with so much oo-ing and ah-ing, for years, so why change kugels in midstream? Oh, the hostess will look at your recipe, but then comes that knowing smirk as she says, “But I have mine.”
Nothing prepared me for the lengths to which a kugel-maker would go to defend his or her own kugel until I wrote my family cookbook. Dozens were submitted; only a fraction of them could be printed. Choosing amongst them was a task better left to King Solomon. I called it “The Kugel Wars.” My editor thought she was cutting recipes – to me she was cutting cousins!
“Take mine!” “No, mine!” they all pleaded. It got ugly. Otherwise perfectly agreeable cousins practically came to blows extolling the virtues of …what? We’re talking a noodle concoction here.
According to ...   more »

Warning: 'Any action that offends holy site will be answered by 1.5 billion Muslims'
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – Jerusalem and the Temple Mount belong to the Muslims and any Israeli action that "offends" the Mount will be answered by 1.5 billion Muslims, declared the chief of staff for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. 
"Jerusalem is Muslim. The blessed Al Aqsa mosque and Harem Al Sharif (Temple Mount) is 100 percent Muslim. The Israelis are playing with fire when they threaten Al Aqsa with digging that is taking place," said Abbas' chief of staff Rafiq Al Husseini.
Temple Mount in Jerusalem  
The Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site.   
Husseini was referring to Israeli plans to construct a new bridge from the Western Wall area to the Temple Mount.   
The old bridge was damaged two years ago. When Israeli workers tried to repair it, Palestinian leaders claimed the work was threatening the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the mosque is located hundreds of feet away, the work did not tunnel under any Mount foundation or touch any structure connected to the mosque, and the repair work – which had been pre-approved by Jordan and the Mount's Muslim custodians ...   more »

By Yael Pollak, Nathan Sheva and Yuval Maoz,
The United States Dollar continued to depreciate against the New Israeli Shekel Friday, pushing the representative currency exchange rate down another 0.88 percent to NIS 3.233 per U.S. Dollar. This is an over 11-year low - the last time the greenback saw these levels was January 1997.
The Euro also lost ground against the Shekel, and the European currency's representative rate fell a steep 1.356 percent Friday to NIS 5.0048 per Euro, dropping it to a 5-year low against the shekel - its lowest level since January 2003.
Since the begining of 2008, the Shekel has gained 15% against the U.S. Dollar, and slightly more against the British pound and the Canadian Dollar.  
It is up 8% versus the Swedish Kroner and has picked up 24% against the South African Rand.
A week ago the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Triche, praised the euro to the Wall Street Journal, saying the European currency would provide price stability in the medium-term.
The Euro is certainly a strong and important currency, and has been flexing its muscles against the Dollar in recent years.
But even the powerful Euro has had a ...   more »

In honor of Jerusalem Day, Housing Minister to announce bids for homes to be constructed in neighborhoods beyond Green Line
Roni Sofer
On Sunday Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim is scheduled to announce more bids for construction in Jerusalem, in honor of the 41st annual Jerusalem Day, to be celebrated on Monday.  
The bids have already been approved by the government. 121 housing units are planned for Har Homa neighborhood, to be sold at a "tenant's price", and 763 are planned for Pisgat Zeev neighborhood, of which 95 will be sold at a "tenant's price". Both neighborhoods are beyond the 1967 borders.  
According to the "tenant's price" system, the contractor who wins the bid is responsible for selling the housing units to the buyers at the lowest price possible, thus allowing buyers to purchase housing at a cost that is 15%-25% lower than the market price.  
In addition, Boim is set to appropriate additional territory on Givat Hatachmoshet for the Defense Ministry and the site's association, in order to establish a center for courses for IDF officers.  
Yariv Oppenheimer, general secretary of Peace Now, responded to reports of the announcement to be made by Boim and said ...   more »

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert struck back at Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday, accusing them of being motivated by politics and not by the country's best interests.
In his first public reaction to Livni's and Barak's calls last week for him to leave office, Olmert defiantly vowed to continue running the government and making key decisions on diplomatic, security and socioeconomic issues.
"I know the political events of the last few days have put pressure on people from outside and from inside [Kadima]," Olmert said at the party's faction meeting symbolically held on the eve of Jerusalem Day at the capital's Ammunition Hill.
"I recommend against acting under pressure. The people who are stressed should relax and continue to act as a united and strong party so we can continue to be the ruling party for many years to come."
Olmert added an additional message to Labor's Barak that "no one from outside can dictate our schedule."
He pleaded with members of his faction and the public not to decide his fate before he is given a chance in court to respond to the testimony of New York financier Morris Talansky.
"Regarding myself, I have ...   more »

Christians face arrest for preaching gospel
Two American-born pastors handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham, England, were threatened with arrest and warned of being beaten for committing what an officer called a "hate crime."
Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, were handing out the leaflets and talking with local youths when they were approached and questioned by a police community support officer, or PCSO.
When the officer discovered the two Birmingham pastors were born in the U.S., he began a heated criticism of President Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Cunningham explained that the gospel message was not linked to American foreign policy, but the officer reportedly became belligerent.
"He said we were in a Muslim area and were not allowed to spread our Christian message," Cunningham told the London Telegraph. "He said we were committing a hate crime by telling the youths to leave Islam and said that he was going to take us to the police station."
In England a PCSO is a full-time employee of the police charged with community peacekeeping, but the officers do not have the power of arrest without a constable. In this case, the pastors ...   more »