[Sca-cooks] Re: Food gifts

[Tara]

> From talking with her, if I have gathered it correctly, there are Orthodox
> Jews that adhere strictly to all Jewish customs and beliefs and then there
> are those that practice the beliefs but not necessarily all the customs.  I
> may be reverse in my description and I appologize.  I am lucky that my
> friends are very accepting of others and include their friends regardless of
> beliefs.  They even give my daughters Christmas gifts every year.

(quick note: I'm married to a fairly non-observant Jew, and friends with
Jews of different degrees of observant-ness)

I've always gotten the feeling that if a Jew (or for that matter a
Christian or a Hindu or anybody else,) wasn't going to be polite and
gracious about your gifts, traditions and feelings, he or she probably
wouldn't bother being your friend in the first place.  That is, such
strict people usually seem to seclude themselves, if not within physical
ghettos, at least socially within groups of people as strict as they
are.

I have friends who are semi-observant (they don't go to shul - they more
often go to SCA events!)  They keep kosher in their home.  They consider
it more of a traditional perogative than a religious one - the lady of
the couple does it kind of to connect back to her grandparents.  They
welcome any offering of food, and will serve it.  But, they will ask you
to bring your own serving dish and utensils, and if it's not finger food
they'll offer paper plates to serve it.  As long as you're polite enough
to give them a Channukah gift, they're quite happy to give you a
Christmas gift.  Actually, we all generally exchange generic "holiday"
gifts, especially since our circle of friends has quite a mix of Jews,
new-pagans, Buddhists, agnostics, Muslims and Christians.

Speaking of holiday gifts, last year I made the most awesome panforte
from a recipe I found on the internet.  I took it to a couple of
gatherings, and people raved about it.  Only problem is, I still can't
figure out how to pronounce it correctly!  Any sugggestions?  :)
Pan-fort sounded pretty silly.  Pan'-for-tay' sounded like something out
of Blazing Saddles.  Pan-for'-tay sounded most likely right.

-Magdalena vander Brugghe