Who will be the Cholent King?

Liberally translated from the Hebrew, here.

Residents of the Zayit neighborhood in Efrat have decided to organize an evening for "guys' night out."

The Program: Who will be the Cholent King of Efrat?

20 kinds of Cholent will compete for the coveted title.

Who will be the judges? Rabbi Shlomo Riskin -- the Chief Rabbi of Efrat, MK Uri Orbach, and Chairman of ZAKA, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav

The women of the Zayit neighborhood in Efrat, Gush Etzion organized a "womens'-only" evening that included visiting Rachel's Tomb and more. Their husband's felt discriminated against and decided to organize a special evening for men only: An "Iron Chef" competition for the ultimate Cholent: Approximately 20 men will prepare this classic Jewish dish, and they will compete for the coveted title, the "Cholent King of Efrat."

What types of Cholent will they be preparing? Each contestant will cook his recipe from his own personal tradition. Some types include "Chulent in a "Poike", South African Cholent, and Egyptian "Dafini" Cholent.

And the prizes? The first place winner will receive a special apron, captioned "Cholent King of the Zayit Neighborhood of Efrat," while the second place winner will receive a premium bone steak.

Yechiel Fishman, chairman of the Zayit synagogue said: "The "Zayit Ra'anan community is a young, dynamic and vibrant community, and this is just one of many activities throughout the year showing the variety of the human mosaic of our synagogue. This initiative was to test men's cooking skills in the community, for the once a month Kiddushim. The women are the big winners, and we prove that we can also be "Iron Chefs."


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Election Day kiddush

Jameel has expressed reservations about Gidon Sa'ar's new bill that would dock a day's pay from anybody who doesn't vote on election day. Jameel is not so comfortable with punishing non-voters, and neither am I.

There are other, more creative ways to address the problem of declining voter attendance, however: We can try using a carrot instead of a stick. How about providing free food at the polling stations? Of course, that would require funding for the food, so we've got to find a way to come up with the money. Well, how about we have the political parties provide the free food, out of their campaign budgets? They can each set up refreshment tents near the polling stations. Election day would become just like a big shul kiddush -- everyone will want to come. In fact, each party should recruit a sponsor for their Election Day "kiddush": Morris Talansky can sponsor the "kiddush" for Kadima, Ronald Lauder can sponsor it for the Likud, Octav Botner's estate for Labor...


Imagine: You could get hamin at the Shas booth, kugel at the UTJ booth, humus at the Arab parties, borsht by Lieberman, geriatric food at Gil, and sushi at Meretz. (If the Third Way was still around, I'm sure they'd serve bread in a pita, and Shinui would offer a spread of shrimp and lobster.) Kadima can offer free drinks from their mini-bars, and they'll probably promise the most "fun" food to eat (but everyone who does will develop an upset stomach by the time they get home...).

So how about it? It's a sure-fire way to boost election attendance. (Unless, of course, Jameel is serving waffles at the Muqata that day.)


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