When: November 6th, 2024
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Zale Auditorium at the JCC
Price: $10 admission to the event | $40 for admission to the event and a copy of the book
Moderated by: Cantor Leslie Niren

The Eucalyptus restaurant is a Jerusalem landmark. In its first cookbook, The Eucalyptus Cookbook, Chef Moshe Basson reveals his Levant cultivated culinary innovations. The magnificent photographs and exotic stories that accompany the recipes take you into forest forages for wild greens and mallows and to the days of the Bible where birthrights were traded for sustenance. The book also tells the universal story of migration and how a business can support and be supported by its workers. Here, family members work alongside the long-tenured staff and add dishes from their own homes, from their travels. Mainly, it brings you into the kitchen of Chef Moshe’s mother. where Iraqi scents and sense, old world wisdom, and the trials and struggles of building a home in a new land are palpable to the touch and to the taste.

About the Author: 

Moshe Basson is an internationally renowned master chef specializing Israeli-Biblical cuisine. He has received accolades as an ethno botanist, expert in the Mediterranean diet including specialty diets such as Veganism and Jainism, heritage and wild foods activist, storyteller, food historian, folklorist and restaurateur.

About the Moderator: 

Cantor Leslie Niren has proudly served Temple Emanu-El since 2010. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance and a certificate in music education from Carnegie Mellon University.  Upon graduation, Cantor Niren worked as a cantorial soloist at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton, Florida.

Cantor Niren believes that relationship building is at the heart of a thriving Jewish community. She brings this commitment to her work at Temple Emanu-El overseeing the B’nai Mitzvah Program, Kol Shir (youth choir), as well as music and prayer programming for youth on Sundays. Cantor Niren works closely with Cantor Glikin each year to plan a robust and diverse MAC (Music, Art and Culture) Season which exposes our community to the most cutting-edge Jewish music and musicians around the globe.

In her free time, she loves to cook, bike, explore the arboretum, see Broadway shows and host dinner parties. She is always looking forward to her next travel adventure. You can follow her on Instagram @CantorInTheKitch