National Geographic’s TV drama Genius is following the life of Albert Einstein, following the personal and professional travails of the great scientist. On tonight’s episode, Einstein (Geoffrey Rush) and his wife Elsa (Emily Watson), seeing the tide of anti-Semitism grow around them, must consider fleeing Germany, and a rising Nazi party.

Now, for the first time, you can watch an exclusive clip from tonight’s episode below, where Chaim Weizmann (played by Peter Jacobson), who would go on to be the first president of Israel, talks about pogroms with Einstein and tries to win the physicist over to Zionism’s cause:

What will Albert do? Read a history book to find out (you can start with this Tablet article), or watch the National Geographic channel, tonight at 9/8 p.m. c!

Photo from Genius.

The post JEWCY EXCLUSIVE: A Clip from ‘Genius’ appeared first on Jewcy.

Today marks the 135th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s birth in Ulm, Germany. It’s also Pi Day (3.14, get it?), which means March 14 is the most numerically serendipitous day of the year. Obviously, the ideal way to commemorate this day is to read about Einstein, bake pie, and defend your mathematics dissertation. We can’t help you with the latter, but for everything else, we’ve got you covered:

1. Did you know that David Ben Gurion asked Einstein to be the second president of Israel, following the death of Chaim Weizmann in 1952? Einstein declined:

I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions. Therefore I would also be an inappropriate candidate for this high task, even when my old age didn’t interfere with my forces more and more […] I am the more distressed over these circumstances because my relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest human bond, ever since I became aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world.

The two titans had met at Princeton University the previous year, where they were photographed sitting in the sunshine, smiling and chatting. (Their expressions are exuberant–it’s quite the bromance, no?) From the original newsreel footage:

“Here are two men, one whose history will be written deep in the history of social progress, and the other who helped found a new age. A meeting to remember!”

Indeed:

2. Einstein was supposed to address the American people on ABC, NBC and CBS on Israel’s Independence Day in 1955, but he died eight days before delivering the speech. Writes Yair Rosenberg for Tablet:

“His speech–a passionate plea for peace and defense of the fledgling state of Israel–had been written in conjunction with the Israeli consulate and famed ambassador Abba Eban… [he] remained until the end a passionate defender of Israel and seeker of peace–and a strong believer that the two causes were not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually reinforcing.”

3. He was an avid, articulate correspondent, and often wrote to children. Here he responds to a question from a third grader about the relationship between faith and science:

Scientists believe that every occurrence, including the affairs of human beings, is due to the laws of nature. Therefore a scientist cannot be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, by a supernaturally manifested wish…

But also, everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.

4. His face graced Israel’s 5 Lira note from 1948-1980, before shekels became the official currency:

DON’T WORRY, YOU GUYS: We didn’t forget the pi/pie!

5. Here’s our recipe for Squash Pie, made with honey. It’s delicious and cozy and sort of healthy because it’s made with squash. (Right?) Hyper-organized menu planning types: bookmark for Thanksgiving/fall.

6. Joan Nathan has this easy, delicious, Zucchini Pie with a matzo-meal base over at Tablet. It’s Turkish in origin! (AKA: Kabak kalavasucho.) Hyper-organized menu planning types: bookmark for Passover.

7. Want more pie? The Los Angeles Times beat 82,299 other Google entries to take home the 2014 “Pi Day” SEO prize with this 52 recipe behemoth. Here is apple, here is key lime, here is cherry, here is bourbon chocolate.

Happy reading/baking!

Image: Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion visits Albert Einstein at Princeton University on 1951. (AFP/Getty)

The post Happy Birthday, Albert Einstein! (Plus: Pie Recipes For Pi Day) appeared first on Jewcy.

Oif a meisseh fregt men kain kasheh nit: Don’t ask questions about fairy tales.

PISCES (FEBRUARY 21-MARCH 20): Pisces, symbolized by two fish swimming in opposite directions, exemplifies the dual nature of this mutable water sign. One fish swims toward the spiritual—the world of the dream, the unconscious mind—while the other fish swims toward the material world.

Fish-themed Judaic tales include Jonah and the whale and the Leviathan. In 6 B.C., a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Pisces even gave Jewish astrologers hope for a messiah.
 
Perhaps the most romantic and certainly the most intuitive of all the signs of the zodiac, you can be weak-willed in matters of the heart. Wise, sage givers of good advice, you are sensitive to beauty and can be overwhelmed by the feelings of others. Your heightened psychic awareness gives you a keen ability to suffer with others—this combined with your patience and listening skills makes you an excellent therapist and friend, but can have the ill effect of distancing you from your own life and feelings. With an innate receptiveness to everything that’s going on around you, it can be hard to see where others end and you begin.

While Passover begins on the day of the first full moon after the vernal equinox (the cusp between Pisces and Aries), Purim (February 23-24) is in many ways associated with Pisces—the Hebrew month of Adar corresponds with Pisces, and Purim itself has many fish themes.

The new moon on March 11 will be in Pisces; on this day there will be six heavenly bodies in your sign: Mercury, Mars, Venus, your ruling planet, Neptune, and the moon as well as the sun. With so many planets in Pisces, you’ll have the world at your feet (Pisces rules the feet)—lucky you!

Famous Pisces Jews: Gilbert Gottfried, Samm Levine, Bugsy Siegel, Rob Reiner, Carl Reiner, Ron Jeremy, Albert Einstein, Lou Reed, Billy Crystal, David Cronenberg, Jerry Lewis, Philip Roth, Yitzhak Rabin, Shalom Alecheim, Rashi, Renee Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor (converted), Joe Lieberman, Zeppo Marx, Kurt Weill, Ira Glass, Harry Winston, Diane Arbus, Rashida Jones, Judith Butler, Chelsea Handler.

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 20): “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” was once the catchall phrase to explain the eternal debate—but hey, the 1990s called, and they want their dichotomy back: Mars and Venus are two faces of the same coin. Your ruling planet Mars returns to your sign on March 11, where it will stay until April 20, while Venus enters your sign on the spring equinox, balancing out aggressive Mars with its lovely light and helping you roll with the punches.

TAURUS (APRIL 21-MAY 20): Your ruling planet Venus will be in compassionate Pisces from February 25 to March 21, inspiring you with dreams of a grand romance. But don’t tempt the gods—zindik nit—focus what you need to do for yourself first before succumbing to the gantseh tsimmes (big confusion) that love can bring. Only you can take control of your life, and outside forces often serve as distractions from doing what you need to do.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Gemini shiksa goddess Marilyn Monroe said, “it is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not,” and you should take her message to heart. Effusive Geminis are rarely unlovable, but your mazik (troublemaker) tendencies may make you seem like a stranger in a strange land if you fight against them. With your ruling planet Mercury in retrograde until March 17 and in dreamy Pisces until April 13, you will be compelled to confront your spiritual side—which you may have been willfully ignoring for fear of losing yourself. 

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 20): Gossiping is the worst habit and the biggest calumny—Loshen horeh iz di ergsteh mideh un gresteh tsoreh—and if anyone’s guilty of it, it’s you. We all know that old habits die hard, but with Mercury in retrograde you may want to watch what you say a bit more carefully. The new moon in your fellow water sign—creative, free-wheeling Pisces—on March 11 pit the two sides of your nature against each other. Loose lips may sink ships, but loosening yourself up won’t do anyone any harm.

LEO (JULY 21-AUGUST 20): No matter how hard you try to be inscrutable, the hitsik (hothead) wildcat within you betrays your true nature every time. Temper, temper you imperious beasts! With so many planets in even-keeled Pisces, you just may get the balm you need to keep moving forward. Remember, if you can’t do as you wish, do as you can—Az me ken nit vi me vil, tut men vi me ken.

VIRGO (AUGUST 21-SEPTEMBER 20): All eyes will be on you with the full moon in your sign on February 25. This is a great time to allow yourself a moment in the spotlight for once; after all, too much modesty is half conceit—tsu fil anives iz a halber shtolts. However, with Mercury in retrograde (and in your polar opposite sign, Pisces), you’ll still do well to conduct yourself with the reticence and charm you know best. That does mean you can’t get all farpitzed and let the world bask in your glow.

LIBRA (SEPTEMBER 21-OCTOBER 20): Venus is drifting through languorous Pisces through March 21, encouraging you to patteren tseit (lounge around, waste time) more than usual. This combined with your capacity for dissimulation conceals your true intentions and desires. Libras may have the reputation for being lighthearted lovers, but the mask you wear may be doing you more harm than you think. While it’s great that you can keep a positive mental attitude, suppressing your darker side keeps you from letting others into your heart.

SCORPIO (OCTOBER 21-NOVEMBER 20): Your reputation precedes you, saucy Scorpio—you’ll get what you want by hook or by crook. Oi, a shkandal! (Oh, what a scandal!). While you may not be as thoroughly unscrupulous as your sign suggests, with so many planets in Pisces, another water sign immersed in the waters of the unconscious, your hulyen (hellraiser) impulses could get the better of you. Reign in the danger, but never deny your true nature.

SAGITTARIUS (NOVEMBER 21–DECEMBER 20): With your ruling planet Jupiter still in mischievous Gemini and so many planets in dreamy Pisces, you’d be wise to guard your saykhel (common sense) closely. Surrounding yourself with mamoshes (people of substance) may help you avoid finding yourself at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, if you have a tendency to lead others on, at least have the decency to operate with transparency: if you’re all talk, make sure your partners-in-crime know it. No one likes a con artist!

CAPRICORN (DECEMBER 21–JANUARY 20): Your mantra has been Me krechts, me geht veyter—I complain and I keep going—for longer than you’d care to admit. Saturn’s retrograde through July 7 forces you to confront, and hopefully resolve, issues that have been plaguing you. If you can face your demons head on, you may find that the wild card’s been up your sleeve all along, and the fact that you can keep surprising yourself should be more than enough to get yourself going again, you alter bok (old goat).

AQUARIUS (JANUARY 21-FEBRUARY 20): If you’ve been feeling more kalamutneh (dreary, gloomy, troubled) than usual, you may worry that you’ve reached an impasse in your love life. Fear not, this deadlock may resolve itself at the eleventh hour. Until then, you may just have to grit your teeth and accept that to leiden (suffer) is your fate right now. Focus on all the great things you’ve got going on rather than the bad hand life seems to have dealt you. After all, as Ru Paul says, “If you don’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?”

What’s Your Sign?
Aquarius, Sign of Contradictions
Capricorn, the Cardinal Earth Sign
Sagittarius, the Adventurous Archer
Stinging Scorpio
Lovely, Lawful Libra
Virgo, the Anxious Maiden
Leo, King of the Jungle

(Art by Margarita Korol)

The post Jewcy Horoscopes: Pisces, the Dual-Natured Water Sign (Feb. 21-March 20) appeared first on Jewcy.

• Trend alert: Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan spent the summer paddleboarding in the Hamptons.

• Anne Sinclair confirms she has split from Dominique Strauss-Kahn and is working overtime.

• An Iranian Paralympic discus thrower refused to shake Kate Middleton’s hand when she presented his award, but it’s only because she’s a woman.

• There was a yarmulke flash mob in Berlin this weekend…

• This is what Einstein’s desk looked like when he died.

• Bruce Willis plays old Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and he really, really doesn’t want to talk about time travel.

The post Daily Jewce: Berlin’s Yarmulke Flash Mob, Anne Sinclair Leaves DSK appeared first on Jewcy.

When people hear I grew up in Deal, N.J., I’m often met with shock: “You don’t look Syrian.” It’s true, I’m about as Syrian as Albert Einstein (after all, we both have roots in Germany and the same hair style in the morning). While I may not be Syrian, like anyone who’s spent a chunk of their childhood in Deal, I know what a good kibbeh tastes like.

Kibbeh, sambusak (the Middle Eastern answer to a calzone), and lachmagine (a sweet Middle Eastern meat pizza) earned their own food group in Deal. They’re like tiny heart attacks that fit in the palm of your hand and make your whole body quiver with delight. One bite and you’re sinking your teeth through the crisp bulgur based dough and into the delicious ground beef hidden inside. As a friend to kibbeh-eating professionals, I even knew the secret of squeezing a bit of lemon juice to throw the flavors over the top.

A legendary cookbook from my old hometown, Aromas of Allepo by Poopa Dwek, describes the classic Syrian dish as a good way to judge a cook’s true culinary skills. Poopa writes that the women of Aleppo were known throughout the Middle East for their kibbeh-making prowess and hostesses would be judged by their nimble and mystical “kibbeh finger,” which showed their ability to create the perfect meat-filled torpedo.

The thing is, the kibbeh I just described is good, but despite the intense amount of work put into them, they aren’t great. The flavor of most kibbehs are pretty simplistic and have difficulty overcoming the taste of the oil they’re fried in. Worse, most kibbeh come from your local supermarket. Pale as albino ghosts (remember, we’re not actually Syrian), when my family served kibbeh we didn’t have a bubbe to call for the recipe; instead, we headed for the frozen food aisle. Those kibbehs, tightly wrapped and lovingly made by a machine, were like dog food wrapped in thick dough. A glorified corn dog, shove a stick in it and people might walk around Coney Island munching on them. Instead of taking you and your taste buds for ride, it makes you want to tug on someone’s sleeve and ask when you’re leaving. Most people end up serving these tasteless frozen kibbehs and many don’t know what they are supposed to taste like.

This recipe is nothing like store bought kibbeh—for one thing, its flavor profile belongs in the Far East not the Middle East. Instead of wrapping up some bland meat in simplistic dough seasoned by a deep freeze, I ramped up the meat’s flavor and covered it in sushi rice. In this recipe you don’t taste oil, you taste the wonders of Japanese cuisine. For a nice twist, I coated it in panko breadcrumbs so you get the ever-so-yummy crunch that fresh kibbeh is known for.

There are really three elements to the dish, the rice, the meat, and the dipping sauce. They balance themselves out, so don’t skip any part of them. Agemono means fried foods in Japanese and there is no lack of them. This fresh take on kibbeh is based on Japanese cuisine as it flirts with the heavily fried classic Syrian dish. Creating this delicacy is no small feat and is a bit of work, but you won’t have any difficulty making them disappear.

Not Your Bubbe’s Kibbeh
Makes about 30

Ingredients:

Rice:
2 cups of sushi rice
2 cups of water
2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Filling:
1 lb ground beef
3 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup cilantro, diced
1/4 scallions, diced
1/2 tbsp ginger
Salt and pepper to taste

Coating:
3 eggs
Panko bread crumbs
Ginger
Oil

Sauce:
3/4 cup sake
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
3/4 tbsp ginger
1 1/2 tbsp corn flour

Equipment

3 medium bowls
1 large bowl
1 frying pan
1 large Pyrex

Directions:

1. Boil 2 cups of water over a medium high heat.

2. Add the rice and cover it, allowing it to cook for 20 minutes.

3. Once it’s cooked, let it sit off the flame with its cover for 10 minutes. Once the rice is cool, toss it with the rest of the rice ingredients.

4. While you wait for your rice to cool, combine the filling ingredients in a large bowl.

5. Now start working on forming your kibbeh agemono. Fill one bowl with water, this water will help prevent the sticky sushi rice from staying on your hand. Fill a second bowl with your eggs and beat them. In a third bowl, place 1/2 tbsp of ginger with a cup of panko breadcrumbs. You will need to refill your breadcrumbs bowl, and when you do, be sure to keep the ginger to panko bread crumbs ratio. I recommend setting up your bowls in a row in order to keep things neat.

6. Make a train of bowls. Start with the water, then the rice, the meat filling, eggs, and then the breadcrumb mixture. This way you will have an easier and quicker process when shaping your kibbeh agemono.

7. Dip your hands into the bowl of water.

8. Cover the palm of your hand and part of your fingers with a flat and cohesive layer of rice. It should almost look like your hand is covered with a carpet of sushi rice.

9. In the middle of your rice, place a small ball of your filling.

10. Close your hand, as if you are making a fist. By doing so, you should be covering the filling with rice. You may need to pinch the ends slightly. Squeeze the kibbeh slightly to make sure it’s secure.

11. Dip your freshly shaped kibbeh into the eggs, and then coat it generously in Panko bread crumbs. Set each kibbeh aside until you are done making all your kibbeh.

12. Repeat these last few steps until you run out of filling or rice. Make sure to always stick your hands in the water because if you don’t, your sushi rice will stick to you and not the meat. Don’t worry if the first few look a bit sloppy, there’s a small learning curve with these. You need to find a way that’s comfortable for you to operate in order for them to be shaped nicely.

13. Fill a large frying pan with oil over a medium high heat.

14. Once the oil is hot, fry your kibbeh until they are golden brown on each side.

15. While you wait for the oil to heal, cover a Pyrex with paper towels. These will soak up some of the unnecessary oil.

16. Next, make your dipping sauce: Start by heating a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Place all of the sauce’s ingredients into the pan except for the corn flour.

17. Gradually whisk the corn flour into the sauce. Be sure to do this carefully in order to prevent it from clumping together. Continue to whisk the sauce until it simmers and thickens, which should take about ten minutes.

18. Serve the sauce and kibbeh hot, and watch people happily burn their tongues on them.

Also try:

Not Your Bubbe’s Borscht Salad

Not Your Bubbe’s Deconstructed Baba Ghanoush

Not Your Bubbe’s Pistachio Mandel Bread

The post Not Your Bubbe’s Recipe: Kibbeh Agemono appeared first on Jewcy.

• A museum in the shape of Albert Einstein’s head is opening in Jerusalem.

• Forget kosher dog food—this week, we are all obsessed with raw dog food.

• The best comic ever about Bob Dylan’s birthday is from 1971.

• Fresh off profiling Glee’s Rachel Berry for Jewcy, Hillary Busis names the television’s 13 most unfortunate characters (Quinn Fabray is totally on there).

The post Daily Jewce: Israeli Cat Lady Divorces, Shaping Einstein’s Museum, and more appeared first on Jewcy.