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October 2009
Distinguished Jewish Americans
After a summer-long online vote by the National Museum of American Jewish History, the results are in. Eighteen men and women have been named Distinguished Jewish Americans and will be featured in the museum’s exhibit “Only In America” Gallery/Hall of Fame. These include Golda Meir, Barbra Streisand, Henrietta Szold, Albert Einstein, Sandy Koufax and Leonard Bernstein, who were selected from 218 names. The votes came from 56 countries.
The Gallery and the Museum are slated to open next fall, 2010, in Philadelphia.
Coming to Town
A number of Jewish bands and Jewish musicians will be performing at the ChangeUp Fest being held at Sonar Baltimore on Oct. 29, beginning at 7 p.m.
Of particular interest is VooDoo Blue, the former Baltimore group that hails from Owings Mills and Pikesville. As a group, they toured nationally, released several albums, and then split up. This will be the first time the band will play together in its original line-up in five years.
The festival is being sponsored by ChangeUpMag.com. Tickets are $15. For information, go to their Web site or to sonarbaltimore.com.
Thirty Seconds With Brian Litofsky
I am the owner of Crown Trophy and a marketing consultant for small businesses. Graduated McDonogh School (1986), the physical therapy school at Northeastern University and received a master’s from Towson University.
Most unusual trophy request: Recently I was asked to take a remote control apart and put it together inside out to see the components. We then embedded it in clear plastic acrylic.
My Favorite:
T.V. show: “Law and Order”
Movie: “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” the original version with Gene Wilder
Restaurant: Edo Mae Sushi in Owings Mills
Part about growing up in Baltimore: Running into so many people I know every day of the week.
What my friends don’t know about me: I always wanted to be a drummer in a rock and roll band.
Dining with… Michael Chmar
For 15 years Owings Mills resident Michael Chmar was a professional chef, where he worked with the likes of Stephan Pyles, considered the “founder of Southwestern cuisine.” Chmar served as the executive chef of Pyles’ restaurant, Star Canyon, located in Dallas, Texas.
Now in the mortgage business, Chmar, a graduate of Pikesville High School, says he does miss the “creation and the expression of food. For me it is a personal experience.”
Today, married to Amy, he particularly enjoys baking with his two children, Deborah Pearl, 4, and Gabriel, 3. When they make s’mores, they even make the graham crackers and marshmallows from scratch.
Cracked Wheat Pilaf with Pickled Red Onions
ON BOOKSHELVES
America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story by Bruce Feiler
HarperCollins Publishers, hardcover, 2009, 368 pages, $26.99
He’s the author of the best-selling book “Walking the Bible: A Journey By Land Through the Five Books of Moses,” where he literally trekked 10,000 miles from Mount Ararat in Turkey to Mount Nebo in Jordan, where Moses supposedly died. Now Bruce Feiler is on another trek, only this time he travels through U.S. history as he looks at Moses’ influence on our country.
In his quest to understand Moses’ influence, Feiler climbs the bell tower of the Liberty Bell, which is inscribed with a quote from the prophet, retraces the Underground Railroad, where “Go Down, Moses” was the slaves’ anthem, and wears the robe that Charlton Heston, aka Moses, wore in the movie “The Ten Commandments.” Through the centuries, Feiler shows how this Jewish prophet shaped the nation.