Page 46 - Indulge October/November 2016
P. 46
Allentown!Manhattan, Oshkosh …
By Jodi Eichler-Levine
In March of 2015, a few weeks before Passover, I accepted a We have attended awesome PJ
terrific new job as a professor at Lehigh University. Over spring Library events and JCC celebrations.
break, my husband and I flew out to the Lehigh Valley to check We’ve binged on ice cream at the
out the area: schools, neighborhoods, restaurants and … grocery Hotel Bethlehem in the historic downtown
stores. I stepped into Wegmans and behold, there it was:
the biggest display of Passover foods I had ever seen, Bethlehem, colored at the Crayola Experience
beneath a glorious blue banner emblazoned with a in Easton and spun dreidels at the Jewish Day
Jewish star. After eight years in a town of few Jews — School in Allentown.
my parents drove out to us each spring with a trunk After seven years in Manhattan
full of matzah — I almost cried. “We’ve arrived!” I followed by eight years in Oshkosh,
said. “Next year in Allentown!” Wisconsin, we’ve found the best of both
worlds: a cozy but thriving region that is
As I write this, it is next year. Passover is religiously and ethnically diverse, with lively
approaching and we are renting a home just a few downtowns and all of the bagels — and Indian food,
miles from Wegmans. When people ask my 5-year-old and olives, and sushi, and tapas — our hearts desire.
daughter what she likes about Pennsylvania, she answers: This year in Allentown, it will be easy to buy matzah.
“the lox.” Gastronomic Judaism is once again a part of our lives.
Let all who are hungry come to Wegmans
Beyond our new grocery store mecca, my family has found (or Giant, or Weis!).
much to love in this first year. The Da Vinci Science Center is a fine
place for our budding paleontologist to dig for dinosaur teeth. The To donate food for those in need, whether they
newly renovated, cozy Parkland Library had a splendid reopening, are Jewish or non-Jewish, you can give to the
complete with balloon sculptures and live Celtic fiddle. Community Food Pantry of Jewish Family Service
of the Lehigh Valley.
8 Shalom Lehigh Valley | October/November 2016
