The Sephardic Jews of Rhodes greet the New Year with sweet tasting food, auguring a joyful year. The Rosh Hashanah festive table is laden with an abundance of symbolic​​ foods prepared for the ancient Yehi Ratson blessing. Plump sweet dates, representing the hope of protection, are one of the foods. I have updated my mother’s date and walnut cake, which has become a firm favorite amongst my family and friends. This moist, not overly sweet cake makes an irresistible finale

Synagogue and cemetery have been the two principle symbols of the Spanish-Portuguese community of the Netherlands since the Second World War. With the already small community decimated by the Holocaust, the stately Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam (affectionately called the snoge), which survived the war, became its principal physical representative. The Beth Haim of Oudekerk aan de Amstel, the historic community cemetery outside of Amsterdam, was the other marker o