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Infographic: How American Firearms Propel Mexico's Gang Violence

Since late 2006, when former Mexican president Felipe Calderón came to power and launched his offensive against drug traffickers, close to...

Column Five
By Column FiveMar 14, 2013
Column Five
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Since late 2006, when former Mexican president Felipe Calderón came to power and launched his offensive against drug traffickers, close to 60,000 people have been killed in the country's ongoing bloody war. Cartels are able to carry out these crimes, armed with smuggled rifles, pistols, and machine guns. Where do they get the majority of these weapons?

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With a new food truck, Manischewitz shares Jewish food and culture in a fun, accessible way.
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With a new food truck, Manischewitz shares Jewish food and culture in a fun, accessible way.

When my parents moved from New York to Florida in the 1970s, they sought Jewish comfort food like pastrami, blintzes, kosher hot dogs, and by the 1980s they were able to find it at a place around the corner from our house called Pastrami Club. Such a feat is significantly less possible now. While by the 1930s, Jewish delis numbered some 3,000 in New York alone, there are only a comparative few left today in the city, not to mention around the country in places like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Ann Arbor, among others. What if it was easier to get treats like these, if Jewish food and thereby the culture from which it came was more accessible? After all, Jewish culture is part of American culture, too.

A possible answer to this question comes this week in the form of the new Manischewitz food truck, which begins today in Brooklyn and will be traversing different parts of New York and New Jersey until Passover, when it will close and then reopen the following week. The famous Jewish food brand, which started in Cincinnati in 1888, is rebranding, and the food truck is part of this initiative. Not only did their logo and social media presence get an update, they’ve got merch now, too. With bright orange hues and retro styling, it’s as much an welcoming appreciation of the culture as it is fun and campy–a tote says “schlep,” and a tank top says “man, I shvitz,” for example.

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Iichi Marumo had been ice skating since he was some 10 years old, but he didn’t compete in his first race until nearly eight decades later, at the age of 86. Now, at 95, he has 20 gold medals to his name as a speedskating champion in his age bracket. There aren’t many like him–as he gets older, the skating categories rise with him; according to The New York Times, the Japan Skating Federation has created three new ones since he started just to keep up–and while he’s briefly retired from the sport to heal from an injury, he hopes to make it to the next bracket soon, for ages 100 and over.

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