Rivka Goldman

By Rabbi Jack Shlachter
Los Alamos Jewish Center

The most recent monthly community Shabbat dinner at the Los Alamos Jewish Center was a unique culinary experience, one not usually available on the hill. Congregants partook of an amazing Iraqi-Jewish feast prepared single-handedly by long-time White Rock resident and Jewish Center member Rivka Goldman.

Rivka was born in Basra, Iraq, and is one of roughly a million Jews who fled Arab countries following violent, government-sanctioned outbreaks of antisemitic hostility in the late 1940s. Rivka learned Iraqi-Jewish cuisine from her late mother, Nazima Sofer, and she has published two cookbooks which combine her mother’s recipes with her own memories of life in Basra as a Jewish child. Her cookbooks are Mama Nazima’s Jewish-Iraqi Cuisine and Nazima’s Memoirs and Cuisine Book II.

Rivka’s Jewish Center meal included nearly 20 different dishes: from Iraqi-style salmon, spiced rice, pickled mango condiment, okra, hummus, and potatoes in phyllo dough, to vegetable dumplings called kba. For dessert, there was a special Iraqi-Jewish almond cake, as well as dates stuffed with nuts, and homemade baklava.

Despite the record-size crowd, there was ample food for all the attendees, and no one left hungry. The meal took place after the weekly Friday night Shabbat (Sabbath) service, and synagogue attendees were also entertained by a few stories and teachings from the Iraqi-Jewish text tradition during and after the worship service, which was led by Rabbi Jack Shlachter.

For details about future community Shabbat dinners or other Jewish Center events, go to the LAJC website: www.lajc.org.

The Los Alamos Jewish Center is our community’s resource for Jewish worship, education, and life cycle events. LAJC is located at 2400 Canyon Road, just down the street from PEEC Nature Center. For more information about the Los Alamos Jewish Center, go to www.lajc.org, call 505.662.2140, or email losalamosjewishcenter@lajc.org.

Find the book of Mama Nazima’s Jewish-Iraqi Cuisine here.

Find the book of Nazima’s Memoirs and Cuisine here.