NAOMI LEVIN

WHAT started as a bit of a laugh for Joel Gubieski has turned into a bit of a money-spinner.

Like many children of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gubieski spent his summers in colourful plastic sandals called Jelly Babies.

They were all-condition shoes – kids could play football in them, go climbing in them through deep rock pools or wear them to the shops – and Gubieski’s love for them never died.

“In 2006, my mum called me saying she had found a one-off pair of Jelly Babies,” he said. She bought them for her son, who wore them to university where he is studying arts and law.

“There was an unbelievable response when I started wearing them around uni and other places.” His peers all wanted a pair of the rubbery sandals, but shoe shops had stopped stocking them after they lost appeal with the younger set.
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Water skiing at Club Med was highlighted in this 1950s’ poster.

DANNY GOCS

CLUB Med had its beginnings 60 years ago when Gerard Blitz, a Belgian-Jewish water-polo player, came up with the idea of providing Europeans with inexpensive, bohemian vacations in the Mediterranean sunshine.

Blitz proposed that guests would eat meals at tables of eight to break down social barriers, and everyone would be addressed by their first names.

Holiday-makers were expected to help staff with the cooking and washing up. There was no need for money as everything was included in the holiday price. The only additional expense was alcohol, which was paid for with beads bought on arrival and kept on a necklace.

But first Blitz needed tents and beds for the holiday site he had located at Alcudia, situated on a deserted beach on the Spanish island of Majorca. So he turned to Gilbert Trigano, a Jewish friend from his years in the French Resistance during World War II.

Trigano’s father had a business renting out used US army tents and camping equipment, and agreed to supply all the requirements for the holiday camp.

The “village” at Alcudia opened in June 1950 and, over the summer, 2300 people attended the camps – they were so popular that almost 10,000 potential guests were turned away.
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The winning photo in our holiday competition.

DANNY GOCS

A PHOTO of teenage girls silhouetted against the beach at Portsea during Bnei Akiva’s summer camp is the winning entry in The AJN’s annual holiday photo competition.

The photo was entered by Michelle Sobel of Caulfield, who was in the fortunate position of having two entries among this year’s finalists.

She wins a two-night stay at Hyatt Regency Coolum’s most luxurious accommodation, the Ambassador Club villa, which is situated in an exclusive corner of the spacious resort, complete with its own swimming pool, tennis courts and breakfast club.

“The Portsea photo had my daughter Taryn in it and the other entry was of my sister Yael (Rothschild) rugged up on the beach at Frankston,” she said.

Taryn, 17, is a Year 12 student at Mount Scopus Memorial College and took the photo while at the Zionist youth camp in December.
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Kosher food. Photo: AJN file

DALIA SABLE

KOSHER consumers will be able to tuck into a whole feast of information when Kosher Australia releases its Food Guide 2010.

Featuring hundreds of new products, the booklet includes an extensive list of locally produced, kosher-certified and mehadrin -– the most stringent level of kosher supervision -– items.

For the first time, and in an attempt to make keeping kosher easier, the Melbourne-based kashrut authority has also created sections on setting up a kosher kitchen, separating challah when baking the loaves and how to make crockery kosher, including tips on tovelling (kashering) dishes in a specific mikvah.

The guide also includes advice on how to adequately check fruit, vegetables and eggs for blemishes or deficiencies that may render them treif.

A list of blessings appropriate for each food type and an updated travellers’ guide for the rest of Australia and for South-East Asia also features in the new booklet.
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Peppers Beach Club in Port Douglas

HERE’S a chance to win a holiday at the luxury Peppers Beach Club in Port Douglas by voting for your favourite photos from our finalists in our two great competitions — best holiday photo and best sunrise/sunset photo .

Click here to see all the finalists and to vote to be in the running for the prize. Voting closes on Friday, February 12, 2010, at noon.

A WHOLESOME and well-balanced lunch box is crucial for your kids to get through an active school day. With seven kids between them, the Raizon sisters suggest a sandwich alternative and a healthy, homemade snack.

Eggy fried rice

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice
(white or brown)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tsp soy sauce
½ cup frozen peas

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Showcasing kosher food. Photo: AJN file

AJN STAFF

KOSHER foodies will have the opportunity to sample the latest products and innovations later this month.

Eskal KosherFest Australia 2010, Australian kashrut’s trade fair, will take place on Sunday, February 14 at St Kilda Town Hall, with organisers expecting around 5000 people to pass through the doors.

The exhibitors will include Australian manufacturers, importers and retailers of kosher foods and beverages.

Josh Bartak, head of the exhibition’s organising committee, said the event allows those in the industry to use their stands to demonstrate and explain the development of a particular product or company.

“KosherFest gives manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers of kosher products the opportunity to showcase their goods in a fun, family-friendly environment.”

Organisers have added rides to entertain children, while parents and grandparents can enjoy food samples and live cooking demonstrations, Bartak said.

Organisers are emphasising the broad appeal of kosher products beyond the Jewish community, and quote figures from the Israel Trade Commission showing that the potential market for kosher foods in Australia is more than one million people.

Kosher products have attracted interest from Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist communities, as well as vegetarians, vegans and those with special dietary needs.

“This year, there is also a cheese and wine bar for consumers to rest and kibitz [chat],” Bartak said.

Among a diverse spread of 27 exhibitors this year are Fisher & Paykel, Yumi’s, Coles, the City of Port Phillip and health foods retailer Bodhi Kitchen.

KosherFest will be held at St Kilda Town Hall on Sunday, February 14, 10am-6pm.

Students from Melbourne on holiday in Thailand in January 2010.

DANNY GOCS

FOR the past 20 years, Thailand’s picture-postcard island of Koh Phangan has attracted tourists from around the world keen to enjoy the destination’s party atmosphere, especially around the full moon.

The resort’s population of about 12,000 swells to more than 30,000 during the high season’s full-moon parties.

The event last month coincided with New Year’s Eve and among the revellers were hundreds of Jewish holiday-makers. For most Australians, the party was a highlight of their three to four-week week holiday.

Among the partygoers was a group of 19-year-old students from Melbourne who were touring around Thailand for 24 days – Adam Trytell, Ashley Kalb, Brad Caplan, David Glass, Gavin Katz, Jason Samuel, Jesse Strauch, Joel Gocs, Josh Lerner, Noah Green, Ryan Lewy and David Wloszczowski.

They also visited Bangkok, Koh Samui, Krabi, Phuket and Phi Phi Island, but the full-moon party was the main reason they travelled to Thailand during the holiday period.
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Dietician Arlene Normand. Photo: AJN file

DIETICIAN Arlene Normand answers your questions on food, weight loss and exercise.

Now that I am taking up strength training, should I increase my protein intake to build more muscle?

To build muscle, you need adequate protein in your diet, but you do not need more protein than carbohydrates. Most Australians get more protein than they need anyway.

Years ago body builders were known to wolf down T-bones and drink raw eggs in their mission to consume more protein. Today, they are instead turning to high-protein powders and milkshakes, protein bars and tablets but this is totally unnecessary.

Weightlifters need a little more protein than other people, but due to their greater food intake, they are getting the required amount. In addition, strength training, like any endurance athletics, requires extra calories, but most of these should come from carbohydrates.
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Bustling Shanghai. Photo: Peter Kohn

PETER KOHN

SHANGHAI is the megalopolis of Asia, a city of some 17 million, brashly western and quintessentially Chinese at the same time. Its explosion as a hub of 21st-century global industry and commerce marks China’s spectacular comeback after the Cultural Revolution and decades of Marxist orthodoxy. China today is an economic superpower and Shanghai drives the turbines.

As the liner Giulio Cesare and its Viennese refugees -– my newlywed mother and father among them –- sailed from the Yangtze delta down the Huangpu River past the stately concourse of The Bund in September 1939, they would not have seen the modern glass and concrete towers of Pudong to the south, still decades away from being built.

Whatever odours may have risen from the river, my parents would not have tasted today’s air, thick with carbon monoxide and industrial waste.

All they knew about their exotic destination was that, as a British outpost wrested from China during the opium wars, Shanghai required no visa to enter. After the 1938 Evian Conference, when the world abandoned European Jewry, and visas were rarer than rubies, for those without, the city was just about the only place to flee the Nazis.
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