In youth, the alphabet can seem an untamable behemoth; no abracadabra utterance can spawn a jubilee celebration or a well-earned sabbatical at its conquest.
Yes, that”™s something of a trick sentence, but if you read it and understood it, you have taken a step back in linguistic and religious history ”“ as big a step back, in fact, as can be taken.
Words like alphabet (aleph bet), behemoth, sabbatical, abracadabra and jubilee carry etymologies thousands of years old, directly traceable to a Middle Eastern people whose beliefs and history have shaped the spirituality of billions, usually joyously, too often against a backdrop of tragedy: the Jews.
“Hebrew is a 3,000-year-old language that comes from virtually every corner of the world and is studied in every corner of the world,” said Tamara Silberman, 40, who has herself studied it ”“ a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts in English and Hebrew ”“ and now teaches it.
Silberman recently launched a Web site dedicated to her avocation as a Hebrew teacher: www.learnhebrewnow.com. She has tutored about 20 students so far as they take up the tradition of the Hebrew language for their bar and bat mitzvahs. Coming of age for Jews has always meant rigorous study of the Torah, culminating in a chanted passage in Hebrew. Said Silberman with a knowing nod to the fact youth is not always the best judge of what is best: “Their parents think it”™s important for them.” Some, she admits, could be better students, but, “Some kids like it. It”™s a phonetic language and it”™s like a puzzle. Once you start putting the pieces together, it”™s a lot of fun.”
Silberman talks the talk and she walks the walk: She”™s been to Israel half a dozen times, including on a five-day hiking trip. She cites warmth and spur-of-the-moment hospitality as two of the characteristics she likes most about Israel, traits she herself exudes with abundance. “You really get a sense of being taken under someone”™s wing,” she said of Israeli generosity.
Silberman seated herself in the slashing glare of January afternoon sunlight when she spoke. The effect was stagelike, the sun her spotlight. This is the sort of light many adults shun in favor of the imaginably more flattering realms of the shadows. But there sat Silberman, engaged and engaging, putting out a plate of cookies that will forever mark store-boughts as also-rans, her hundred-watt smile luminous. The winter sun provided a light worthy of her grand, inviting presence.
Silberman and husband Craig Pellis have run Silver Spoon Catering in Mount Kisco for 10 years:
www.silverspooncateringny.com. “My client relationships are what make this business special to me,” Pellis said, noting Silver Spoon serves Westchester, Manhattan, Rockland and Fairfield (Conn.) counties. “I have clients who”™ve been with us for 10 years.”
Slberman notes Silver Spoon is not a home-kitchen outfit. “We”™re a fully licensed kitchen,” she said. “We have all the permits. Whatever regulations there are, we follow them here.”
The 200 East Man St. store was bustling on a recent Thursday as Silberman and Pellis went about the business of preparing food for a typical weekend ”¦ meaning for 300 to 500 people. “The biggest event we did was for 800,” Pellis said, a 9/11 memorial event.
Pellis, a Cluinary Institute of America graduate who also possesses a B.A. in business management from SUNY Binghamton, said Silver Spoon caters about 100 events per year and that keeps things personal: “We don”™t take on 10 events in a weekend. We take on one or two. And when a client calls, it”™s one of us ”“ Tamara or me ”“ picking up the phone. The personalization is the key to the success of the company. Clients constantly call back. To do a bar mitzvah and then to get called back for a wedding is a real rush.” A small event for Silver Spoon would be for 15 persons. Besides food, the couple also scouts locations.
And the food? “Nothing is out of the box,” Pellis said. “We prepare food to the standards found in four-star restaurants. It”™s all natural, no fillers, no MSG, no hydrogenated oils.” The food is not kosher, “But we can do kosher style.”
Silberman and Pellis have two children: Justin, 10, and 5-year-old Rachel (who had just lost a tooth, Silberman reported). Justin and Rachel are students at Westchester Fairfield Hebrew Academy in Greenwich, Conn., following in the cross-Sound footsteps of Silberman, who studied as a youth at the Solomon Schechter Day School in Jericho, of which her parents were founding members. “Jewish learning is a tradition that”™s very strong in my family,” she said.
