RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG

Italy is the world’s largest producer of wine, with almost 2 million acres of land devoted to cultivation of grapes. There are a number of kosher wineries in Italy, including Bartenura, which is named for Rabbi Ovadia ben Avraham of Bertinoro (who was known as Bartenura) and Cantina Giuliano, one of the newer kosher wineries, which is located in Tuscany and also features kosher apartment rentals on their estate. The Wine Company Alessandro Lunardelli was founded in the Pasian di Prato region of Italy (the northeast corner) in 1968, with an annual production of around 100,000 bottles. Why is the Lunardelli Wine vineyards controversial within the Jewish community?

A. Lunardelli Wine vineyards, which is not primarily a kosher wine producer, markets a small quantity of kosher wine every year that is released prior to Passover to be used by members of the Italian Jewish community for their seders. Each year the vineyard uses a different picture on their wine label representing scenes of the Exodus from Egypt, such as Moses parting the Red Sea or frogs and locusts representing the 10 plagues. But in 2021, during the pandemic when it was not as easy to bring together members of the Jewish community for input, a marketing director chose a picture which represented Jews dancing around the Golden Calf.

B. Mevushal wine is wine that has been heated during the packaging process. Wine that is mevushal may then be touched by non-Jews, such as caterers and servers, unlike non-mevushal wine that can only be produced and handled by Shabbat-observant Jews. Many people think that this heating process yields a wine that is less tasty than non-heated wine. It was discovered that Lunardelli Vineyards had not actually heated their mevushal wine in order to get better taste reviews, but this in fact voided the kashrut of the product.

C. Lunardelli Vineyards, which is not a kosher wine producer, was approached by members of the local Jewish community in the Veneto region of Italy and asked if they might consider producing kosher wines for their community. An internal email written by the vineyard’s head of marketing was released by a disgrunted employee which read, “It makes no sense for us to hire a Rabbi to oversee our wine production. I recommend that we reject this Jewish tax and we reject this project.”

D. The vineyard, which is not a kosher wine producer, markets some of their wines under the heading Famous People (Gente Famosa), and one collection of wines under that umbrella is called Jewish People (Ebrei), with labels featuring pictures of David Ben-Gurion, Maimonides, and Primo Levi. But there was controversy because one of the bottles featured a picture of Madonna, who is not Jewish, though she is a follower of the mystical thread of Judaism known as Kabbalah.

E. The vineyard, which is not a kosher wine producer, markets some of their wines under the heading History Line (Linea Storia), and one collection of wines under that umbrella is called Der Fuhrer, with labels featuring pictures of Adolf Hitler and slogans including “One People, One Empire, One Ruler,” “Sieg Heil,” and “Der Prosecco Vom Führer” (“The Führer’s Prosecco”). Andrea Lunardelli said that the wines represented “a nice joke” because Hitler was a teetotaler.

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Four-time Grammy Award winner Olivia Newton-John died last week. Newton-John first gained fame with a “girl next door” image while singing such songs as I Honestly Love You  and Have You Never Been Mellow. Her image took a turn for the wilder when she was cast as Sandy Olsson in the movie Grease, starring opposite John Travolta as Danny Zuko. The soundtrack of the movie yielded two number 1 hits for the duo, You’re the One That I Want and Summer Nights. Newton-John followed this success with the double-platinum album Physical and the single of the same name which tied the record for most weeks spent at number 1 in the rock era. Olivia Newton-John was not Jewish, though she had Jewish ancestry, including what renowned individual?

Olivia Newton John op Schiphol, Bestanddeelnr 930-0131 by Bert Verhoeff / Anefo, CC0, is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A. One of her grandfathers was physicist Max Born, who fled Nazi Germany in 1933, settling in Cambridge, United Kingdom, where he continued his study of quantum mechanics, solid-state physics and optics. In 1954, Born won the Nobel Prize in physics.

B. One of her ancestors, from centuries earlier, was Sir Isaac Newton, the English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and author. In 2005 Britain’s Royal Society (which had once been led by Newton), in answer to the question of who had the greater effect on the history of science–Newton or Albert Einstein–selected Newton.

C. Her maternal grandfather was Sidney Myer, a businessman and philanthropist who was born in Russia and emigrated to Melbourne, Australia at the turn of the twentieth century. Myer initially sold haberdashery to miners as an itinerant peddler, and eventually parlayed that work into the creation of a major retail empire in Australia.

D. Her paternal grandfather was Sir Alan Newton, a noted Australian surgeon of the early 20th century who was one of the founders of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Newton was knighted by King Edward VIII in 1936 and went on to serve in World War II as chairman of the Medical Equipment Control Committee. He was also instrumental in promoting the manufacture and use of penicillin in Australia.

E. She was descended from a Sephardic Jew who lived in Toledo, Spain. The ancestor, Figureroa Newton-Juan fled Spain during the Inquisition and sailed with other Jews to Australia, where they settled in Sydney. The Jews established a small synagogue, a mikveh, and a kosher butcher. Looking to enhance the lives of his community, Olivia’s ancestor started a kosher cookie company, creating a treat which he named after himself, the Fig Newton.

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