The 113-year-old neighborhood congregation Temple Adath Israel is preparing to present the first Lexington Jewish Food Festival from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28.
Many of the foods on the sampling menu aren’t available in local restaurants: matzo ball soup, potato knishes, borscht, latkes and kugel, among others. The emphasis is on homemade, using fresh, local ingredients including produce from the Temple’s community garden, a 2014 Lexington in Bloom award-winner.
Additionally, there will be a bake shop with challah, babka, strudel and more, all of it made by temple members, and TAI is bringing back H2Oy, water bottled specially for the temple by Highbridge Springs in Wilmore.
Festival visitors will have a chance to visit the historic sanctuary, and an open Torah scroll will be on display. The temple also has a Holocaust museum, the first such permanent exhibit in Kentucky.
Tickets for the festival are $18 a person; children 12 and younger may piggyback on an adult ticket. Each ticket will allow up to 16 samples, depending on the value assigned to each sample. (Fun fact: The ticket price was chosen because the number 18 is significant in Jewish culture, festival co-chair Pat Shraberg said. In Hebrew, each letter has a numerical value. Letters 10 and 8 spell the word Chai, which means “living” or “life,” so the number 18 is considered to be good luck.)
The festival will be in the social hall at Temple Adath Israel, 124 North Ashland Ave. More information is at Facebook.com/lexjewishfoodfestival