By ANITA HIRSCH

Special to The Press

As the Jewish new year 5782 begins, we especially think about the meals we share during the holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

The traditional meals in my home began with all the relatives at the table dipping apple sections in honey, and a prayer over the wine and the challah with raisins, and then chicken noodle soup.

We moved on to chopped liver salad and more challah bread and then to beef brisket, oven-roasted potatoes and honeyed carrots and a fresh salad.

Dessert was usually Cousin Rose’s honey cake. It’s tradition!

However, there will be many differences this year, especially no more full tables of relatives dining.

The Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley offered a virtual cooking class, a “Very Israeli Rosh Hashana” cooking class featuring Michael Solomonov and Adeena Sussman.

Solomonov is the five-time James Beard award-winning chef and owner of Zahav, the popular Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia.

Sussman, the bestselling cookbook author, appeared from Israel.

The menu included a skillet chicken with date syrup, sumac and tahini from vegetables offered by Sussman.

The drink was halvah gazoz, made with tahini syrup, persimmon, grapes and seltzer.

The vegetables from Solomonov were Moroccan carrots, a Turkish salad, and a radish and zucchini salad with mint and nigella seeds.

I prepared the three vegetables proposed by Solomonov to add to my beef brisket and to see what my family would welcome to our traditional menu.

My family preferred the Turkish salad.