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Eyal Shani’s fast-casual Times Square restaurant is going kosher
(New York Jewish Week) — The Times Square location of Miznon, the fast-casual restaurant chain from Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani, is going kosher.
The pita-focused eatery, which is located at 1410 Broadway at 39th Street, opened two and a half months ago and is one of Shani’s four Miznon restaurants in Manhattan. It has been serving a kosher-style menu nearly since the start, according to Mika Ziv, CEO of Good People Group, Shani’s global hospitality brand — this location has no dairy products on the menu and the meat they serve is certified glatt kosher.
But on Sunday, January 21, the kitchen will be thoroughly cleaned and prepared according to kosher guidelines, and a certificate of kashrut from Rabbi Aaron Mehlman of National Kosher Supervision is expected to be issued that week.
The Miznon location will be Shani’s second kosher establishment in New York City — the first, Malka, opened on the Upper West Side in November 2023.
The decision to turn a second Shani restaurant in New York into a kosher eatery was both an ideological and pragmatic one, Ziv told the New York Jewish Week. “We always knew there was a need and desire for people to eat our food — we didn’t understand fully to what extent,” she said. “Now that we opened Malka, there has been such a beautiful welcoming to New York. We have been getting people asking about lunch, about delivery, about catering. Malka is doing amazing. We are getting so much love which is so exciting to us.”
“There are no compromises because it is kosher,” she added. “It is a happy place in this very unhappy time.”
Israeli chef Eyal Shani at Malka, his kosher restaurant in Tel Aviv. (Ariel Efron)
That sentiment is shared by many kosher-keeping foodies in New York, including Jerry Richter, a high school history teacher from West Hempstead, Long Island, who came to Manhattan Sunday night to have an early dinner at Malka. There, his server told Richter, his wife and their two friends that Shani was expanding his kosher footprint in Manhattan by converting the Times Square Miznon into a restaurant under rabbinic supervision.
Richter said their table was thrilled by the news. “To be able to access the Miznon menu, being kosher, that’s great!” he said. “Everyone is excited.”
Richter announced the news to the popular Facebook group Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies, which boasts 101,000 members, and the response was overwhelming: “Finally!” wrote one respondent. “Wow!!!” posted another.
According to Elan Kornblum, publisher of Great Kosher Restaurants Media Group, Richter’s post has been viewed 24,000 times in less than two days.
“It’s a big change to Times Square to have something like this,” Kornblum said. Other kosher restaurants in Times Square include Le Marais, a French steakhouse and AO Bowl, an organic, gluten-free, Japanese restaurant.
Shani himself does not keep kosher, but five years ago he opened Malka in Tel Aviv — which, at the time, was the only kosher restaurant in his portfolio. He told the New York Jewish Week last year that he first opened a kosher establishment because he saw that kosher consumers were “craving” his food but they couldn’t eat it because it was not kosher.
“These people are part of my nation,” Shani said. “Part of my people. How can I make food without letting half of my people eat it? That is the main reason I opened Malka.”
At the moment, in addition to Malka on the Upper West Side, Shani operates two kosher-certified restaurants in Israel. In Paris, three Miznon locations use all-kosher ingredients but they are not certified kosher.
Shani’s team decided to turn the Times Square Miznon outpost into a kosher restaurant because of its central location, close to the Diamond District, the Theater District and the Garment Center — all areas that are frequented by observant Jews. Ziv said that they had discussed making the restaurant certified kosher from the get-go but opted to test the waters with Malka first.
Ziv said she hopes customers who have been eating at the Times Square location will continue to do so. Since the location has been serving glatt kosher meat from the start, prices for the food under rabbinic supervision should not be affected dramatically: “We will have a tiny adjustment, just a slight price increase,” she said.
Upgrading the inclusivity of the restaurant by adding kosher certification has taken on an added importance since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, Ziv added.
“Everyone became more open and connected to being more accommodating and close to our roots,” she said. “Just as we always make sure there are vegan options, and we make such a big effort to accommodate so many others, it is not complicated to approach kosher restaurants, especially since our restaurants outside of Israel are places where Israelis and Jews can come together.”
“It makes sense to offer a kosher option,” she added.
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The post Eyal Shani’s fast-casual Times Square restaurant is going kosher appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.