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A Brooklyn Jewish foodie wants to make haroset a year-round treat
(New York Jewish Week) — For many, the highlight of the Passover seder is haroset — the nutty, fruity, sweet and crunchy paste spread on matzah and meant to symbolize the mortar slung by enslaved Israelites.
Such was the case for Michael Rubel. His mother’s haroset — made with “chopped apples, Manischewitz, raisins and lots of cinnamon,” as he describes it — was something he looked forward to all year. It was delicious, rare and one of the few distinctly uncommon Jewish foods he remembered from growing up in Kansas City, Kansas.
In fact, Rubel, 26, wondered why such a treat would be confined to Passover. “I can’t tell you how many Jews have said to me, ‘Yes, I’ve always asked why we only eat this once a year,’” Rubel told the New York Jewish Week. “It feels almost universal.”
So the Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn resident, decided to do something about this sad state of affairs: Last week he launched the food brand Schmutz, which makes a haroset that is meant to be eaten all year round.
Rubel launched his brand online and at a party at East Williamburg’s Tchotchke Gallery on April 1. Within 48 hours, that first drop — which consisted of a traditional Ashkenazi apple and walnut haroset, as well as a fig and pistachio haroset inspired by a 15th-century Italian recipe — sold out. According to Schmutz’s Instagram, they sold 249 pounds of the stuff, or around 500 jars.
Schmutz haroset is not kosher for Passover; as for the brand’s name, which means “dirt or unpleasant substance” in Yiddish, Rubel says it is meant to be ironic — haroset may be delicious but it “is not a pretty food,” he concedes.
Michael Rubel, 26, mingles with guests who came to the “Schmutz” launch event at Tchotchke Gallery on April 1, 2023. (Jeffrey Rubel)
The nine-ounce jars retail for $18, which Rubel acknowledges is expensive. “It’s small-batch crafted and definitely a specialty product,” he said, “but I’m excited to make this product even more accessible going forward.”
Rubel believes that haroset can evolve into something like a jam or a condiment, a shelf-stable food that’s readily available in restaurants, synagogue gift shops and specialty food stores. The opportunities are endless — as the brand’s website says, “schwirl it in oatmeal and schpread it on cheese and schmear it on toast and schlep it to a picnic and schling it on leftovers and schpoon it from a jar.”
Though Rubel works a day job in product development at a software startup, he had previously worked in restaurant kitchens and in product development for a snack company. This, he said, gave him insight into both the production side and the business side of developing a new snack food.
Then again, haroset is more than a delicious snack or topping, according to Rubel: It also epitomizes the Jewish food experience, providing a unique opportunity to highlight the diversity of Jewish cultures. Each unique haroset recipe, he said, serves as a window into different Jewish experiences all around the world.
“One Passover during Covid, I fell down a rabbit hole of global haroset recipes, and fell so deeply in love with this food as a prism into the diaspora. It’s emblematic of a central Jewish tradition; we carry some shared instructions around the world and do different things with it,” he told the New York Jewish Week. “You’ve got a history of French folks making haroset with chestnuts, Italian communities using pine nuts. There’s tropical cherries in Suriname; dates in places like Iraq and India; peanuts, bananas, rose petals, pear and more elsewhere. Even within those communities, you see it done very differently, with different tastes, textures and beyond.”
So far, Rubel has created two flavors of the jarred haroset — fig and pistachio and apple and walnut. He hopes to include more in the future. (Landon Cooper)
Rubel wants Schmutz haroset to be part of the movement exposing Jews and non-Jews to the diversity of Jewish food. Though the first drop consisted of just two varieties, he promises more are around the corner for later this spring. “I love Ashkenazi foods so deeply, and yet, Jewish food is more than that,” Rubel said. “It feels especially important in this moment, when Jews are getting a lot of public attention, to share the depth of global Jewish cuisine, and to show that there’s no one type of Jew.”
Liz Alpern, a co-owner of Gefilteria — a brand, launched in 2012, that took another Passover staple, gefilte fish, mainstream — told the New York Jewish Week via email that she is “excited about Schmutz because it’s offering the wider world the opportunity to enjoy one of the most beloved foods from the Jewish canon.”
“Michael is thoughtful and knowledgeable about the countless global variations on charoset and he’s introduced me to many flavors I hadn’t heard of before,” Alpern added. (Gefilteria helped sponsor and cater Schmutz’s launch party last weekend.)
Having lived in New York for four years now, Rubel said he is realizing just how much Jewish food is available here — and how little is available elsewhere. That’s something he aspires to change. “I’m excited to bring a new Jewish energy not just to the kosher aisle but beyond it,” he said.
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The post A Brooklyn Jewish foodie wants to make haroset a year-round treat appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Leader of Lithuanian Government Party Found Guilty of Hatred Against Jews
Dawn of Nemunas Party leader Remigijus Zemaitaitis attends a press conference after general election in Vilnius, Lithuania, Oct. 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
A Lithuanian court found the leader of a junior party in the ruling coalition government on Thursday guilty of incitement to hatred against Jews and belittling the Holocaust in social media posts in 2023.
Remigijus Zemaitaitis, founder of the populist Nemunas Dawn, was fined 5,000 euros ($5,835) for falsely accusing the Jewish people, as a group, of historical crimes, encouraging hostility, and strengthening negative stereotypes, the court said.
“[Zemaitaitis] publicly mocked and despised Jewish people and incited hatred against the Jewish community” in social media, the Vilnius Regional Court said in its ruling.
It said he had also used “language that is degrading, derogatory to human dignity, and which incites hostility on ethnic grounds.”
Zemaitaitis has denied any wrongdoing. He told the BNS news agency on Thursday that he considered the verdict politically motivated and that he would appeal.
After resigning from parliament over the issue in April 2024, Zemaitaitis was re-elected in October of that year and his party, Nemunas Dawn, joined the new coalition government led by the Social Democrats. He is not himself a government minister.
Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, whose three-party coalition has a slim majority in Lithuania’s parliament, told reporters she had not yet read the verdict.
Her Social Democratic Party said in a statement it respected the court’s ruling, while noting the decision was not yet final.
Thousands gathered at the parliament in Vilnius in November 2024 and again in August this year to protest against Nemunas Dawn’s inclusion in the government.
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Israel Strikes Hezbollah Targets in Two South Lebanon Towns
People inspect a damaged site after Israel’s military said it struck targets in two southern Lebanese towns on Thursday, in Jbaa southern Lebanon, Dec. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ali Hankir
Israel‘s military said it struck targets in two southern Lebanese towns on Thursday after ordering the evacuation of two buildings it alleged were being used by Hezbollah terrorists.
About an hour after the initial warning, the army’s Arabic spokesperson issued another notice instructing residents of buildings in two other towns to leave.
The strikes came a day after Israel and Lebanon sent civilian envoys to a committee overseeing a fragile ceasefire agreed a year ago that both sides have accused the other of breaking.
The envoys would broaden the scope of talks between the long-time adversaries, both sides said.
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Anti-Hamas Gazan Clan Leader Reported Killed
Leader of the Popular Forces Yasser Abu Shabab and his deputy Ghassan Al-Duhaini stand next to armed men in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, in this screenshot taken from a video released on Nov. 18, 2025. Photo: Yasser Abu Shabab/Popular Forces via REUTERS
The head of an armed Palestinian faction that opposes Hamas in Gaza has been killed, Israeli media reported on Thursday, in what would be a blow to Israeli efforts to support Gazan clans against the ruling Islamist terror group.
Yasser Abu Shabab, a Bedouin tribal leader based in Israeli-held Rafah in southern Gaza, has led the most prominent of several small anti–Hamas groups that became active in Gaza during the war that began more than two years ago.
His death would be a boost to Hamas, which has branded him a collaborator and ordered its fighters to kill or capture him.
There was no immediate word about Abu Shabab’s status on the Facebook page of his group, the Popular Forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged in June that Israel had armed anti–Hamas clans, though Israel has announced few other details of the policy since then.
RAFAH SECURITY SWEEP
Abu Shabab’s group has continued to operate from areas of Gaza controlled by Israeli forces since a US-backed ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was agreed in October.
Rafah has been the scene of some of the worst violence during the ceasefire. Residents had reported gunbattles there on Wednesday, and Israel said four of its soldiers were wounded there. The Israeli military said on Thursday its forces had killed some 40 Hamas terrorists trapped in tunnels below Rafah.
On Nov. 18, Abu Shabab’s group posted a video showing dozens of fighters receiving orders from his deputy to launch a security sweep to “clear Rafah of terror,” an apparent reference to Hamas fighters believed to be holed up there.
Abu Shabab’s death was reported by Israeli media including Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, citing a security source.
Israel’s Army Radio, also citing a security source, said he had died in Soroka hospital in southern Israel of unspecified wounds, but the hospital soon denied he had been admitted there.
The reports did not say when he died or how he received the reported wounds.
RAFAH ADMINISTRATION
An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment on the reports. Hamas had no comment, its Gaza spokesperson said.
Israel’s policy of backing anti–Hamas clans took shape as it pressed the Gaza offensive against the group, aiming to end its rule of the coastal strip in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on communities in southern Israel.
In an article published in the Wall Street Journal in July, Abu Shabab – a member of the Tarabin Bedouin tribe – said his group had established its own administration in the Rafah area and urged US and Arab support to recognize and support it.
Abu Shabab’s group has denied being backed by Israel.
Netanyahu said in June that Israel’s backing for Gazan clans was a good thing that had saved the lives of Israeli soldiers.
But the policy has also drawn criticism from some in Israel who have said such groups can provide no real alternative to Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007.
CONTROVERSIAL POLICY
“The writing was on the wall. Whether he was killed by Hamas or in some clan infighting, it was obvious that it would end this way,” Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv, told Reuters.
Several other anti–Hamas groups have emerged in areas of Gaza held by Israel. Palestinian political analyst Reham Owda said that Abu Shabab’s death would fuel doubts among them about their “ability to challenge Hamas.”
US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan foresees Hamas disarming and the enclave run by a transitional authority supported by a multi-national stabilization force. But progress has appeared slow, with Hamas so far refusing to disarm and no sign of agreement on the formation of the international force.
Hamas has accused Abu Shabab of looting UN aid trucks during the war. Abu Shabab’s group has denied this, saying it has protected and escorted aid.