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A kosher ‘kind of Chinese’ restaurant in New Jersey lands on NYT’s 2023 list of eateries ‘we’re most excited about’
(JTA) — Fat Choy was a critic’s pick for its flavorful, inventive vegan Chinese menu when it opened in Manhattan’s East Village in 2021. But pandemic and inflation pressures forced its closure the following year, and its chef, Justin Lee, considered exiting the kitchen to become a teacher.
Now, Fat Choy has reopened in suburban New Jersey, with a Jewish partner and kosher certification. And this week, the restaurant landed on the New York Times’ 2023 Restaurant List — the 50 restaurants across the United States that the newspaper’s dining critics are “most excited about.”
It’s not the only vegetarian restaurant on the list: New York City’s Superiority Burger, which recently reopened with a revamped menu, is also a pick. But Fat Choy stands out as the only eatery with kosher certification to win the distinction — though the newspaper didn’t note that in its blurb.
“If we’re lucky, the future might look something like Fat Choy,” dining critic Pete Wells wrote, saying that the restaurant offers an antidote to the lab-grown meat that is seen as the vanguard for plant-based dining. He added. “Dishes such as Not Quite Beef and Broccoli, made with roasted mushrooms, and Mr. Lee’s homage to General Tso, in which battered fried cauliflower takes the place of chicken, will make instant sense to anyone who’s ever been to Panda Express.”
Fat Choy’s resurrection came after Jonathan Krieger, the Jewish cofounder of Australian cafe chain Bluestone Lane, convinced Lee to reopen in the bedroom community of Englewood. Krieger, who moved to the New Jersey suburbs during the pandemic, is Fat Choy’s CEO. He has also opened a community space and spa in the area.
Named for a Cantonese new year’s greeting and describing itself as “kind of Chinese, also vegan,” Fat Choy displays a kosher insignia, in Hebrew, at the top of its website. It also includes a link to its certificate, which shows that its current status is guaranteed through the end of August 2024, except during Passover, along with a statement by Krieger.
“We are proud to be certified Kosher by the International Kosher Council, who uphold the strictest standards in Kashrut,” the statement says. “We believe in upholding the highest standards in food quality, cleanliness and treatment of our employees and guests.”
Operated by Rabbi Zev Schwarcz, the International Kosher Council specializes overseeing kosher regulations in vegan and vegetarian restaurants. Schwarcz, an Orthodox rabbi ordained at a haredi yeshiva in Ohio, has made himself the go-to certifier for such restaurants, which use very few potentially non-kosher ingredients, by offering lower-priced services, often to restaurants that aim to serve a diverse and not primarily Jewish clientele.
The agency has faced criticism from other certifying agencies for not requiring constant supervision by an in-person inspector and for working with restaurants that operate on Shabbat; some kosher-keeping diners do not eat in restaurants that it certifies.
Still, Fat Choy has generated some buzz among kosher-keeping diners, with multiple people posting in a prominent Facebook group, Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies, that they had enjoyed their meal at Fat Choy. “Had the General Lee’s Cauliflower — it was delicious,” a group member wrote in mid-August, shortly after the restaurant’s opening. “Hit the spot.”
Englewood, the city where Fat Choy has opened in a strip mall, is home to a significant Jewish community, as are several of its surrounding towns, including Teaneck. Residents can choose from a wide range of both synagogues and kosher eateries. Fat Choy’s location had originally been advertised as the future home of Urban Shuk, a kosher food hall offering a range of cuisines from different vendors.
Landing on the New York Times’ best-of list can be transformative for restaurants. After the newspaper placed Falafel Tanami in Brooklyn on its list of best meals in the city earlier this year, the family-owned kosher restaurant experienced a surge of customers, sold out of some of its signature products and began contemplating an expansion.
What’s coming for Fat Choy? If Krieger’s track record is any indication, more locations could be in the future: Bluestone Lane now has 50 sites across the United States, and he also previously ran a taco chain with eight locations. The restaurant itself was not available for comment: Its phone line was busy all day Tuesday.
It did post a note to its website about the New York Times accolade.
“Being ranked as the number 1 restaurant to try for New Jersey is a testament to our passion and commitment to reimagine what vegan can taste like and bring our flavor of Chinese delights to every plate,” the restaurant said.
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The post A kosher ‘kind of Chinese’ restaurant in New Jersey lands on NYT’s 2023 list of eateries ‘we’re most excited about’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.