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A new Israeli restaurant in Brooklyn confidently opens in a NYC transformed by Oct. 7
(New York Jewish Week) — At first glance, it may not seem like the wisest or safest decision to open an Israeli restaurant in a New York City that’s been thrown into turmoil since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Yet Nina, a 162-seat Mediterranean restaurant helmed by Israeli chef Sagi Azrouel, opened on Nov. 30 in Dumbo, just blocks from the iconic Brooklyn intersection where tourists flock to snap pictures of the Manhattan Bridge against the city’s skyline.
Despite a rash of antisemitic incidents targeting Israeli restaurants in the city, business at Nina has been good, Azrouel insists. That’s especially true on weekends, when the chef, 31, said the line stretches out the door with patrons waiting to enjoy a dinner accompanied by a DJ and a party atmosphere. During Hanukkah, a menorah was prominently displayed inside next to a Christmas tree, and the restaurant served sfinge, Moroccan fried yeast donuts made from Azrouel’s grandmother’s recipe.
Azrouel and Anna Castellani, a partner in the restaurant, say they are unconcerned about Nina experiencing wrath from anti-Israel protesters. “Not at all,” Azrouel told the New York Jewish Week. “I feel sad for the people who are trying to ruin someone else’s business because of their political agendas.”
He said he thought protesters who have targeted Israeli restaurants do not understand Israeli food.
“When I see those people, the way they behave, I see it comes from missing knowledge,” he added. “They don’t know enough, they’re not educated enough. When we say ‘Israeli food,’ for me, Israeli food is built out of hundreds of different cuisines — that doesn’t mean it’s Jewish food. It means Israel is built out of hundreds of different cultures.”
Azrouel noted that Israeli families can have roots in dozens of countries around the world, and how the food found in Israel can be Arabic, Eastern European, American or even Palestinian in origin. “Israel is the one place in the world where you can find every kind of food,” he said.
Chef Sagi Azrouel came to NYC in 2013, directly after his army service in Israel ended. (Delaine Dacko for In Haus)
At Nina — named for Castellani’s eldest daughter — these cross-cultural influences are found across the menu. Among the starters, for example, is a selection of dips that include a Moroccan matbucha made of tomatoes, pepper and garlic ($18), as well as an albacore tuna ceviche ($17) and french fries with chimichurri sauce ($12). Main dishes include a vegetarian schnitzel made with eggplant ($20) and fettuccini with kebob-style meatballs ($24). Unlike most Israeli and Middle Eastern restaurants, Nina doesn’t serve pita bread as an accompaniment — rather, there is vegan challah, made at the restaurant without eggs.
“I did not try to create fine dining — I just wanted to create good quality food where everyone feels at home,” Azrouel said.
The preparations to open Nina began in May 2023, well before the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. “No one foresaw the drama unfolding,” said Castellani, who is also the force behind nearby DeKalb Market Hall, which has some 40 food vendors including a Brooklyn offshoot of Katz’s Deli. “I’m not Israeli, I’m not Jewish, I come at this purely from a culinary point of view.”
A lifelong New Yorker, Castellani’s aim for the 3,200-square-foot space, previously a gourmet grocery, was to create a local staple for Dumbo residents like herself. “We have a burgeoning, very young population,” she said of the neighborhood, explaining the increased need for restaurants. “In fact, we are underserved.”
Castellani said she was considering opening an American restaurant, or possibly a bistro, but had difficulty finding the right chef. As providence would have it, Castellani and her business partner Moshe Ziv happened to drop into 260s New York, a Garment District coffee shop that Azrouel opened last spring. Ziv knew Azrouel through a mutual friend — “he’s like a second father to me,” Azrouel said — and, as the trio talked, Castellani started to think that maybe he’d be a good fit for the new restaurant. When she asked if he thought he could handle the kitchen, he assured her could, compiled a sample menu and tasting, and was quickly hired.
Castellani was convinced Azrouel was “the right spirit fit,” despite his lack of formal training.
“It’s my confidence,” Azrouel quipped.
Azrouel, whose family hails from Morocco, grew up in the southern Israeli port city of Ashdod. Three days after he completed his army service in 2013, he decamped for New York City. “I came with $400, but huge faith,” he said. “And I never stopped believing, even during dark days, and I’m sure whoever lived in New York experienced that. I think New York is the city for creatives and believers, as long as you believe in yourself, you can make it.”
It doesn’t hurt to have a high-end fashion designer as your uncle. Upon his arrival in the city, Sagi Azrouel started as the chief of operations for Yigal Azrouël’s fashion line, handling production, studio operations, finances and procurement. Fashion is in the family blood — Azrouel said his father’s family had owned a large textile business back in Morocco. And in early 2023, Azrouel opened his own apparel manufacturing company on West 39th Street, Lab 26, which provides fashion development and production services.
At the same time, Azrouel loved to host parties and also occasionally worked as a private chef, eventually opening 260s New York on the same block as his apparel business last spring. The Garment District, he said, lacked “something a bit more stylish and cozy where people can step in and disconnect from the craziness of the city for a few minutes.”
Azrouel said he was always interested in cooking; growing up he loved to help his mother chop vegetables. He became a dishwasher at a restaurant in Ashdod at 13, and started assisting the chef whenever he had an opportunity. According to Azrouel, the chef eventually asked him to officially join the team and by 18, he said, he was running the kitchen.
With the opening of Nina, Azrouel realized a lifelong dream. “If you ask my mom, I’ve always said that I’ll have my own restaurant, since a very young age.”
Nina is kosher-style: It does not serve dishes mixing dairy and meat, nor does it serve the meat of non-kosher animals, such as pork or shellfish, but it does not have kosher certification and serves meat from kosher animals that was not slaughtered in accordance with Jewish law. That means Azrouel, who himself observes the laws of kashrut, does not taste the meat at the restaurant. He claims he can judge the quality and doneness of those dishes by looking and smelling.
Though Azrouel is proud of his Israeli identity, he and Castellani are marketing Nina as a Mediterranean — and not necessarily Israeli — restaurant. “Sagi’s Israeli, but he has a very unique take and you really can’t call the menu classic Israeli,” Castellani said.
“Some restaurants are afraid of the protesting and you don’t want to get into a situation where people get violent and use their hands,” Azrouel said. “But at the same time, it’s our part to stay strong and be proud. If there’s any place in the world we can be proud as Jews it’s New York.”
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The post A new Israeli restaurant in Brooklyn confidently opens in a NYC transformed by Oct. 7 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’
Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.
In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.
At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
Nearly half of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.
The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.
Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.
“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”
Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.
Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.
The post New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events
A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.
The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.
Incidents reported by the group include:
- At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
- A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
- In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”
CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”
The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”
Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.
A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”
CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”
In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.
Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”
The post Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.
Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.
Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.
“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.
Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.
The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.
As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.
“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
The post IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on first appeared on Algemeiner.com.