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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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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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