Uncategorized
Food influencer Eitan Bernath joins U.N.’s fight against hunger
(New York Jewish Week) — New York-based celebrity chef Eitan Bernath has partnered with the United Nations World Food Programme to bring awareness to global food insecurity.
The 20-year-old influencer joins other activists and celebrities such as The Weeknd, Kate Hudson and Michael Kors in his new role as a “high level supporter.” The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization and works in 120 countries to feed over 160 million people, according to its website.
Bernath said he hopes to use his platform of over 10 million followers across social media and television to encourage fundraising and highlight the work of the World Food Programme to make nutritious food accessible around the world.
“I think all of us can very easily take for granted food security and that having nutrients in your body gives you so much more potential for everything else in your life,” Bernath told the New York Jewish Week.
“It could be very easy to not think about how insanely privileged I am to have a full fridge and pantry of food,” he added. “Especially considering my career, it’s important for me to support work like this.”
That career began when Bernath was 11, when he competed on Food Network’s “Chopped.” In 2018, he was named to the New York Jewish Week’s list of “36 under 36” (now called “36 to Watch”). Bernath was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey and attended Yavneh Academy and The Frisch School.
Along with his extensive social media presence, Bernath hosts a guest segment on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” and last year released a cookbook of original recipes.
In addition to highlighting food insecurity and raising money for the World Food Programme and local organizations like City Harvest, Bernath often uses his platform to spread awareness about antisemitism and share proud Jewish moments from his life. For many of his international followers, he said, he may be their only representation of Judaism.
“I very much see my Jewish identity and Jewish upbringing as being one of the things that inspires me to give back and to support organizations like this. Fundamental to being Jewish are concepts like or l’goyim and tzedakah,” he said, using the Hebrew terms meaning “light unto the nations” and “justice.” “It has always been instilled in me through my parents the concept of ma’aser — the concept of giving back the money that you earn.”
Barron Segar, president and CEO of World Food Program USA, said Bernath’s youth is an asset in bringing attention to the program.
“Eitan is the perfect person to help us fight for a more equitable future, where no one goes without food, no matter where they live,” he said in a news release.
—
The post Food influencer Eitan Bernath joins U.N.’s fight against hunger appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Israel’s Netanyahu Hopes to ‘Taper’ Israel Off US Military Aid in Next Decade
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington.
“I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told The Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero,” he said: “Yes.”
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13 percent last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that “we need not wait ten years” to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
“The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the US military,” Graham said. “I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable.”
Uncategorized
In Rare Messages from Iran, Protesters ask West for Help, Speak of ‘Very High’ Death Toll
Protests in Tehran. Photo: Iran Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law, via i24 News
i24 News – Speaking to Western media from beyond the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime, Iranian protesters said they needed support amid a brutal crackdown.
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tajrish Arg area [a neighborhood in Tehran],” said a protester in Tehran speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. He added that “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
Another activist in Tehran spoke of witnessing security forces firing live ammunition at protesters resulting in a “very high” number killed.
On Friday, TIME magazine cited a Tehran doctor speaking on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital recorded at least 217 killed protesters, “most by live ammunition.”
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Setare Ghorbani, a French-Iranian national living in the suburbs of Paris, said that she became ill from worry for her friends inside Iran. She read out one of her friends’ last messages before losing contact: “I saw two government agents and they grabbed people, they fought so much, and I don’t know if they died or not.”
Uncategorized
Report: US Increasingly Regards Iran Protests as Having Potential to Overthrow Regime
United States President Donald J Trump in White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, December 18, 2025. Photo: Aaron Schwartz via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – The assessment in Washington of the strength and scope of the Iran protests has shifted after Thursday’s turnout, with US officials now inclined to grant the possibility that this could be a game changer, Axios reported on Friday.
“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” an unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying in the report.
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after the Islamic regime blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as videos circulating on social media showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging across the country.
US President Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs of a strong response if security forces escalate violence against protesters.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump told reporters when asked about the unrest in Iran.
The latest reported death toll is at 51 protesters, including nine children.