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Immersive Balloon Experience From Israel Comes to NYC Featuring Large-Scale Masterpieces

Inside “Balloon Story.” Photo: Shiryn Ghermezian

A balloon art installation that was conceived in Israel and brought to life in New York City has attracted visitors of all ages to Manhattan after a successful but smaller run in Tel Aviv last year.

“Balloon Story” is an immersive experience set up across different exhibit rooms at the Park Avenue Armory, one of the largest venues in New York. The “balloon wonderland,” as described on its website, features larger-than-life and intricately detailed balloon monuments — quite literally, including recreations of the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty — as well as balloon installations in the shape of animals, various landscapes, astronauts, musical instruments, food, and more. Each piece is made using environmentally friendly latex balloons.

The exhibit is also interactive, complete with a ball pit that is part of a jungle-themed room, where visitors see more than a dozen wild animals made of balloons in every color and size. Sound effects and mechanics add to the experience — a lion opens its mouth and roars, a parrot flutters its wings, and a gorilla waves hello as visitors pass by it. Visitors then walk through a tunnel that is covered floor to ceiling in balloons that recreate an under the sea experience and afterwards head into a balloon maze that is themed around music, featuring balloon-made musical instruments.

One room is dedicated to outer-space and another is themed around winter, complete with balloon installations of penguins, icebergs, and a snowman. Another area provides different photo opportunities. “Balloon Story,” which ends Saturday, has had over 100,000 visitors so far of all ages. It also broke the world record for the biggest balloon installation ever made with close to 700,000 balloons, “Balloon Story” collaborator Dvorah Leah Schneerson-Jacobson told The Algemeiner.

World-renowned certified balloon artist Kobi Kalimian is the art director of “Balloon Story.” In 2023, he created the first “Balloon Story” exhibition at Tel Aviv’s Hanger 11 venue and it attracted over 200,000 visitors. After seeing the exhibit’s success in Israel, he wanted to bring it to New York and made it happen with help from Zev Eizik, CEO of Hanger 11, as well as Jacobson, a Brooklyn resident who is the owner of the New York-based balloon decorating company Balloon Van Gogh. Jacobson was approached about the collaboration while attending a balloon convention.

Together, they recruited roughly 100 balloon artists from around the world, including Brazil, Australia, Argentina, and Canada. The team included Jewish, religious female balloon artists from South Africa and a significant number of professionals came from Israel, some of whom worked on Balloon Story when it ran in Tel Aviv last year, Jacobson told The Algemeiner. Kalimian created the balloon designs and directed the team of balloon artists in constructing the masterpieces, which took about 10 days to complete in total. Eizik also brought to New York his entire production team that helped assemble Balloon Story in Tel Aviv. “The whole place was speaking Hebrew when you walked in while it was being built,” Jacobson said

Welcoming visitors at the entrance of “Balloon Story” is the exhibit’s biggest and most intricate piece: a giant-sized, 20-foot bald eagle hanging overhead that was created using 9,000 balloons in the colors of the American flag. That one piece took an entire week to build “from morning to night,” Jacobson explained.

“Balloon Story” runs in New York City at the Park Avenue Armory until Aug. 24. Organizers will host on Aug. 25 a “Balloon Popping Party,” where ticketholders are invited to help deflate all of the balloons. The destroyed latex balloons will be repurposed into dog toys. “Balloon Story” is also running again in Tel Aviv, until Aug. 31. Jacobson said it’s too soon to tell what the future holds for “Balloon Story” and where — or if — it will go on the road again. “But the dream is to bring it all over the world,” she added.

Photo: Shiryn Ghermezian

Photo: Shiryn Ghermezian

Photo: Shiryn Ghermezian

Photo: Provided

Photo: Shiryn Ghermezian

Photo: Shiryn Ghermezian

Photo: Shiryn Ghermezian

Photo: Shiryn Ghermezian

Photo: Shiryn Ghermezian

Jacobson is a relative by marriage of The Algemeiner‘s chairman and publisher, Rabbi Simon Jacobson.

The post Immersive Balloon Experience From Israel Comes to NYC Featuring Large-Scale Masterpieces first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Peace Meals: Chef José Andrés Says ‘Good People’ On Both Sides of Gaza Conflict Ill-Served By Leaders, Food Can Bridge Divide

Chef and head of World Central Kitchen Jose Andres attends the Milken Institute Global Conference 2025 in Beverly Hills, California, US, May 5, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Mike Blake.

Renowned Spanish chef and World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder José Andrés called the Oct. 7 attack “horrendous” in an interview Wednesday and shared his hopes for reconciliation between the “vast majority” on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide who are “good people that very often are not served well by their leaders”

WCK is a US-based, nonprofit organization that provides fresh meals to people in conflict zones around the world. The charity has been actively serving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel. Since the Hamas attack, WCK has served more than 133 million meals across Gaza, according to its website.

The restaurateur and humanitarian has been quoted saying in past interviews that “sometimes very big problems have very simple solutions.” On Wednesday’s episode of the Wall Street Journal podcast “Bold Names,” he was asked to elaborate on that thought. He responded by saying he believes good meals and good leaders can help resolve issues between Israelis and Palestinians, who, he believes, genuinely want to live harmoniously with each other.

“I had people in Gaza, mothers, women making bread,” he said. “Moments that you had of closeness they were telling you: ‘What Hamas did was wrong. I wouldn’t [want] anybody to do this to my children.’ And I had Israelis that even lost family members. They say, ‘I would love to go to Gaza to be next to the people to show them that we respect them …’ And this to me is very fascinating because it’s the reality.

“Maybe some people call me naive. [But] the vast majority of the people are good people that very often are not served well by their leaders. And the simple reality of recognizing that many truths can be true at the same time in the same phrase that what happened on October 7th was horrendous and was never supposed to happen. And that’s why World Central Kitchen was there next to the people in Israel feeding in the kibbutz from day one, and at the same time that I defended obviously the right of Israel to defend itself and to try to bring back the hostages. Equally, what is happening in Gaza is not supposed to be happening either.”

Andres noted that he supports Israel’s efforts to target Hamas terrorists but then seemingly accused Israel of “continuously” targeting children and civilians during its military operations against the terror group.

“We need leaders that believe in that, that believe in longer tables,” he concluded. “It’s so simple to invest in peace … It’s so simple to do good. It’s so simple to invest in a better tomorrow. Food is a solution to many of the issues we’re facing. Let’s hope that … one day in the Middle East it’ll be people just celebrating the cultures that sometimes if you look at what they eat, they seem all to eat exactly the same.”

In 2024, WCK fired at least 62 of its staff members in Gaza after Israel said they had ties to terrorist groups. In one case, Israel discovered that a WCK employee named Ahed Azmi Qdeih took part in the deadly Hamas rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Qdeih was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in November 2024.

In April 2024, the Israel Defense Forces received backlash for carrying out airstrikes on a WCK vehicle convoy which killed seven of the charity’s employees. Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said the airstrikes were “a mistake that followed a misidentification,” and Israel dismissed two senior officers as a result of the mishandled military operation.

The strikes “were not just some unfortunate mistake in the fog of war,” Andrés alleged.

“It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by” the Israeli military, he claimed in an op-ed published by Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot. “It was also the direct result of [the Israeli] government’s policy to squeeze humanitarian aid to desperate levels.”

In a statement on X, Andres accused Israel of “indiscriminate killing,” saying the Jewish state “needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”

The post Peace Meals: Chef José Andrés Says ‘Good People’ On Both Sides of Gaza Conflict Ill-Served By Leaders, Food Can Bridge Divide first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hamas to Release 10 Israeli Hostages as US-Backed Ceasefire Talks Gain Momentum

People watch a screen on the day Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who was kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, is released from Hamas captivity in Gaza, in Alexander’s hometown of Tenafly, New Jersey, US, May 12, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Hamas said it would release 10 Israeli hostages in an effort to reach a ceasefire deal, as growing international pressure mounts on the Palestinian terrorist group to end the 21-month war in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement Wednesday, the Iran-backed terror group said negotiations with Israel had been difficult but reaffirmed its commitment to the talks, while offering no timeline for the hostages’ release.

Hamas “continues its intensive and responsible efforts to ensure the success of the ongoing round of negotiations, striving to reach a comprehensive agreement that ends the aggression against our people, secures the free and safe entry of humanitarian aid, and alleviates the worsening suffering in the Gaza Strip,” the statement reads.

“In its commitment to the success of the current efforts, the movement has shown the necessary flexibility and agreed to release 10 prisoners,” the Palestinian terror group said.

Among the remaining 50 hostages still held in the war-torn enclave, fewer than half are believed to be alive, with 28 reported dead.

Hamas’ latest announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week to advance ceasefire efforts focused on securing the release of hostages still held in Gaza.

The US ceasefire plan proposed by Trump sets a 60-day timeline to finalize the details leading to a full resolution of the conflict.

Even though Trump hasn’t provided details on the proposed truce, he said Washington would “work with all parties to end the war” during the 60-day period.

“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” he wrote in a social media post last week.

Since the start of the war, ceasefire talks between Jerusalem and Hamas have repeatedly failed to yield enduring results.

Israeli officials have previously said they will only agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms, and goes into exile — a demand the terror group has firmly rejected.

For its part, Hamas has said it is willing to release the remaining 50 hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.

On Wednesday, Trump expressed optimism that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could be reached soon, potentially as early as this or next week. However, he also stressed that no agreement is guaranteed yet.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed similar optimism, saying he believes “we’re closer than we’ve been in quite a while” to securing a ceasefire. He also noted that US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff is hopeful that indirect negotiations will take place soon.

According to media reports, the proposed 60-day ceasefire would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a surge in humanitarian aid, and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, with US and mediator assurances on advancing talks to end the war.

For Israel, the key to any deal is the release of most, if not all, hostages still held in Gaza, as well as the disarmament of Hamas. The terror group, meanwhile, is seeking assurances to end the war as it tries to reassert control over the war-torn enclave.

In earlier efforts, a ceasefire that ended in March brought roughly two months of relative calm and led to the release of 33 hostages in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

After the first phase ended, however, the two sides failed to agree on terms for a second phase, leading Hamas to halt further hostage releases and prompting a resumption of Israeli military action.

The post Hamas to Release 10 Israeli Hostages as US-Backed Ceasefire Talks Gain Momentum first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jeffries, House Dem Leaders Demand GOP Rep. Randy Fine Apologize For Calling Ilhan Omar a ‘Terrorist’

Florida state Sen. Randy Fine (Source: Reuters)

Florida Republican State Sen. Randy Fine. Photo: Reuters

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sharply rebuked Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) for what he called “bigoted and disgusting” rhetoric directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), joining a growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups denouncing Fine’s remarks as overtly Islamophobic.

In a post on X earlier this week, Fine referred to Omar as a “Muslim terrorist,” adding, “The only shame is that you serve in Congress.” The comment came in response to Omar’s criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent address to Congress, which she called “shameful.”

Jeffries, joined by Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, issued a joint statement rejecting Fine’s language as “unhinged, racist, and Islamophobic.” The House Democratic leaders urged him to apologize, saying, “These vile comments have no place in our political discourse.”

Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, thanked her colleagues for standing in solidarity. She called on Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) to hold Fine accountable.

“Not only does normalizing this bigotry and violence endanger my life but all Muslims including in Fine’s own district,” Omar posted to her X account. “This type of Islamophobic language demands accountability.”

Fine has not apologized and instead doubled down on his attacks. In a follow-up post, he derided Democratic leadership as the “Hamas Caucus” and responded to backlash with, “Boo hoo.” Speaking to CNN, Fine dismissed criticism of his remarks as “ad hominem attacks” and claimed Democrats were more upset at his tone than at Omar’s earlier comments about Netanyahu, whom she referred to as a war criminal.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has renewed its call for Fine to face formal censure, citing a long record of inflammatory remarks about Muslims and Palestinians. In past social media posts, Fine has suggested deportations and called Palestinians “barbarians,” fueling accusations that his rhetoric goes beyond political disagreement and into outright hate speech.

The controversy arrives amid growing national scrutiny over the rise of incendiary language in politics, particularly as tensions continue to flare over US policy in the Middle East. With calls for accountability mounting, Democratic leaders say Congress must draw a clear line against hate, especially from within its own ranks.

The post Jeffries, House Dem Leaders Demand GOP Rep. Randy Fine Apologize For Calling Ilhan Omar a ‘Terrorist’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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