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Jewish food celebrities hold a bake sale for Israel, raising $26K for food relief efforts
(New York Jewish Week) — Last week, Adeena Sussman had been gearing up for a Chelsea Market stop on her tour promoting her new cookbook, “Shabbat,” which she’d traveled from her home in Tel Aviv to the United States to launch.
But after Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday morning, that didn’t feel right. “There was no way I was going to do an event built around me at a time like this,” Sussman said.
So she and Rachel Simons, the owner and founder of tahini brand Seed + Mill, who had been planning to host the signing, joined forces with members of the Jewish Food Society, a non-profit organization that celebrates Jewish culinary heritage from around the world, to plan a different sort of event.
The result, what they called a “community hug and bake sale,” brought dozens of Jewish food influencers and their followers and friends to a Chelsea Market event space on Wednesday. Even though the event wasn’t advertised widely out of security concerns, the line to enter stretched down the block as attendees pledged donations to ASIF, the Jewish Food Society’s partner organization in Tel Aviv where staff have been preparing meals for displaced families and hospital workers in Israel.
Donations were traded for yellow tickets which then could be redeemed inside for treats, sweets, cookbooks and swag. The tables were manned for the most part by food influencers themselves.
People waited in line to donate to Israeli food relief efforts outside food influencers’ bake sale in New York City, Oct. 11, 2023. (Rachel Ringler)
New York Times bestselling cookbook author Jake Cohen baked and brought 100 of his signature date-studded brownies. Restaurateur Einat Admony, whose falafel shops Taim were an early arrival to the city’s Israeli food scene, stood behind towers of her cookbooks while selling cupcakes donated by BCakeNY.
Food blogger Chanie Apfelbaum was toting hawaij gingersnaps that had come out of the oven just moments before she had to head to the sale. She’d barely had time to bake but said she made room for one more activity because of the pain she felt in the wake of the attack, which left thousands of Israelis dead, wounded and held captive.
“I felt like I had to be part of this,” Apfelbaum said. “I had to see people and be amongst the food community.”
Lior Lev Sercarz, who recently opened La Boite, a spice atelier, had his books and spices on hand. And the team at Seed + Mill prepared and distributed 100 tahini brownies, a recipe from Sussman’s previous cookbook, “Sababa,” a celebration of Israeli cuisine.
“Food is obviously really important to us as a culture and as a nation,” said Chaya Rappoport, the Jewish Food Society’s culinary manager, who came up with the bake sale concept. “Food helps people connect in times of happiness and times of sorrow and times when we need to come together. … Everybody pitched in on a moment’s notice.”
About 300 people attended the bake sale, raising $27,000 for ASIF’s relief work. The first donations would support 2,000 meals for families who have evacuated to Eilat, in Israel’s south, the Jewish Food Society said.
Max Aronson, who works at local restaurant Carbone, said he came because he has friends and family in Israel. Columbian cookbook author and food stylist Mariana Velasquez came to show support for Jewish Food Society’s founder Naama Shefi and the Jewish community.
A worker from Mesiba, an Israeli restaurant in Brooklyn, pours arak spritzers at a “Community Hug and Bake Sale for Israel” in New York City’s Chelsea Market, Oct. 11, 2023. (Philissa Cramer)
And Maria Zalewska, editor of the cookbook “Honey Cake & Latkes,” a compilation of recipes from survivors of Auschwitz, was there, too. Since the war began, Zalewska has been reaching out and checking up on the Holocaust survivors featured in her book to see how they are. “Most of them have expressed to me that they are experiencing PTSD on steroids,” she said.
Zalewska had planned to attend Sussman’s book signing when she received an invitation to the book sale — along with an exhortation to keep its location and existence a secret.
“I think it is horrifically sad that this event needs to be private, and we can’t talk about it on social media for security reasons,” said Zalewska. “It is a reflection of the scary time that we are in.”
The event felt to her like the “community hug” it was planned to be.
“A lot of people, especially non-Jews, feel helpless and they don’t know what to do,” Zalewska said. “This gives people an opportunity to donate a little bit of money, come together and show their allegiance to the Israelis and their Jewish friends.”
Simons said the bake sale is only the first effort by a local Jewish food community; further planning, she said, “is ongoing.”
Already, Ben Siman-Tov, who goes by BenGingi, is collaborating with Breads Bakery to make heart-shaped challahs to raise money for Magen David Adom, Israel’s version of the Red Cross. New York Shuk, which makes Middle Eastern pantry staples, is donating 100% of its proceeds this month to Israeli children who have lost parents in the attack and subsequent conflict. And Miznon, the chain of restaurants operated by Israeli chef Eyal Shani, is inviting customers to round up their purchases with a donation toward humanitarian aid in Israel.
Simmons said she found catharsis in the bake sale event. It “was about solidarity, support and our community’s mental health,” she said. “I hugged and cried with friends and strangers — Jews and non-Jews alike.”
Gadi Peleg, founder and owner of Breads, a local bakery chain with roots in Tel Aviv, learned about the event a day earlier and, along with Yonatan Floman, Breads’ CEO, donated the bakery’s flaky black-and-white cookies for the sale.
“Word got around the Israeli hospitality community very quickly,” Peleg said. “Israelis do better when they are not given too much time. This is where we shine. We put stuff together quickly and get it done.”
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The post Jewish food celebrities hold a bake sale for Israel, raising $26K for food relief efforts appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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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 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.