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Jewish NYC restaurants win new fans — and lose others — through Israel fundraisers
(New York Jewish Week) — New York City-based restaurateurs Yuval Dekel and Ari Bokovza, friends since high school, have deep roots in Israel and a shared love of Jewish cuisine. Dekel owns Liebman’s, the last kosher deli in the Bronx, and Bokovza is the executive chef of Dagon on New York’s Upper West Side, a restaurant that features food from the Levant.
Like Jews around the world, the two friends were devastated when they learned of the deadly attacks by Hamas on southern Israel on Oct. 7. The pair quickly devised a plan to do what they do best: prepare delicious food and bring people together, this time in support of Israel.
On Wednesday, the two restaurants are joining forces to raise money for Yatar, an organization that provides tactical off-road equipment to help aid Israel’s border patrol. The four-course dinner, held at Dagon at Broadway and 91st street, composed of Ashkenazi and Sephardi foods from both establishments, is priced at $250 per person, all of which goes directly to Yatar.
“The reaction has been very positive,” Bokovza told the New York Jewish Week. “Every day the [number of] reservations are growing.”
Dekel and Bokovza are far from the only ones who are raising money and offering support for Israel at this fraught time. Thousands of other New Yorkers are contributing to an aid effort that is widely considered unparalleled in recent times; as of last Friday, UJA-Federation of New York had raised $105 million for an Israel Emergency Fund.
New York’s plethora of Jewish restaurants and famous foodies are getting in on the action, too. Immediately in the aftermath of the attack, Jewish celebrity chefs including Einat Admony and Jake Cohen joined forces with members of the Jewish Food Society at Chelsea Market on Oct. 11 for a “community hug and bake sale” that raised $27,000 for ASIF, an Israeli organization preparing meals for displaced families and hospital workers in Israel.
As the war between Hamas and Israel intensifies, numerous other restaurants across the city — from old-school classics like 2nd Avenue Deli to catering outfits to high-end dining destinations — are also raising funds to help Israel and its citizens. Among them is Mediterranean restaurant Barbounia, where Chef Amitzur Mor will host three sold-out seatings for a special menu and fundraiser to benefit Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces on Monday night. Other eateries, like Michael Solomonov’s Kfar and Laser Wolf, along with the kosher steakhouse Reserve Cut, are giving a percentage of their restaurants’ proceeds to support of a variety of Israeli humanitarian organizations.
“We are happy to stand with Israel and heartwarmed by the number of people joining us,” 2nd Avenue Deli co-owner Josh Lebewohl told the New York Jewish Week.
Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, the iconic deli’s Instagram feed has turned decidedly pro-Israel. On Oct. 13 — the day a former Hamas leader had called for global protests — the restaurant donated their proceeds to United Hatzalah, Israel’s volunteer emergency medical service. “They love jihad. We love chicken soup,” the deli posted on Instagram.
“We were touched by the outpouring of support we received,” Lebewohl said, declining to share how much money was raised.
The week following the fundraiser, the deli’s Upper East Side location was defaced with antisemitic graffiti — but the owners remain determined to show their support for Israel. “We definitely lost some followers but overall we have gained [some],” Lebewohl told the New York Jewish Week about the deli’s social media following. ”Just the number of messages of people writing in support of us, in regard to the hate crime and, more importantly, in regards to standing with Israel, has been amazing.”
Dagon’s Bokovza, too, said his restaurant has received some social media backlash. “That stuff can only make you stronger, more determined, more motivated,” he said. “Everybody has big balls behind the keyboard.”
Over at Chef Eyal Shani’s Manhattan restaurants — which includes Miznon, Shmoné, Port Sa’id and HaSalon — the management has been looking for ways to support their U.S.-based employees, some of whom have loved ones who were murdered in the attack. In addition to donating food to a memorial dinner for a former employee, and hosting a lunch for staff to grieve together, Shani’s high-end Hell’s Kitchen eatery HaSalon will host a fundraising dinner on Wednesday priced at $450 per person.
The proceeds will go to humanitarian relief in Israel, including donations to American Friends of Rambam Hospital, Soroka Medical Center and Sheba Medical Center. This is in addition donating 10% of all sales at the Miznon locations in New York, as well as the 20,000 meals Shani’s restaurants in Israel have provided thus far to people in hospitals or to those who have been removed from their homes.
Their strong support of Israel comes with a price. “We have gotten negative reviews online from people who have never dined with us,” said Mika Ziv, CEO of Good People Group, Shani’s global hospitality brand. “People are calling our restaurant and screaming ‘Free Palestine!’ and hanging up. It is obviously not going to stop us from doing what is right but that is the situation.”
Rotem Itzhaky, general manager of the 12 Chairs Cafes in the West Village and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is not looking at negative posts online. “I am focusing on the positive and what we can do and how we can help,” she said.
On Tuesday, 12 Chairs will hold a dinner benefiting United Hatzalah at their Williamsburg location priced at $150 per person, hosted by influencers Batsheva Haart, Audrey Jongens and Meg Radice. As of Sunday, the restaurant has sold all of their 65 tickets to the event, which promises their signature Israeli food as well as an “open bar to help raise spirits and donations.”
Meanwhile, since the conflict began, the owners of kosher caterer Good Shabbos by ChiChi Eats have given their customers the option, when placing a food order, to make a donation to support feeding Israeli soldiers and supplying them with critical gear like warm jackets, knee pads and tactical equipment. Approximately 75% of their customers have made a donation, according to co-owner Rachel Fuchs.
“People were super excited last week and this week,” Fuchs said. “People are looking for a way to help. If we lost Instagram followers, we wouldn’t have noticed and I think we will be better without those people.”
Gadi Peleg, the owner of Breads, the New York City bakery chain with roots in Israel, was pleasantly surprised by the reaction to the plan that he and baker Ben Siman Tov, aka BenGingi on TikTok, devised following the Oct. 7 attack. BenGingi had contacted Peleg and suggested that on Friday, Oct. 13, Breads should sell heart-shaped challahs. The challahs — shaped by BenGingi and using Breads’ signature recipe — would sell for $36 and proceeds would go to support Magen David Adom, Israel’s national organization responsible for emergency pre-hospital medical care and blood services.
Intended to be a one-day event, the heart-shaped challahs were so popular the bakery has made and sold them every day since, raising more than $20,000 so far, according to Peleg. “We make hundreds of challahs a day,” he said. “Our bakeries open at 7 a.m. We are sold out by 8 a.m. Breads is a community — people come into the stores, and they are excited to see what we are doing and there are other people who feel like them.
“What happened in Israel was an act of pure evil,” he added. “What we are doing is an act of pure good.”
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The post Jewish NYC restaurants win new fans — and lose others — through Israel fundraisers appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Backlash Grows in UK as Hamas Mounts Legal Challenge Against Terrorist Designation
Demonstrators hold Israeli and British flags outside the Law Courts, during a march against antisemitism, after an increase in the UK, during a temporary truce between the Palestinian Islamist terrorists Hamas and Israel, in London, Britain, Nov. 26, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Susannah Ireland
A growing wave of condemnation is mounting in the UK after lawyers representing the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas sought to challenge the organization’s terrorist designation, prompting fierce criticism from British Members of Parliament and Jewish organizations.
Last week, Hamas filed a legal petition arguing for its removal from the United Kingdom’s list of proscribed terrorist groups, describing itself as “a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project.”
Riverway Law submitted a claim to UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on behalf of senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, who also provided a witness statement in the case. Given that accepting funds from Hamas would violate British law, the firm is providing pro bono representation to the terrorist group.
“The British government’s decision to proscribe Hamas is an unjust one that is symptomatic of its unwavering support for Zionism, apartheid, occupation, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine for over a century,” the filing reads. “Hamas does not and never has posed a threat to Britain, despite the latter’s ongoing complicity in the genocide of our people.”
Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, had been banned in Britain since 2001, but the Interior Ministry broadened the ban to include the group’s political entities in 2021, arguing that Hamas functions as a unified organization rather than separate branches.
“I would be very surprised if the British government agrees to remove Hamas from the proscribed list,” Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, told The Algemeiner in an exclusive interview.
“The UK is not entirely sympathetic to Israel, but it’s still very unlikely they would rule in favor of Hamas.”
In applying for removal from the list of proscribed organizations, Turner explained that Hamas does not deny being a terrorist group but rather argues that it is undesirable for it to remain banned.
In its filing, Riverway Law outlines three primary grounds for why Hamas should be removed from the terrorist list. The first argument contends that the UK’s ongoing proscription of Hamas violates international law, including the British government’s obligation not to be complicit in genocide, which Hamas claims is being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.
Additionally, it highlights the UK’s alleged responsibility to end “the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territories,” referencing the 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal.
The second argument claims that proscribing Hamas violates the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, as UK law prohibits the promotion or support of proscribed organizations. Hamas argues that this ban restricts open debate on the Palestinian issue and peaceful demonstrations, while also being discriminatory since Israel is not similarly proscribed.
The third argument asserts that the proscription is disproportionate and not sufficiently justified. Hamas argues that there is no direct threat to the UK, that its violence is a “legitimate response to occupation,” and that the proscription undermines Palestinians’ democratic will when they elected Hamas.
The terrorist group violently eliminated its Palestinian opposition in a brief conflict in 2007, when Hamas took full control of Gaza after winning legislative elections the prior year.
Turner countered that all three arguments lack merit, emphasizing that rights such as freedom of expression and assembly can be lawfully restricted under UK and international law to protect national security, public safety, and the rights or property of others.
He also pointed out that Hamas still holds 59 of the hostages abducted during its invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and that hostage-taking is a crime against humanity under international conventions.
“Hamas is a very vicious terrorist organization,” he told The Algemeiner.
Earlier this week, British Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick announced that he had reported Riverway Law attorney Fahad Ansari for supporting Hamas and jihad, as well as the firm’s potential breach of sanctions regulations.
“The legal profession is being damaged by ideologues exploiting their status to platform extremism,” Jenrick wrote in a post on the X social media platform. “This isn’t about free speech. It’s about a man who repeatedly crosses the line into open support for terrorism — all while the authorities look away.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel also criticized the legal effort, calling Hamas an “evil Iranian-backed terrorist organization, which kidnaps, tortures, and murders people, including British nationals.”
More British citizens (18) were killed during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 onslaught than in any foreign terrorist attack since Al Qaeda struck the US on Sept. 11, 2001.
“They pose an ongoing threat to our security and to the peace and stability of the Middle East and have weapons and training facilities that put lives at risk and threaten our interests,” Patel said in a statement. “They show no respect for human rights, life, and dignity and have oppressed people living in Gaza for too long.”
“Those campaigning to end the proscription of Hamas fail to understand the seriousness of the threats this terrorist organization poses,” the statement read.
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a UK-based Jewish civil rights group, also dismissed the case as a “bad-faith attempt to promote genocidal antisemitism,” rejecting the argument that proscribing Hamas stifles political engagement. They argued that it’s still possible to campaign for Palestinian rights, criticize Israel, or support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without endorsing Hamas or terrorism.
Riverway Law’s legal challenge on behalf of Hamas came less than a month after a group of British lawmakers released a new and extensive report documenting the atrocities of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 atrocities across southern Israel.
The report showed that, in total, about 7,000 Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,182 people, wounded more than 4,000 others, and kidnapped 251 hostages — 210 living and 41 dead bodies at the time of their abduction — during the onslaught. The study detailed Hamas’s planning, the weapons used, and the violence which occurred at each location, including gristly details of sexual violence, torture, and the desecration of corpses.
The post Backlash Grows in UK as Hamas Mounts Legal Challenge Against Terrorist Designation first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Maldives Bans Israeli Tourists, Charges ‘Ongoing Acts of Genocide’
A short 20 minutes’ speedboat ride from Male will bring you to this island resort destination, featuring a collection of luxury beach and water villas and award-winning spa. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
An island paradise known for its white, sandy beaches and the requirement that its citizens strictly follow Sunni Islam has closed its doors to holders of Israeli passports, citing “resolute solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”
On Monday, the Parliament of the Maldives passed a law amending its immigration laws which the country’s President Mohamed Muizzu then approved on Tuesday. In order for an Israeli to enter the Maldives, they would need a passport from another country.
While Maldivian parliamentarians had announced this decision in June 2024, they have only formalized it into law now. The government had postponed implementation and reviewed the measure due to concerns that the broad language of a blanket ban would affect those with Israeli passports who are Arab Muslim or Palestinian.
A spokesperson for Muizzu told Agence France-Presse this week that the law took effect immediately.
Muizzu’s office released a statement following the bill’s approval, saying that “the ratification reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.”
During last year’s parliamentary debates about the bill, one lawmaker, Qasim Ibrahim, expressed his disagreement, warning that “when we decide that a person with Israeli nationality can’t come to the Maldives, that means we’re talking about deciding that Jews can’t come.” He said that “as they are people who have believed in prophets of a religion revealed by Allah, we need to think very deeply about the chance of us doing such a thing, from that perspective. We need to think about that very carefully.”
The Maldives is a group of nearly 1,200 islands comprising almost 116 square miles in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India and Sri Lanka. None of the coral islands is higher than six feet above sea level. The population is approximately 530,000 people with its capital Malé including 392,000, making it one of the most densely packed cities on the planet. Islam was introduced to the islands in the 12th century, and they passed through colonial hands over the last 600 years, first with the Portuguese in the 1500s, then through the Dutch in the 1600s and British in the 1700s. The Maldives became an independent sultanate in 1965 before the sultan was deposed, leading to a president in 1968. Its tourism business began developing in the 1980s.
In February, 59 Israelis visited the Maldives along with 214,000 other foreign tourists. Last year, Israel’s Foreign Ministry advised against Israelis going to the country, repeating advice first issued in December 2023 following an increase in anti-Israel sentiment.
The Maldives has criminalized the practice of non-Muslim religions and is one of many Muslim countries which refuses to recognize the Jewish state. Others include Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen. Despite this lack of ties with Israel, the Maldives had reversed a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and also pursued potential relations in 2010, plans it halted in 2014.
Human Rights watchdog group Freedom House ranks the Maldives as “partly free” with a score of 43 on a 100-point scale. (In comparison, the organization regards Israel as “free” with a score of 73 and the United States as “free” at 84.)
According to Freedom House, “an opposition victory in the 2018 presidential election resulted in initial efforts to revise antidemocratic laws and establish transitional justice mechanisms. Despite improvements since the election, many basic freedoms remain restricted, and government-led efforts to reform the justice system remain nascent.”
In 2014, the Maldives passed a law mandating the death penalty for apostates from Islam, including for children as young as seven. The law also allows executions for murderers under 18. The country had not executed anyone since 1953, when a moratorium was passed, and has yet to execute those currently held on death row.
According to the Human Dignity Trust, the Maldives “criminalizes same-sex sexual activity between men and between women. Sentences include a maximum penalty of eight years’ imprisonment and 100 lashes. There is some evidence of the law being enforced in recent years, and limited reports of LGBT people being subjected to discrimination and violence.”
Muizzu assumed office after winning the Maldives’ 2023 presidential election with 54 percent of the votes. According to the BBC, he supports Chinese development in the country, and “China, with its rapidly expanding naval forces, would want access to such a strategically important location —something India wants to prevent. Beijing is also keen to protect its energy supplies from the Gulf which pass through that route.”
On Jan. 26, 2024, Muizzu wrote on X that “Maldives believes that Israel needs to stop the killing in Gaza and implement an immediate ceasefire. Every human life has value, which needs to be protected. Bombings, displacement, and apartheid will not bring peace. True and lasting peace can only be attained by establishing an independent Palestinian State based on pre-1967 borders.”
The post Maldives Bans Israeli Tourists, Charges ‘Ongoing Acts of Genocide’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Kosher Food Returns to Polish Town of Auschwitz for First Time Since Holocaust
People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
The Auschwitz Jewish Center (AJC) will begin offering kosher meals to visitors of the Polish town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz) starting next week, a move that will mark the first time kosher food will be available to purchase in the once-flourishing Jewish community and home to the infamous Nazi concentration camp since the Holocaust.
AJC’s offering of kosher food, plus the new addition of Jewish prayer services to its program, will start on April 23 — just in time for Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), which begins that night, and the 2025 International March of the Living pilgrimage. Tens of thousands of Jews from around the world participate in the annual walk from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the Nazis’ largest death camp where 1 million Jews were murdered during World War II. This year’s march will take place in late April and run through early May.
AJC will offer shelf-stable, packaged kosher meals for purchase, for a small fee, beginning mere days after the conclusion of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Visitors who want to reserve meals, participate in tours, or attend prayer services can contact the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, which maintains the Auschwitz Jewish Center.
Before the Holocaust, more than half of the population of Oświęcim was Jewish and the city had over 30 synagogues, as well as kosher butchers, bakeries, and restaurants, according to the AJC. Today, the Auschwitz Jewish Center houses the last remaining synagogue in Oświęcim from the pre-Holocaust era. The center is a museum and an educational center dedicated to fighting hatred and bigotry by teaching lessons about the Holocaust from the very site of the most notorious Nazi concentration camp. Since its restoration and reopening in 2000, the center has seen more than 800,000 visitors.
“Opening the town’s first post-war kosher concession is a powerful reminder of the resilience of Jewish life in this city,” said Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation Director General Jack Simony in a released statement. “Our responsibility is to honor the legacy of the Jewish community that once thrived here and provide a space where visitors can learn about the past and experience a piece of that living history. This concession is more than just a place to eat — it symbolizes continuity, resilience, and hope for future generations.”
“As more and more visitors come to Auschwitz to learn about the Holocaust, many also choose to visit the Auschwitz Jewish Center,” added Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation Chairman Simon Bergson. “Opening the city’s first post-war kosher concession was a natural step, ensuring that Kosher-observant visitors could pray or reflect in our synagogue while also enjoying a kosher meal.”
The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation also provides direct humanitarian aid to victims and survivors of mass atrocities and genocides, including Ukrainian refugees and those affected by the Hamas-led deadly massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Only one Jewish person reportedly lives in Oświęcim, 34-year-old Hila Weisz-Gut, and she works at the Auschwitz Jewish Center.
The post Kosher Food Returns to Polish Town of Auschwitz for First Time Since Holocaust first appeared on Algemeiner.com.