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More than 1,300 attend a free Shabbat dinner at Ayat, a Palestinian restaurant in Brooklyn
(New York Jewish Week) — More than 1,300 people made their way to Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, last Friday night to take part in a free Shabbat dinner at Ayat, a local Palestinian restaurant owned by restaurateur Abdul Elenani and his wife, Ayat Masoud, for whom the restaurant is named.
The dinner was called for 9 p.m., but guests began gathering a couple of hours earlier, milling about outside the restaurant, chatting and waiting to be let inside. Meanwhile, more than 150 people of all ages — several wearing kippot, others with keffiyehs wrapped around their necks like scarves — participated in a Shabbat service that preceded the meal.
Intended as an antidote to turmoil across New York City — including in its Jewish and Palestinian restaurants — since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, the dinner attracted New Yorkers who remain hopeful that coexistence is possible. Many, but far from all, were affiliated with left-wing and anti-Zionist Jewish groups that have held regular protests calling for a ceasefire since immediately after Oct. 7.
Among the attendees was New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who learned of the dinner via two Jewish groups he is known to be active in: Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and Kolot Chayeinu, a progressive congregation in Park Slope. He describes himself as supporting a peaceful two-state solution and ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
“This is about a Palestinian making a generous Shabbat dinner without regard for their politics,” Lander told the New York Jewish Week. “Nobody is being asked at the door what their position on the conflict is. Everyone is welcome.”
A steady stream of guests arrived at the restaurant at 1616 Cortelyou Rd. throughout the night. Elenani opened the doors at 9 p.m. and, by 10:30, there was still a line down the block to get in.
The Kabbalat Shabbat service, held in the street outside the restaurant in a tent that Elenani rented for the night, was led by Laura Elkeslassy, a Brooklyn-based singer, actor and educator born in France with roots in Morocco and Israel, along with two members of the Egalitarian Sephardi/Mizrahi Kehilla of Brooklyn, a prayer community of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East.
Owner Abdul Elenani had the idea to host the Shabbat dinner at the Ditmas Park, Brooklyn restaurant, which is named for his wife, Ayat Masoud, right. (Rachel Ringler)
Jessica Roda, an academic who taught a course at Georgetown University that explored the modern history of Jewish-Muslim relations, was one of those who showed up early. She came to Ayat in hope that there “might be healing here,” she told the New York Jewish Week.
“A lot of people are here — different types of people,” Roda said. “Hopefully more of this is what we need. Being together.”
Bringing people together was a key part of Elenani’s plan. The invitation to come to the Shabbat dinner was shared via Ayat’s Instagram and on the Ditmas Park Facebook page, which has nearly 9,000 members. It read, in part: “We invite all our incredible neighbors, especially our Jewish neighbors, to a heartfelt Shabbat dinner at Ayat Restaurant. It’s not just about breaking bread; it’s about breaking barriers, fostering dialogue and connecting on a human level.”
Elenani, who was born in the United States to Egyptian parents, was insistent that the Shabbat dinner be free of charge. “Hospitality is what I was raised up to do,” he said. “If you are going to invite people to your table and your place, if you are actually doing an invite for people to come in for a dinner between Jews and Muslims during this time specifically, charging is the wrong thing to do.”
Elenani has six Ayat restaurants — with locations in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island and Allentown, Pennsylvania — but he chose to host the Shabbat dinner at the Ditmas Park location because of negative publicity it received at the end of December from the British newspaper The Daily Mail. The reporter took umbrage with Ayat’s menu in which the fish section was called, “From the River to the Sea,” a phrase frequently used by pro-Palestinian activists that Jewish watchdogs view as a call for Israel’s destruction.
Elenani was outraged by the accusation. “All my life I have always wanted to make peace between Jews and Muslims,” he said.
Elenani, who opened his first Ayat restaurant in Bay Ridge in 2020, told the New York Jewish Week that he has long dreamed of opening a warehouse with a kosher kitchen alongside a halal kitchen. It would have, he said, “a large communal table in the middle where people of both faiths come and grab their food and sit together, break bread together and talk about life.”
On Friday night, lots of bread was broken. In addition to saj, a Middle Eastern flatbread, there were seeded water challahs purchased from Gombo’s Heimishe Bakery, a kosher bakery in Crown Heights. A huge challah filled half the length of a table in the center of the restaurant. People sat on either side of it, pulling from the bread while eating their meals and talking.
The idea to hold the event was Elenani’s, but his wife, the restaurant’s namesake, was fully supportive.
“We have always shared the idea that we have nothing against the Jews,” Masoud said. “We always find peace. I am an attorney. I have so many Jewish friends in the legal field. In law school, I used to put together a lot of interfaith events with the Israeli members of school. When Abdul decided to do this — to me, there is nothing more important.”
After reading about the event on Instagram, local members of Jewish Voice for Peace, which describes itself “the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world,” reached out to Elenani and offered their assistance in planning the event. “We were consulting,” said Emily Lever, who identified herself as a JVP spokesperson.
Elenani said that JVP members handled the ritual part, advising him on challah, candles and wine, which is not normally sold at the restaurant during regular business hours though patrons are invited to BYOB.
Several in attendance Friday night expressed surprise at the size of the crowd, in which guests filled both the upstairs and downstairs dining areas, as well as inside the tent where the service had been held. Surveying the packed room, klezmer clarinetist Michael Winograd was overheard saying, “This is a major Jewish event!” before heading outside to play an impromptu concert on the street.
As for the meal — which Elenani said he paid for out of his own pocket — Elenani used the meat from 15 lambs, 700 pounds of chicken and 100 branzino fish to prepare enough food for 1,000 people. Ayat Masoud’s sister, Asma Masoud, is the chef at the restaurant and she and her staff cooked and served mansaf, a popular Palestinian dish made of chunks of lamb cooked in fermented yogurt; roasted chicken seasoned with a spice rub of allspice, sumac, curry, paprika, garlic, nutmeg, and cinnamon. There was hummus, babaganoush and a chopped salad.
The recipes, said Ayat Masoud, who was born in the United States but whose parents are from Jerusalem, “are not my recipes.They are my mother’s, and her mother before her. They have been passed down for generations.”
For guests who don’t eat non-kosher meat, Elenani brought in Lev, a pop-up catering outfit run by two Israeli expats — Loren Abramovich, hailing from a moshav in the Galilee, and Daniel Soskolne from Jerusalem — who specialize in “the rich mix of culinary traditions Jewish immigrants brought from around the world together with the Palestinian traditions.” They prepared a “kosher-style” chraime, a spicy Moroccan fish stew that was topped with tahini and cilantro and served with fresh chunks of water challah. For attendees who wanted kosher-supervised food, there were sandwiches from a local glatt-kosher caterer — though there appeared to be little demand for them.
Lisa Maya Knauer, a 67-year old anthropologist who lives in Prospect Park South and describes herself as “an anti-Zionist Jew,” came to try the food, to meet people and to support a small, local business.
“As someone who is anti-occupation, and against the war, I wanted to support a restaurant that is owned by a Palestinian person who is very committed to creating goodwill and to creating relationships with neighbors,” she said.
Misha Shulman, the rabbi of the New Shul in Greenwich Village, who was born and raised in Israel, learned about the event from a WhatsApp group for members of left-wing Israelis in New York.
“Even for an anti-occupation Israeli, to be invited by a Palestinian, is rare these days,” said Shulman. “For most Palestinians right now, the situation is so painful and dire that they find it hard to be in community with anybody who supports the existence of the State of Israel.”
“I love this event,” said New York-based musician Noa Fort, who was born in Israel and is a part of the anti-occupation bloc, which had gathered at the restaurant the previous Monday. “It feels like a huge reunion because I know so many people here from so many walks of life and it is lovely to see people who I didn’t know were interested in those bridges and they’re showing up to a dinner like this. I knew they were Jewish or Israeli but [it’s nice] to see them here for similar reasons that I’m here: building bridges and connections between communities.”
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The post More than 1,300 attend a free Shabbat dinner at Ayat, a Palestinian restaurant in Brooklyn appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire

Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel

People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns

Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.