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This one-of-a-kind bagel shop is made entirely of felt
(New York Jewish Week) — Anyone walking into Feltz Bagels in Montauk, New York, could be forgiven for wanting to taste everything on the menu: There are 15 types of bagels; a variety of schmears, meats and toppings, as well as desserts like rugelach and babka by the slice.
But while everything in the shop is for sale, it won’t taste very good: Everything at Feltz Bagels, from the ticket machine to the challahs to the “We Are Happy to Serve You” cups of coffee, is made entirely out of felt.
Feltz Bagels, a complete recreation of a New York bagel bakery, is the invention of Lucy Sparrow, a 37-year-old, U.K.-based artist who specializes in felt. Since 2014, Sparrow has mounted a variety of installations around the globe that recreate everyday, interactive commercial spaces — markets, pharmacies, corner stores — out of the soft, fuzzy material.
Feltz Bagels — which is currently on view through Sept. 4 at TW Gallery in Montauk — came about as an outgrowth of her first show in the United States in 2017: “8 ‘Till Late,” a recreation of a classic New York bodega that drew crowds to the Standard, High Line hotel. In selecting items for her felt bodega,
“I chose designs that looked the best, to me: a simple label, classic design, not too much writing,” Sparrow told the New York Jewish Week, describing how she came to home in on Jewish foods.
It just so happened that many of these simple designs were used in the packaging for Ashkenazi Jewish staples: Streit’s matzah, gefilte fish, Manischewitz egg noodles.
“When I did that first show, I had loads of feedback from people, like, ‘Thanks so much for making these Jewish foods,’” said Sparrow, who is not Jewish and, at the time, had only been to New York once before. “The response was just amazing.”
Everything is made of felt at Feltz Bagels, created by Lucy Sparrow. (Michael DeTemple)
Recreating a bagel bakery, Sparrow said, seemed to be a no-brainer for her next New York show. “My favorite area of New York has always been the Lower East Side,” said Sparrow, who has since been to New York about 20 times. “The fact that bagels and the Lower East Side are really synonymous with each other; the idea gave birth to itself, in a way.”
“Everybody has this personal story, this personal preference of what [bagels] they eat, what it means to them, what memories it sums up,” she said. “That, depicted in art, seemed like a very strong idea.”
Sparrow drew upon classic New York delis and appetizing spots, including Russ & Daughters, Katz’s Delicatessen and Zabar’s — “these New York institutions that seem to be really imprinted upon New Yorkers,” she said. And while Feltz Bagels may be more colorful than a typical bagel store, Sparrow nailed the iconic “deli look.”
Bagels, Sparrow points out, are both highly universal and extremely personal. “Workers on a construction site go and get a bagel. Office workers also go and get a bagel — there seems to be no [single] demographic,” she said. “It’s a leveler. It’s universal, but it’s also very personal. There are not a lot of foods that have that. People have a lot of opinions about bagels.”
Sparrow, too, has her particulars: A vegetarian, her typical lunchtime bagel order is sun-dried tomato cream cheese, American cheese, mushrooms, peppers and lettuce on a salt bagel. “I absolutely love bagels — the last one I had was yesterday,” she said.
Everything is for sale at Feltz Bagels, whose punny name also pays tribute to British Jewish TV presenter Vanessa Feltz. An anthropomorphized rugelach is $10, while a whole bagel starts at $60 and a bagel with fixings is $250. (And like any proper, present-day Jewish eatery worth its, well, salt, there is Feltz Bagels merch, including stickers and sweatshirts.)
Nearly all the felt food items are adorned with eyes, adding another layer of whimsy to the experience.
“I think it’s lovely watching grown adults come in and they’re like, ‘Ohhh, it’s got a face!’” Sparrow said. “And then they make them, and they take them home. And these pieces of art that I’ve put so much love into live in people’s homes, and just go on living the rest of their lives in houses that I’ll never see the inside of.”
So far, the most popular order has been a classic combo: cream cheese, lox, onion, tomatoes and capers, Sparrow said. The type of bagel, however, tends to vary. A more unusual option is the salt beef, the British term for corned beef — rarely available at the standard bagel shop.
For those not able to make it out to Montauk before next weekend, don’t despair: Feltz Bagels will open in Manhattan in October, with a stop in Miami to follow. Sparrow has a team of three assistants in the United Kingdom working to get the New York show ready; at the moment, she said, they are creating more felt black-and-white cookies, another deli staple. Sparrow hopes to expand her offerings in New York, adding cinnamon babka (in addition to chocolate), dried fruit and maybe even a seder plate.
Sparrow, who lives in the “tiniest village” in England’s Suffolk County, added that the best part of her hard work is having customers “open their hearts” to her. Just the other day, she said, someone came in and shared a story about their grandmother’s bagel recipe.
“It’s the stories I love hearing,” she said. “I’m just overwhelmed that people want to share them with me.”
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The post This one-of-a-kind bagel shop is made entirely of felt 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.