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2 Jewish delis and a modest falafel joint are among the ‘100 best restaurants in NYC’
(New York Jewish Week) — The legacy Upper West Side appetizing store Barney Greengrass and the hot new “Jewish luncheonette” S&P are among the Jewish eateries on the New York Times’ list of the city’s top 100 restaurants of 2023.
Other Jewish and Jewish-adjacent restaurants on the list are Falafel Tanami, an unassuming kosher falafel counter in Midwood, Brooklyn, and Mark’s Off Madison, which offers eggplant parm alongside smoked fish, freshly baked bagels and Jewish rye bread.
The list, compiled by restaurant critic Pete Wells, includes 65 spots in Manhattan, 19 each in Brooklyn and Queens, four in the Bronx and two in Staten Island.
Barney Greengrass, a neighborhood icon on 541 Amsterdam Ave. that has been open since 1908, is feted for its herring, latkes, scrambled eggs and smoked fish.
At Flatiron’s S&P Lunch (174 5th Ave.), which reopened and reinvented the classic Eisenberg’s deli in 2022, Wells calls a lunch there a “time-honored Manhattan ritual.” With the updated menu, “the pastrami, tuna-salad, chopped liver and so on are as easy to love as the atmosphere was all along.”
Wells calls Mark’s Off Madison, a bakery and restaurant, a “career retrospective” from Mark Strausman, who once was the chef at Freds at Barneys and Campagna.
As for Falafel Tanami (1305 East 17th St.), “Your options are basically falafel or sabich,” Wells writes, referring to its fried eggplant and hard-boiled egg sandwich. “The falafel are extraordinary. The thick cushions of pita, baked to order, may be better yet.” The food is “as fresh as if you were standing in a market in Tel Aviv.”
Also mentioned is the Lower East Side’s Shopsin’s General Store, which occupies Stall #8 in Essex Street Market (88 Essex St.). The eponymous diner and its extensive menu was run by the Jewish and famously eccentric Kenny Shopsin from 1973 until his death in 2018. “Seeing the restaurant he founded on this list would kill Kenny Shopsin if he weren’t already dead,” Wells writes.
Nearby at 86 Allen St. is Amanda Cohen’s vegan restaurant Dirt Candy, number 60 on the list, which has been open since 2008. “I have a big family and we spend a lot of time together around the Jewish holidays, so to me that’s always been a really important time in my life,” Cohen told Life & Thyme in 2016. “Those are certainly the moments I love food the most, because it’s about the people.”
Israeli-inspired Middle Eastern restaurant Shukette (230 9th Ave.), whose name is a riff on the Hebrew and Arabic word “shuk,” meaning market, gets a nod, though Brooklyn-born chef Ayesha Nurdjaja is neither Jewish, Israeli or Arab. Wells names the spicy house pickles, labneh, hummus, pita and laffa brushed with za’atar in a mouthwatering sequence.
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The post 2 Jewish delis and a modest falafel joint are among the ‘100 best restaurants in NYC’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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120th anniversary of the Forverts advice column “Bintel Brief”
מזל־טובֿ! דעם 20סטן יאַנואַר 2026 איז געוואָרן 120 יאָר זינט דער גרינדונג פֿון „אַ בינטל בריוו“ — דער עצות־רובריק פֿונעם פֿאָרווערטס. די רובריק איז פֿאַרלייגט געוואָרן פֿונעם גרינדער און לאַנגיאָריקן שעף־רעדאַקטאָר אַב קאַהאַן אין 1906.
כּדי אָפּצומערקן דעם יום־טובֿ ברענגען מיר אײַך צוויי זאַכן:
• ערשטנס, אַן אַרטיקל וועגן אַ טשיקאַווען בריוו וואָס איז אָנגעקומען אין דער פֿאָרווערטס־רעדאַקציע אין יאַנואַר 1949, פֿון אַ לייענער וועמעס זון האָט חתונה געהאַט מיט אַ קריסטלעכער פֿרוי
• צווייטנס, אַ פֿאָרווערטס־ווידעאָ אויף ייִדיש וועגן דער געשיכטע פֿון „אַ בינטל בריוו“, מיטן געוועזענעם פֿאָרווערטס־רעדאַקטאָר באָריס סאַנדלער און דער פֿאָרווערטס־אַרכיוויסטקע חנה פּאָלאַק.
The post 120th anniversary of the Forverts advice column “Bintel Brief” appeared first on The Forward.
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Report: Khamenei Moved to Underground Bunker in Tehran
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a televised message, after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Amid tense expectation of US strike on key assets of the Islamic regime, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was moved into a special underground bunker in Tehran, the Iran International website reported on Saturday.
The report further added that the supreme leader’s third son Masoud Khamenei has taken over day-to-day management of the leader’s office, functioning as the de facto main channel for coordination vis-à-vis the executive branches of the government and the security forces.
The report describes Khamenei’s hideout as a “fortified site with interconnected tunnels.”
On Thursday US President Donald Trump said that a “massive” naval force was heading toward Iran.
“We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. And we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters.
“We have an armada. We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see,” Trump added.
The USS Abraham Lincoln, along with three destroyers, was spotted making its way to the Middle East from Asia, according to ship-tracking data.
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Israel, Syria to Finalize US-Brokered Security Deal ‘Soon,’ as ‘Developments Accelerate Noticeably’
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria, March 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
i24 News – Syrian and Israeli officials are expected to meet soon under US mediation, perhaps in Paris, to finalize a security agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem, a source close to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told i24NEWS on Saturday.
According to the Syrian source, the talks will also focus on various potential joint strategic and economic projects in the buffer zones between the two countries.
“There is very optimistic talk suggesting the possibility of even opening an Israeli embassy in Damascus before the end of this year, given the significant progress in the prospect of Syria joining the Abraham Accords,” the source said.
The original Syrian plan was limited to a security agreement and the opening of an Israeli liaison office in Damascus without diplomatic status, the source tells me. “But developments are accelerating noticeably under pressure from the United States, and specifically by President Trump, and amid growing Syrian openness.”
If Damascus manages to reach an integration agreement with the Druze in southern Syria, similar to its agreement with the Kurds in the northeast, and Israel commits to respecting Syria’s unity and territorial integrity, then al-Sharaa would be open to elevate the status of the agreement with Israel to more than just a security agreement, to also include diplomatic relations and an Israeli embassy in Damascus.
“The al-Sharaa government believes that a viable compromise to advance a peace process with Israel would include a 25-year lease for the Golan Heights, similar to the one Jordan previously signed with Israel over the border enclaves, turning it into a ‘Garden of Peace” of joint economic ventures,” the source said.
The source close to al-Sharaa also tells me that US President Trump is seeking to bring Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Al-Sharaa together for a peace agreement signing ceremony.
It should be noted that Israel has repeatedly rejected returning any part of the Golan Heights, let alone the entire territory.
On another front, the source stated that Damascus intends to adopt a new local administration system based on expanded administrative decentralization to enhance participation in local communities across all Syrian governorates.
According to the source, this solution would resolve persisting disputes with the Druze, Kurds, Alawites, and other minorities. A new Syrian government is expected to be formed within the next three months, the source added.