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A chain of fruit and nuts stores brings an Israeli-style market concept to NYC
(New York Jewish Week) — On my frequent trips to Israel, I always throw a handful of gallon-sized, zip-top plastic bags into my suitcase. Once there, I fill them with spices, kosher candies and nuts during my pilgrimages to my personal holy sites: Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Market and its open-air market, Shuk HaCarmel.
But thanks to Din Allall, the 29-year-old, Israeli-born CEO of the rapidly expanding Nuts Factory chain, for my next trip to Tel Aviv, I plan to leave those bags behind. That’s because Allal has brought the Israeli market concept to New York.
“The idea is that these stores should feel like the shuk,” Allal told the New York Jewish Week, “but cleaner and neater.”
Allall opened his first Nuts Factory on Manhattan’s Upper East Side three years ago. Since then, 11 more brick-and-mortar stores have popped up around the city — most recently a second Upper East Side location, this one on 74th Street and 3rd Avenue — as well as in New Jersey and Boston, with plans to open a second Boston location and one in Washington, D.C. The company also operates a handful of departments within supermarkets.
The brightly lit shops are well organized, filled with rows of acrylic containers packed with nuts and dried fruit — including pineapple, melon and papaya — a kaleidoscope of jelly candies, mounds of Middle Eastern spices and sheets of chocolates. Customers help themselves by scooping out the desired amount of product into a plastic bag (provided) or a reusable container (brought from home).
Just like visiting an Israeli shuk, entering a Nuts Factory location is a multi-sensory experience: the aromas, colors, andselection create a symphony of sensations. The Nuts Factory ups the ante by dry-roasting nuts in small batches at each store, assuring freshness as well as providing an inviting fragrance.
That’s part of the reason that Allall has invested in physical stores, as opposed to online. (Another successful, Jewish-owned business in the same category, Nuts.com, began as pushcart in Newark — and is now almost exclusively online.)
“You can buy nuts online but you can’t experience what you can in a store,” Allall said. “Most of our business is walk-in. People see what they get. They can try the nuts and candy. It’s a whole experience.”
The idea to roast the nuts on site came from Allall’s grandfather, Shimone, who was born in Iraq and came to Israel as a teenager. Together with Allall’s father, Igal, the pair created a shuk-like indoor store. The family founded Shkedia (Hebrew for almond tree), a nuts and dried fruit business, about 25 years ago and now has 200 departments in major supermarket chains, like Shufersal and Osher Ad, all around Israel. Nuts Factory is a separate, U.S.-based operation.
Din Allall’s U.S.-based fruit and nut stores have the feel of street markets in Israel, like Tel Aviv’s Levinsky Market, above. (Karen Chernick)
“We hadn’t seen anything like it here,” Allall said. “We thought it would be great for Americans to enjoy the ‘shuk’ experience. This generation is leaning towards healthier and less processed products. The quality of the nuts and dried fruit category in America is not as good as ours.”
Allall chose New York as its testing ground because, as he said, “Where else would you do it? We love New York, its energy, its innovation. And I don’t think we were wrong!”
Although there are no signs announcing that the store is an Israeli concept, the sales associates on the floor will tell you which of the products come from Israel — many, perhaps most, of them do. The parve babka, from Tel Aviv’s Antikovich Bakery, is flown in from Israel, as are the store-brand selections of date rolls, sesame, halva and chocolate cookies. The silan and tahini are Israeli, too, and the variety of chocolates — like white chocolate hazelnut bark or milk chocolate coconut bark — come from the family’s chocolate factory in Modi’in, located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
In addition to a typical nut selection, Nuts Factory has special offerings, like pretzel-covered pecans, Nutella-coated cashews and strawberry-covered peanuts. “Everything” cashews — covered with a garlicky spice mixture — is what Allall calls his “weirdest” offering, while their best-selling product, he said, are the Oreo-covered pecans. To understand why, take the store up on its free sample and try one.
“We have a variety that nobody has, that you can’t find anywhere,” Allall said.
All Nuts Factory products are kosher and all of the stores — except for one in Boston and another on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan — have kosher certification. The stores are open on Saturday.
“I was a bit skeptical when I first walked in there — another nut place!” Upper West Sider Sabrina Rosen Salomon told the New York Jewish Week. “But everything was clean and nice, and they have a special offer where you can fill a platter for a fixed price.”
For Tu Bishvat, the Jewish holiday of trees that celebrates all things nuciferous and fruity , the chain is offering a special to its customers: The Nuts Factory’s platters, which they usually sell for $30 and can include up to six items, will be discounted to $24.99. The platter is not based on weight, but whatever fits on it. The special begins two weeks before the holiday, which this year falls on Feb. 6.
And if you can’t make it into one of his stores, you can order the Nuts Factory’s products online. The aroma of warm nuts, however, is not included.
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The post A chain of fruit and nuts stores brings an Israeli-style market concept to NYC appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Trump announces deal with Iran is ‘now complete’
(JTA) — President Donald Trump announced Sunday that a deal to end the war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz is “now complete.”
“Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has played a key mediating role in talks between the U.S. and Iran, also announced that a deal had been reached minutes before Trump made his post, adding that an official signing ceremony would take place Friday in Switzerland.
“Both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” Sharif wrote in a post on X.
The announcement comes more than three months since Israel and the U.S. launched its joint strikes on Iran in February. While the deal’s details have not yet been publicly announced, it is expected to extend a ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. for 60 days, during which the countries will negotiate a broader agreement addressing Iran’s nuclear program.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu did not immediately put out a statement following the announcement, but earlier Sunday he had posted a message on X celebrating Trump’s birthday.
Also earlier Sunday, Israel launched strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, prompting Iran to vow retaliation and drawing a sharp rebuke from Trump, who said the strikes had “delayed the signing by a few hours.”
“Why did Bibi have to do a f–cking attack? I was so pissed off. I let him know. He has no fucking judgement. I let him know that,” Trump told Axios Sunday.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Trump announces deal with Iran is ‘now complete’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Jane Yolen, children’s book author whose ‘The Devil’s Arithmetic’ became a Holocaust classic, dies at 87
(JTA) — Jane Yolen was already an award-winning author and illustrator of more than 100 titles for young readers when her editor suggested she write a Jewish children’s book.
At first, she resisted the idea. Sure, she was Jewish. But she didn’t grow up in a religiously observant family, and she insisted she didn’t know enough about Judaism to take on the project.
Finally, she relented. Drawing on a spark of an idea about a Holocaust time-travel fantasy, Yolen turned in the first draft of what would become “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” her 1988 young adult novel. “I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to try this,’” Yolen recalled to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency years later.
The book won immediate acclaim and garnered multiple awards. Today, it’s seen as a classic of the genre — and one that remains caught up in banned-book lists.
For Yolen, who died Thursday at 87 in her home in Western Massachusetts, “The Devil’s Arithmetic” became her signature title. Still in print, the book was also made into an Emmy Award-winning Showtime feature starring Kirsten Dunst. It was the cornerstone of a titanic legacy in children’s literature, her family said in a statement.
“It is with profound sadness that I, along with my brothers, Adam Stemple, and Jason Stemple, share the news of our mother, Jane Yolen’s passing,” her daughter Heidi Stemple wrote on Facebook, adding that Yolen had “passed gently with no pain or stress” and her family by her side, reading one of her books to her.
Yolen was born on Feb. 11, 1939, in New York City. Her father was a journalist and her mother was a psychiatric social worker until Yolen was born.
An alumna of Smith College, where she won poetry and journalism awards, she worked first as an editor in New York City, writing at her breaks and time off. Her first published book, “Pirates in Petticoats,” a nonfiction work about women on the high seas, was published when she was 22.
She soon pivoted to children’s literature, becoming one of the most prolific authors in the genre. She went on to publish 450 children’s books, including more Jewish titles, and was known as “the Hans Christian Andersen of America.” She won the prestigious Caldecott Medal for her 1987 picture book, “Owl Moon,” and her “How Do Dinosaurs …” series is a staple in many preschool classrooms. (It includes one Jewish title: “How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah?” Her 450th title was published just this year, her children said.
But it was “The Devil’s Arithmetic,” scholars have said, that cemented her legacy as a leading author for young Jews. The novel was a trailblazer for its blending of time-travel with historical veracity, according to the late Norman H. Finkelstein, a National Jewish Book award winner who was a children’s librarian himself.
“It was a different Holocaust book,” Finkelstein told JTA in 2018, on the occasion of the title’s 30th anniversary. “It was not strictly factual, it was not a memoir. Jane did a superb job in taking the story of the Holocaust down to a level that ordinary American kids could understand. The characters were realistic, not paper cutouts.”
Other titles of hers included “Meet Me at the Well: The Girls and Women of the Bible,” with Barbara Diamond Goldin, and “Jewish Fairy Tale Feasts,” with her daughter Heidi, who developed and illustrated the hands-on recipes.
Yolen relished the collaborations with her daughter. They lived next door to each other, along with Stemple’s family, with two grandchildren who were taste-testers of Stemple’s recipes.
“Jane was a treasure, and it is difficult to think of the world of books — indeed the world itself – without her,” Richard Michelson, an award-winning author of Jewish children’s books and Yolen’s friend and neighbor, wrote on Facebook. Describing her as a cherished mentor of younger writers, he added, “Jane created classics as if it were as easy as breathing.”
While often assigned in schools as part of lessons on the Holocaust, Yolen’s titles are not without controversy. In 2025 a Texas school district, using artificial intelligence, flagged “The Devil’s Arithmetic” for removal as a title containing “DEI,” or diversity, equity and inclusion content. The book became one of several well known Holocaust titles to be pulled from schools in the last few years.
Though she had initially resisted the idea of being a Holocaust author, Yolen would go on to publish a trilogy of unconventional young-adult novels about the subject. She incorporated elements of “Sleeping Beauty” into 1992’s “Briar Rose.” “Mapping the Bones” followed in 2018 as a riff on “Hansel and Gretel.”
“Whenever we think of the Holocaust, we think of remembering,” Yolen told JTA in that same 2018 interview. “We think of never forgetting. Soon all we will have are the stories.”
In addition to her children, Yolen is survived by six grandchildren. Her husband, David Stemple, to whom she was married for 44 years, died in 2006.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Jane Yolen, children’s book author whose ‘The Devil’s Arithmetic’ became a Holocaust classic, dies at 87 appeared first on The Forward.
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Hebrew Union College claims Ohio’s charity-law suit violates its First Amendment rights
(JTA) — The Reform movement’s central rabbinical seminary filed a motion to dismiss the state of Ohio’s lawsuit against the school Friday, claiming the suit violates “foundational Jewish religious doctrine.”
It was the latest escalation in a pitched battle between Hebrew Union College and the state attorney general’s office, which has accused HUC of violating nonprofit law by shuttering degree-granting programs on its historic Cincinnati campus.
The suit, HUC argues, “violates the First Amendment by entangling government and religion.”
The suit was originally filed in April by then-Ohio AG Dave Yost — his second against the college related to its controversial plan to wind down its Cincinnati operations in favor of its New York and Los Angeles campuses. Yost claimed HUC’s actions in Cincinnati misled its donors by leaving a city where they were actively fundraising to support operations, and also violated its charter, which states that the school would “permanently maintain” a residence there.
The state seeks to seize HUC’s assets in Ohio and redirect them to a new, yet-to-be-decided nonprofit with a similar mission; an upstart rabbinical school founded by HUC alums says it wants them.
Such a move “is an unconstitutional and illegal governmental assault upon religion,” HUC’s strongly worded motion reads.
It continues, “The Attorney General has no role in dictating the religious affairs of institutions like HUC. The Court should reject his overreach into religious matters and should dismiss the Complaint because it is unconstitutional and unlawful.”
HUC also argues its vote to shutter the Cincinnati campus was done in full compliance with the law, adding that it intends to maintain the campus’s other assets, including the Klau Library, the American Jewish Archives and the Skirball Museum. In addition, citing a passage in the Torah that states “God will come to his people wherever they welcome him,” the school argues that considering “Jewish demographic realities” is part of its religious mission.
“These decisions were made thoughtfully and responsibly to ensure the long-term success of the institution and our ability to continue graduating strong Jewish leaders,” HUC president Andrew Rehfeld said in a statement accompanying the motion. The lawsuit, he added, “improperly seeks to interfere in the decisions of a religious organization, and this cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.”
Yost himself resigned as AG this week to join the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group that, in 2022, represented a Tennessee adoption agency that refused to foster a child to a Jewish couple. The suit against HUC continues under the state AG’s office.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Hebrew Union College claims Ohio’s charity-law suit violates its First Amendment rights appeared first on The Forward.
