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Car talk: Jewish auto writers gather for a Passover seder at Katz’s Deli
(New York Jewish Week) — The idea of eating pastrami with matzah instead of rye bread may strike some as a sacrilege, but for members of the Jewish Auto Writers Society of America (JAWS), who will gather this week for a Passover seder at Katz’s Delicatessen, it’s become a tradition.
“Frankly, bread is a filler,” said Joel Feder, a senior producer for the web sites Motor Authority, The Car Connection and Green Car Reports. “You can eat more pastrami if you don’t waste space on the bread.”
Feder will lead the JAWS seder on Wednesday evening, the first night of Passover. About 30 automotive industry journalists and public relations professionals are expected to attend the gathering, which is held in a back room at the iconic Lower East Side deli. The annual event, which began in 2013, is timed for the press day at the massive New York International Auto Show at Javits Center, which opens to the public this year on Friday. A bus brings JAWS members and their guests to the deli on Houston Street.
The seder is JAWS’s big annual event, though there are efforts underway to gather in Los Angeles at the Genghis Cohen Chinese restaurant in the Fairfax section of the city during the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. The seder is sponsored by Volvo and Nissan and, yes, it has been duly noted that Passover takes place in the Hebrew month of Nisan.
“If a rabbi ever walked in, I think he’d have a heart attack,” joked the seder’s founder, Russel Datz, the national media relations manager for Volvo Car USA.
But not necessarily: Though the gathering is decidedly informal, and the food is not kosher, the JAWS seder features all the accouterments you’d expect at a seder: a seder plate, matzah, wine and a festive meal that, in addition to pastrami, includes brisket, corned beef, tzimmes and matzah ball soup.
What’s more, the group uses a haggadah written by an Orthodox rabbi. “The World’s Shortest Kosher Hagaddah” by Rabbi Yonah Bookstein of the Pico Shul in Los Angeles fulfills all the halachic (Jewish legal) requirements of the Passover seder, and it takes just 10 minutes to get from the blessing on the first cup of wine to the concluding “Next year in Jerusalem!”
The haggadah was found on the internet by Dan Passe, who worked for Nissan for 17 years and left recently to take a job as global head, communications and marketing, for the Nikola Motor Company, an electric truck manufacturer.
Passe has embraced the speedy seder concept for years and readily concedes it is an act of rebellion. “I grew up going to my grandparents in Bayside, Queens, who did a three-hour long seder where you thought you were going to pass out before you got to eat,” he said. “This haggadah, if you want to call it that, is such a great way of making [the holiday] really clear and making it very snackable, if you will.”
Bookstein, who created the 10-minute seder in 2010 for the Jewish rapper known as Kosha Dillz, was delighted that the car guys and women would be, um, speeding through his haggadah. “That’s awesome. I’m originally from Detroit so I have a soft spot for the automobile writers,” he told the New York Jewish Week.
According to its Facebook page, JAWS has 110 members. Datz started the group in 2013 as a way for Jewish industry people to gather as a community during the New York auto show, which is almost always held during the week in which Passover falls.
Feder, who hails from Plymouth, Minnesota, said he is getting grief from his mother for not being home for the holiday this year. (He’ll catch a flight Thursday morning and land in Minneapolis in time to make it to the second seder.) As this year’s seder leader, Feder is filling in for Datz and Passe, who aren’t coming to the New York auto show this year because of family commitments.
Russel Datz, right, leads the annual JAWS seder at Katz’s Deli in Manhattan in 2022. (Kevin Albinder)
In addition to the traditional wine cup left for the prophet Elijah, there will be two unoccupied seats for Datz and Passe, said Evelyn Kanter, president of the International Motor Press Association and a regular at the JAWS seder since its first year. (When Datz was informed of the empty seat gesture, he quipped: ”Is she lighting yahrzeit candles as well?”)
Kanter called the deli gathering “a beloved tradition. It’s a family of people in the automotive business who are all homeless [during the auto show].”
An Upper West Sider, Kanter grew up in Inwood, back when the nearby neighborhood of Washington Heights was known as Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson because of its large German Jewish immigrant population. After stints as an investigative consumer reporter for New York radio and TV stations, Kanter became known as the ecoXplorer, writing about travel and the environment, in addition to cars.
This year, Kanter’s daughter is in Los Angeles and her son in New York is working the night of the first seder. So, in addition to the JAWS seder, she’ll attend a virtual seder on the second night. “I’ll have dinner with my son early next week and we’ll have a delayed Passover,” Kanter said.
According to Passe, half of the seder’s participants at the deli are not Jewish. “They ask to attend because they’ve never been to a seder before,” he said. “We have people who return year after year after year who are not Jewish because they love the ceremony.”
Jenni Newman, the Chicago-based editor-in-chief of cars.com, was invited by two Jewish colleagues at her company and attended JAWS seders in 2019 and 2022. She’s planning to go to her third this week. (There were no seders during the pandemic.) Although Newman describes herself as “super active” in the Lutheran Church growing up, she considers it a gift to experience other peoples’ religions and cultures. “I really enjoyed going through the ritual with everyone and having people sitting next to me explain things,” she said. “I was kind of overcome emotionally just being part of it.”
Last year Newman “found” the afikomen, though it wasn’t much of a hunt: At the JAWS seder, the hidden piece of matzah is taped underneath a random seat. The person who finds the afikomen gets their choice of a high-end Nissan or Volvo to drive for a week after the auto show.
But the real prize goes to local JAWS members, Passe noted. “If you are local and you attend, you go home with the biggest doggy bag you can possibly imagine,” he said.
Kanter, the recipient of said doggy bags, concurs. “Leftovers at Katz’s are simply too good to waste,” she said.
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Dutch Arrest 15 Suspected of Spreading Islamic State Propaganda on TikTok
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
Fifteen people were arrested in the Netherlands on Tuesday on suspicion of spreading propaganda for Islamic State on TikTok and trying to persuade people to commit terrorist attacks, Dutch prosecutors said.
The arrests were triggered by a TikTok account that spread large amounts of IS propaganda with Dutch subtitles, the prosecutors said.
The TikTok posts, some with more than 100,000 views, encouraged people to join Islamic State and glorified becoming a martyr for the violent Islamist group, they said.
Thirteen of the suspects are Syrian, and four have Dutch nationality, prosecutors said, implying that some were dual nationals. Four are minors.
The suspects, aged 16 to 53, were detained in raids across the Netherlands, following the arrest last month of a person who the prosecutors said was the main suspect.
TikTok is owned by China’s Bytedance.
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US Used Mobile Launchers for Missiles at Qatar Base as Iran Tensions Rose, Satellite Pictures Show
Satellite image shows F-15E, A-10 Thunderbolt, and C-130 Hercules at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, in Al Azraq, Jordan, Feb. 2, 2026. Photo: 2026 PLANET LABS PBC/Handout via REUTERS
US forces in Qatar‘s al-Udeid, the biggest US base in the Middle East, put missiles into truck launchers as tensions with Iran ratcheted up since January, analysis of satellite images showed, meaning they could be moved more quickly.
The decision to keep the Patriot missiles in mobile trucks rather than semi-static launcher stations — meaning they could rapidly deploy to strike or be moved defensively in case of an Iranian attack — shows how risks heightened as frictions grew.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Iran over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, its backing for allied terrorist groups in the Middle East, and crushing of internal dissent, though talks to avert a war continue.
There are also US bases in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey, and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards have warned that in case of strikes on Iranian territory, they could retaliate against any US base.
A comparison of satellite photographs in early February with those taken in January shows a recent build-up of aircraft and other military equipment across the region, said William Goodhind, a forensic imagery analyst with Contested Ground.
At al-Udeid, the Patriot missiles were visible parked mounted into M983 Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTT) at the start of February, Goodhind said.
“The decision to do so gives the Patriots much greater mobility, meaning they can be moved to an alternative site or repositioned with greater speed,” he said.
It was not clear on Tuesday whether the missiles were still in the HEMTTs.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon was not immediately available for comment.
Iran says it has replenished its missile stocks after two weeks of conflict last summer when Israel bombed its nuclear facilities and some other military targets, a campaign that the United States joined late on.
Iran has underground missile complexes near Tehran, as well as at Kermanshah, Semnan and near the Gulf coast.
The Iranian naval drone carrier IRIS Shahid Bagheri was visible in satellite photographs on Jan. 27 at sea some 5 km from Bandar Abbas. It was also visible near Bandar Abbas on February 10.
Here are changes at US Middle East bases observed in satellite pictures:
AL-UDEID, QATAR:
Images from February 1 showed an RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, three C-130 Hercules aircraft, 18 KC 135 Stratotankers, and seven C-17s. On Jan. 17 there had been 14 Stratotankers and two C-17s.
Up to 10 MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems were parked in HEMTTs.
MUWAFFAQ, JORDAN:
Images from Feb. 2 of one location in Muwaffaq showed 17 F15-E strike aircraft, 8 A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft, four C-130s, and four unidentified helicopters. Images from Jan. 16 were low resolution and it was not possible to identify all aircraft there.
Feb. 2 images of a second location in Muwaffaq showed a C-17 and a C-130, as well as four EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft. Pictures of that location on Jan. 25 had not shown any aircraft.
OTHER BASES:
At Prince Sultan base in Saudi Arabia, images on Feb. 2 showed a C-5 Galaxy and a C-17 aircraft. Images on Dec. 6 showed five aircraft that appeared to be C-130s.
Satellite images from Feb. 6 showed seven more aircraft than had been observed on Jan. 31 at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
Images taken on Jan. 25 and Feb. 10 showed an increase in aircraft at Dukhan base in Oman.
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US Vice President Vance’s Office Backtracks After Statement on ‘Armenian Genocide’
US Vice President JD Vance speaks to the media before boarding Air Force Two upon departure for Azerbaijan, at Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan, Armenia, Feb. 10, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/Pool
The White House on Tuesday deleted a post from Vice President JD Vance’s account that commemorated massacres of Armenians as a “genocide,” saying the message that was likely to irk US-allied Turkey was posted in error.
Vance, who was on a two-day trip to Armenia, visited the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan during the first-ever visit by a US vice president to the South Caucasus republic.
There, he and wife Usha Vance participated in a ceremonial laying of a wreath of carnations, chrysanthemums, and roses at the site, which honors the 1.5 million Armenians who lost their lives in the final years of the Turkish-led Ottoman Empire.
Vance’s official account on X later described the visit as designed “to honor the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide.”
After that post was deleted, a Vance aide who declined to be named said the message was posted in error by staff who were not part of the traveling delegation.
“This is an account managed by staff that primarily exists to share photos and videos of the Vice President’s activities,” said a spokesperson for Vance, referring to his own comments, which did not include the phrase “genocide.”
TRUMP’S TIES TO TURKEY
Turkey is a NATO ally of the United States and President Tayyip Erdogan has maintained close ties with President Donald Trump, including supporting the US diplomatic initiative on Gaza.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but contests the figures and denies the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide.
Although the US Congress and Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, have both recognized the 1915 massacres as a genocide, Trump avoided that language in his own statement on the killings last year.
The social media deletion came four days after the White House defended, and then deleted, a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes posted to Trump’s Truth Social account.
Trump later told reporters that he had not watched the entire video before a White House aide posted it to his account.
Asked by a reporter whether his visit to the memorial was intended to recognize a genocide, Vance said, “Obviously, it’s a very terrible thing that happened little over 100 years ago, and something that was just very, very important to them culturally.”
“So, I thought out of a sign of respect, both for the victims, but also for the Armenian government that’s been a very important partner for us in the region, to Prime Minister Pashinyan, I wanted to go and pay a visit and pay my respects.”
Vance’s visit was aimed at promoting agreements the Trump administration struck with Armenia and Azerbaijan to build toward peace after nearly 40 years of war between the Caucasus rivals. Trump has presented those diplomatic efforts as among the chief accomplishments of his time in office.
In Armenia, Vance signed a deal with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that could pave the way for the US to build a nuclear power plant there.
On Tuesday, he traveled to Azerbaijan and signed a strategic partnership deal encompassing economic and security cooperation, as Washington seeks to expand its influence in a region where Russia was once the main power broker.