Uncategorized
Falafel Tanami had its regulars. Then the New York Times declared it the best falafel in NYC.
(New York Jewish Week) — What happens when the country’s premier newspaper names a hole-in-the-wall kosher falafel joint as one of the 100 best restaurants in New York?
Hundreds of people show up every day, creating lines that occasionally snake out the door. News stations from across the globe ask for interviews, catering requests come in from all over the city and, of course, the falafel often sells out before closing time.
That’s what happened at Falafel Tanami, a tiny Israeli-owned falafel place just a few blocks off the Avenue M stop on the Q train in Midwood, Brooklyn. In April, the humble eatery at 1305 East 17th Street — featuring just three counter stools, a quiet soundtrack of Israeli religious pop and photos of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson adorning the walls — was included in the New York Times’ list of the 100 best restaurants in New York City, curated by the paper’s senior food critic, Pete Wells.
“It has been crazy, Baruch Hashem,” said Galit Tanami, using the Hebrew for “thank God.” She owns the store with her husband, Ronen. “Everybody is so excited for us.”
“The falafel are extraordinary,” Wells wrote in his review. “The thick cushions of pita, baked to order, may be better yet. It’s hard not to go wild with the salads and vegetables and garlic, all as fresh as if you were standing in a market in Tel Aviv.”
“Now everybody wants to try it,” Tanami said of her restaurant’s signature dish.
For the first few days after the Times dropped, the restaurant had to close two hours early — at 8 p.m. instead of the usual 10 p.m. — because it ran out of inventory. Since then, they have found a good rhythm to be able to stay open regular hours, Tanami said, but it’s still busy every day.
Then again, it’s not as if Falafel Tanami had been a secret. Owner Tanami said that the restaurant has been “very, very busy” since 2019, when New York Magazine’s Grub Street declared it the “Absolute Best Falafel in New York.” And it’s long been popular among Brooklyn’s kosher-keeping observant Jews: 770 Eastern Parkway, the global headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, often orders Falafel Tamani catering. Yeshiva of Flatbush, the Modern Orthodox high school just three blocks away, does the same. Israelis, too, are known to drop in for a taste of home.
Galit Tanami had no prior experience in the culinary industry before she and her husband moved to Brooklyn and opened their restaurant in 2016. Previously, the couple had been living in Israel, where they raised their two teenage sons, but Ronen wanted to move the family back to New York, where he grew up. Galit followed Ronen’s lead, and she also embraced his grandmother’s falafel recipe — for decades, his family had operated Famous Pita, a popular falafel shop also in Midwood that closed in 2014.
After seven successful years of operating Falafel Tanami, Galit and Ronen Tanami still arrive at the restaurant every morning at 6 a.m. to hand make the falafel balls and chop the fresh salads, she said. “Nobody is allowed to touch the falafel except for us,” she said.
The New York Jewish Week popped by on Monday, which is typically a slow day, according to Tanami. And yet, a steady stream of customers trickled in — many on lunch break from Edward R. Murrow High School, a public school across the street with 4,000 students and nearly 500 teachers.
“I’ve been coming here every week almost since they first opened,” said Heshy Halpern, an environmental science teacher at Murrow who keeps kosher. He said he always orders a falafel pita with all the salads — the same economical order ($8!) Wells recommended in his review.
“It’s just the best,” he told the New York Jewish Week. “Everyone in Midwood knows they’re really good — Jewish, not Jewish, everyone.”
Along with Falafel Tanami, Wells named two Jewish delis — the Upper West Side’s Barney Greengrass and Flatiron’s S&P Lunch to his list. Other restaurants included in the top 100 were the Israeli-inspired Shukette and the Jewish-owned spots Mark’s Off Madison, Dirt Candy and Shopsin’s General Store.
As for Falafel Tanami, the boost in business generated by the Times’ list has given the owners an opportunity to think about growth — they may start selling frozen falafel for customers to fry at home, Tanami said, and they’re thinking about a possible second location. “Everybody wants to do business with us now,” Tanami said.
She added that they’re considering an expansion to Crown Heights — though that would have its challenges. “If I open something, I need to be there. I’m a perfectionist,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to go home.”
“We don’t need to rush this,” Tanami said, adding that her focus, for now, is sustaining their eatery though this busy period. “We are moving slowly and safely, Baruch Hashem.”
—
The post Falafel Tanami had its regulars. Then the New York Times declared it the best falafel in NYC. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Report: Iran Considers Removing Hezbollah Leader Naim Qassem
Lebanon’s Hezbollah Chief Naim Qassem gives a televised speech from an unknown location, July 30, 2025, in this screen grab from video. Photo: Al Manar TV/REUTERS TV/via REUTERS
i24 News – Iran is reportedly dissatisfied with the performance of Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem and is preparing to reorganize the group’s leadership, potentially removing him from his position, according to a report by Emirati outlet Erem News citing senior Lebanese diplomatic sources.
The report claims Tehran views Qassem as “unsuitable to lead Hezbollah at this critical stage,” arguing that he has failed to meet the leadership standards set by his predecessor, longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Iranian officials are said to believe Qassem lacks sufficient political acumen and hold him responsible for the deterioration in relations between Hezbollah and the Lebanese state.
According to Erem News, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to oversee preparations for restructuring Hezbollah’s internal leadership during an upcoming visit to Beirut.
The visit is intended to assess the organization’s internal climate through direct meetings with senior Hezbollah figures and influential operatives.
“The Iranian minister seeks to monitor the general climate within Hezbollah and convey an accurate picture of the internal situation to decision-makers in Tehran,” the report said, adding that the findings would be used to inform “crucial decisions regarding anticipated changes at the head of the organization, most notably the fate of Naim Qassem.”
Uncategorized
Iran’s Foreign Minister to Visit Russia and Belarus, Foreign Ministry Says
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran‘s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, will visit Russia and Belarus in the next two to three days, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Sunday.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Turkmenistan on Friday.
Uncategorized
Ukraine Drops NATO Goal as Trump Envoy Sees Progress in Peace Talks
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy looks on at a stakeout during the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, U.S., September 23, 2025. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s aspirations to join the NATO military alliance as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia, with negotiations set to continue on Monday.
Trump‘s envoy Steve Witkoff said “a lot of progress was made” as he and Trump‘s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Zelensky in the latest push to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two, though full details were not divulged.
Zelensky’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said the president would comment on the talks on Monday once they were completed. Officials, Lytvyn said, were considering the draft documents.
“They went on for more than five hours and ended for today with an agreement to resume tomorrow morning,” Lytvyn told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
Ahead of the talks, Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s goal to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees.
The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution. It also meets one of Russia’s war aims, although Kyiv has so far held firm against ceding territory to Moscow.
“Representatives held in-depth discussions regarding the 20-point plan for peace, economic agendas, and more. A lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
The talks were hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who a source said had made brief remarks before leaving the two sides to negotiate. Other European leaders are also due in Germany for talks on Monday.
“From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction,” Zelensky said in answer to questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
“Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the U.S., and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” Zelensky said.
“And it is already a compromise on our part,” he said, adding the security guarantees should be legally binding.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded Ukraine officially renounce its NATO ambitions and withdraw troops from the about 10% of Donbas which Kyiv still controls. Moscow has also said Ukraine must be a neutral country and no NATO troops can be stationed in Ukraine.
Russian sources said earlier this year that Putin wants a “written” pledge by major Western powers not to enlarge the US-led NATO alliance eastwards – shorthand for formally ruling out membership to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
Sending Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia on a US peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress nearly four years after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Under pressure from Trump to sign a peace deal that initially backed Moscow’s demands, Zelensky accused Russia of dragging out the war through deadly bombings of cities and Ukraine’s power and water supplies.
A ceasefire along the current front lines would be a fair option, he added.
“CRITICAL MOMENT”
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it was a “good sign” Trump had sent his envoys while fielding questions in an interview with the ZDF broadcaster on the suitability of Witkoff and Kushner, two businessmen, as negotiators.
“It’s certainly anything but an ideal setup for such negotiations. That much is clear. But as they say, you can only dance with the people on the dance floor,” Pistorius said.
On the issue of Ukraine’s offer to give up its NATO aspirations in exchange for security guarantees, Pistorius said Ukraine had bitter prior experience of relying on security assurances. Kyiv had in 1994 agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for territorial guarantees from the US, Russia and Britain.
“Therefore, it remains to be seen to what extent this statement Zelensky has now made will actually hold true, and what preconditions must be met,” Pistorius said.
“This concerns territorial issues, commitments from Russia and others,” he said, adding mere security guarantees, especially without significant US involvement, “wouldn’t be worth much.”
Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine the US proposals, which in a draft disclosed last month called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its NATO ambitions and accept limits on its armed forces.
European allies have described this as a “critical moment” that could shape Ukraine’s future, and sought to shore up Kyiv’s finances by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Kyiv’s military and civilian budget.