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This kosher cafe in Riverdale attracts a diverse clientele from across the Bronx
(New York Jewish Week) — When Emily Weisberg arrived in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale in 2014, she was surprised that the coffee options didn’t extend far beyond Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts.
So she set out to create a cafe of her own, one that would not only serve up third-wave coffee but also function as a community hub outside of the relatively insular worlds of her kids’ daycare or her synagogue, the open Orthodox Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. She wanted a place where she could get to know everyone who lived in the neighborhood.
Nearly a decade later, Moss Cafe stands out the northern Bronx neighborhood — both because of its vivid mural of carrots, beets and red onions that pops on its otherwise drab block, and because of its unusual combination of seasonal foods, ethical practices and kosher supervision.
“Our clientele is really diverse, and I think that’s my greatest accomplishment here,” Weisberg told the New York Jewish Week. “We made a restaurant that everyone wants to come to that also happens to be kosher.”
Much of what a visitor to Moss encounters would not be out of place in any hip, upscale cafe. A selection of seasonal pastries, all baked in house, changes throughout the year; flowers in mason jars brighten every table. Moms with yoga mats tucked under their arms grab lattes to go and high schoolers cluster around the window seat with their laptops. The shakshuka is fragrant with garlic and za’atar, and chef Brian Engel’s kale salad, enriched with parmesan and pepitas and studded with roasted beets, is as good as any in the city. The restaurant recently added dinner service, with a menu including a “picky plate” designed to accommodate families.
At the same time, the cafe is strictly kosher — it serves fish and dairy, but not meat, under the supervision of the Vaad of Riverdale — and closes on Shabbat. Its bakery case includes fluffy challahs on Friday mornings, and special catering menus feature traditional foods for Jewish holidays. Customers can often be overheard discussing Jewish texts, the neighborhood’s multiple day schools and upcoming trips to Israel.
On a recent breezy April day — the first spring morning that rhubarb appeared in the cafe’s farm deliveries — Moss was jammed with neighborhood regulars and visitors from all walks of life. Samuel Marder, a nonagenarian violinist and Holocaust survivor — whose wife, the pianist Sonia Vargas, was Riverdale native Regina Spektor’s music teacher — sat at a table adjacent to Sage Vasquez and Diamond Wynn, two culinary professionals from the South Bronx. It was their first visit, but they discovered that a friend worked at Moss and felt at home.
Moss’ pastry counter is always filled with seasonal items. (Ben Resnick)
“I see a lot of people who look like me, and that’s important when I go out to eat,” says Vasquez, a pastry chef. “The neighborhood is like a breath of fresh air from the South Bronx.”
Moss also stands out for its commitment to mutual aid in the borough. Case in point: Few other independent neighborhood coffee shops employ a dedicated director of community outreach. Tess Watts, who has that role at Moss, started at the cafe as a server while she was a student at nearby Manhattan College. Now, she leads Moss’s collaborations with neighborhood nonprofits such as the Riverdale Community House.
Last year, the cafe donated nearly $11,000 of its revenue to local nonprofits and charities, and raised an additional $2,900 for those groups. It also donated more than $7,400 worth of excess food to local community fridges, putting food directly into the hands of those who needed it. Watts says as a community-oriented cafe located in a well-to-do enclave in New York’s poorest borough, Moss has a responsibility to help its neighbors, not just its customers.
“If your mission is to build community around food, you can’t discount the ways that the community is impacted by food,” she said. “You have to look at food insecurity, you have to look at economic inequality. In order to operate a restaurant and call ourselves ethical, we have to do it.”
Moss Cafe sits on a nondescript block in the commercial heart of Riverdale in New York City. (Ike Allen)
Moss has stuck with that commitment since it opened in 2015. Weisberg, the co-owner and face of the cafe, was raised in the rural Midwest, where she got a job at 16 in a small-town coffee shop. That cafe — Perc Place in Hartford, Wisconsin — gave her a lasting appreciation for the communal spaces that coffee shops can provide. Even in a small heartland town like hers, many of the cafe’s workers were immigrants from Latin America, and people from all walks of life chatted together at the tables over cups brewed from beans grown in the highlands of Guatemala and Colombia.
“Living in a place that was not very diverse, I always longed for that,” Weisberg said. “This was a special way to connect with where I was and also to open up my world, through food and coffee and through my coworkers.”
Weisberg lived for a time in Peru and took classes in Latin American Studies at the University of Wisconsin, intending to eventually practice immigration law. While living in Madison, Wisconsin, she worked at restaurants and frequented the local farmers market where, she said, “local food was a thing before it was on a national scale.”
At the same time, her spiritual interests steered her toward Judaism — she was raised Catholic — and she converted at 21, after studying with a campus Chabad rabbi and rebbetzin. In Madison, she also met Alex Weisberg, who had been raised by a secular Jewish family in New York’s Westchester County but became more interested in religion after a Birthright trip.
The two got married in Jerusalem and lived there for three years, where Weisberg opened a coffee and pastry window from their home, where customers would sit on chairs set up on the cobblestone street.
That was the experience she hoped to recreate in Riverdale after they moved to New York City in 2014 — Weisberg felt she could help her community as a good employer. The ethical mission of Moss, she said, starts with pay and conditions for its own employees.
Snapshots of Moss Cafe’s menu and interior. (Courtesy of Moss Cafe)
“These people are the heart and soul of our neighborhoods,” she said. “It’s true that I opened Moss, but Moss is really the people who are, day in and day out, showing up at 4 in the morning to bake things, or scrubbing tables at 4 p.m. on a Friday.”
But Moss also stays afloat because its entire team is committed to the ethical mission of the cafe, including its close relationships with small New York and Pennsylvania farms — during the early days of the pandemic, Weisberg helped support farms and her own business by selling produce boxes from the cafe — and postpartum meals for new mothers through the Bronx doula groups the Birthing Place and Ashe Birthing Services.
With a large and growing Orthodox community in Riverdale, it was important to Weisberg for Moss Cafe to be strictly kosher. But while the certification allows some diners who wouldn’t otherwise be able to eat there, not all customers come looking for a kosher dining experience.
“I grew up Jewish and all the Passover and kosher food can be very bland,” said Brian Silbert, a former Manhattanite who plans to open an ice cream shop nearby. “This is savory and flavorful without it suffering. Across the board, everything is done right.”
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US Defends Israel’s Right to Recognize Somaliland, Likens Move to Palestinian State Recognition
A demonstrator holds an image depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Somalis attend a demonstration after Israel became the first country to formally recognize the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state, a decision that could reshape regional dynamics and test Somalia’s longstanding opposition to secession, in Hodan district of Mogadishu, Somalia, Dec. 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Feisal Omar
The United States has defended Israel’s decision to recognize the self-declared Republic of Somaliland amid international backlash, comparing the move to the recognition of a Palestinian state by numerous countries.
“Israel has the same right to conduct diplomatic relations as any other sovereign state,” Tammy Bruce, deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, said during an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Monday.
Bruce’s comments came in response to widespread criticism of Israel’s formal recognition of the breakaway territory of Somaliland. Several Arab, Islamic, and African countries, organizations, and entities publicly rejected the move, as did other nations such as China. The European Union also opposed the decision, saying it “reaffirms the importance of respecting the unity, the sovereignty, and the territorial integrity” of Somalia.
US President Donald Trump has said he opposes recognition of Somaliland, and Bruce added on Monday that Washington had no announcement or change in American policy regarding the self-declared country. However, Bruce chided other nations for recently welcoming recognition of a “nonexistent Palestinian state” against Israel’s wishes while condemning Israel for its latest diplomatic move, calling out what she described as a “double standard” against the Jewish state.
“Earlier this year, several countries, including members of this council, made the unilateral decision to recognize a nonexistent Palestinian state. And yet, no emergency meeting was called to express this council’s outrage,” she noted.
Many Western countries — including France, the UK, Australia, and Canada — recognized a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, a move Israeli and US officials criticized as “rewarding terrorism.” Hamas praised the decision, even describing recognition as “the fruits of Oct. 7,” citing the Palestinian terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as the reason for increasing Western support.
“This council’s persistent double standards and misdirection of focus distract from its mission of maintaining international peace and security,” Bruce said.
However, Slovenian Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, whose country has recognized Palestinian statehood, rejected Washington’s comparison.
“Palestine is not part of any state. It is illegally occupied territory, as declared by the International Court of Justice, among others,” Zbogar said, describing Somaliland as “part of a UN member state” and arguing that “recognizing it goes against” the UN Charter.
Israel on Friday became the first country to officially recognize the Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state.
Somaliland is an unrecognized state in the Horn of Africa, situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the east.
“The State of Israel plans to immediately expand its relations with the Republic of Somaliland through extensive cooperation in the fields of agriculture, health, technology, and economy,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a post on X.
Although no other country has formally recognized Somaliland, several — including the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Kenya, and Taiwan — have maintained liaison offices, allowing them to engage diplomatically and conduct trade and consular activities without full formal recognition.
“It is not a hostile step toward Somalia, nor does it preclude future dialogue between the parties. Recognition is not an act of defiance. It is an opportunity,” Israel’s Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Miller told the UN Security Council on Monday.
According to experts, the growing Israel-Somaliland partnership could be a “game changer” for Israel, boosting the Jewish state’s ability to counter the Yemen-based Houthi terrorist group while offering strategic and geographic advantages amid shifting regional power dynamics.
Unlike most other states in the region, Somaliland has relative security, regular elections, and a degree of political stability — qualities that make it a valuable partner for international allies and a key player in regional cooperation.
Last month, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), a prominent Israeli think tank, released a new report arguing that Somaliland’s strategic position along the Red Sea, its closeness to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, and its willingness to work with pro-Western states make it a key ally for Israel, benefiting both sides amid rising regional volatility.
“Somaliland’s significance lies in its geostrategic location and in its willingness — as a stable, moderate, and reliable state in a volatile region — to work closely with Western countries,” the INSS report said.
“Somaliland’s territory could serve as a forward base for multiple missions: intelligence monitoring of the Houthis and their armament efforts; logistical support for Yemen’s legitimate government in its war against them; and a platform for direct operations against the Houthis,” it continued.
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Hundreds of Israeli Medical Professionals to Gather in Miami for Conference Following Mass Exodus From Israel
An ambulance is seen at the entrance to the emergency room of Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, July 15, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Rami Amichay
Hundreds of Israeli health-care professionals who have moved out of Israel and now live in the United States will participate in the ScienceAbroad Conference in Miami, Florida, next month to address the exodus of Israeli researchers and scientists who have left the Jewish state.
Israeli physicians, researchers, medical students, residents, fellows, and other health-care professionals living in the US are all expected to attend the conference in Florida on Jan. 16 to address the issue of Israel’s “growing brain drain,” according to ScienceAbroad, an organization that connects more than 11,000 Israeli scientists and physicians in over 30 countries.
According to data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released earlier this month, almost 55,000 Israelis with academic degrees, from bachelor’s to PhD, have been living overseas for three or more years as of 2024. There has also been a steady decline in the number of academics returning to Israel. The numbers reflect a growing trend of Israelis leaving the country in recent years amid Israel’s war with Hamas-led terrorists in the Gaza Strip and political tensions in the country.
The upcoming conference is led by ScienceAbroad in partnership with the Sheba Research Authority (Tel HaShomer), the Israeli Medical Association, and Nefesh B’Nefesh, which promotes and facilitates Jewish immigration from the US and Canada to Israel. ScienceAbroad, which is working to bring Israeli scientists and physicians back to Israel’s research and health-care systems, will hold its first-ever conference in Miami as part of the 2026 IAC National Summit.
“This conference brings together Israel’s medical and scientific leaders living in north America to confront one of the most urgent challenges facing Israel today – how to sustain its research, health care, and innovation future by reconnecting with its global talent,” said Nadav Douani, executive director of ScienceAbroad.
Speakers at the conference will include IDF Chief Medical Officer Brig. Gen. Dr. Zivan Aviad-Beer; Prof. Joel Mokyr, a Nobel Prize-winning economist from Northwestern University; and CEO of Israel’s Soroka Medical Center Prof. Shlomi Codish. Additional speakers will include Dr. Zeev Feldman, who is chairman of the State Physicians Organization and vice chair of the Israeli Medical Association, as well as Prof. Itai M. Pessach, who is associate director general of the Sheba Medical Center and CEO of the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital, both in Israel.
Established in 2006, ScienceAbroad supports collaboration between Israeli scientists and medical professionals abroad and partners in Israel.
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Former Hamas Hostages Matan Zangauker and Ilana Gritzwesky Get Engaged in Florida
Former hostage Matan Zangauker, who was released from Hamas captivity as part of the Trump deal, arrives at the weekly rally at the Hostages Square. Photo: Yael Guisky Abas / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
Former Hamas hostages Matan Zangauker and Ilana Gritzwesky got engaged on Sunday in Florida, according to a post on X by Zangauker’s mother.
The couple were both abducted by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. Gritzwesky, 31, was freed on Nov. 30, 2023, and Zangauker, 26, returned home on Oct. 13 of this year, after 738 days in captivity. He was released along with the 19 remaining living hostages as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
In August, while Zangauker was still in captivity, Gritzwesky staged a mock wedding during a rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv that called for Zangauker’s release from captivity. She stood under a chuppah while wearing a wedding dress and a veil, and held a photo of Zangauker. His mother stood by her side, dressed in black.
Zangauker proposed to his life partner on a rooftop near the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, as seen in a photo of the proposal shared on social media by his mother, Einav, who campaigned tirelessly for his release. In the picture, the couple is drinking champagne and standing in front of a “Will you marry me” sign inside a flower-decorated wreath that is in the shape of a heart. “My picture of victory, Matan and Ilana,” Einav wrote in the caption.
תמונת הניצחון שלי
אילנה & מתן pic.twitter.com/1XQ9wSrJm8— עינב צנגאוקר (@enavezangauker) December 29, 2025
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog congratulated the young couple on their engagement in a message posted on X.
“Dear Matan and Ilana: From unimaginable pain, you chose life, love, and hope,” he wrote. “Your decision to build a future together is a moment of profound light for the people of Israel. Let the world see this and understand: the people of Israel choose life. Even after terror, we choose love, renewal, and hope. Mazal Tov to Matan and Ilana, and to your families.”
During the Hamas-led deadly massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, the couple jumped out of the window of the safe room in their home and ran in separate directions after terrorists fired shots at their door. They were separately kidnapped and held apart from each other during their captivity in the Gaza Strip. Gritzewsky has talked publicly about being sexually assaulted by her captors during her abduction and while in captivity.