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War battered their Berlin hummus bar. But the Israeli-Palestinian partners behind Kanaan see a way forward.
(JTA) — BERLIN — At a hummus restaurant in Berlin’s leafy neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg, war has come knocking many times over the last two years. Recently, it came with the threat of closure.
Jalil Dabit, a Palestinian, and Oz Ben David, an Israeli, have run the business together for 10 years. The last two saw Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the devastating war that ensued in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and largely reducing the enclave to rubble.
Dabit and Ben David named their restaurant Kanaan — a Hebrew and Arabic word for the ancient land they both call home, before it was known as Israel or Palestine.
They have a mission beyond bringing the best hummus to Berlin. They turned Kanaan into a local symbol of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, organizing free programs that teach about cooking and prejudice. One project joined Palestinian refugees who fled Gaza during the war together with members of Berlin’s Israeli community to cook under one roof. A rainbow sign outside the restaurant reads, “Make hummus not war.”
But in August, the partners issued an emergency plea.
“Kanaan is facing closure,” they announced to customers. “The year 2025 was tough. War, economic uncertainty and a sharp drop in revenue have brought us to a point where we cannot continue without your help. If nothing changes in the next two weeks, we will have to close Kanaan.”
Dabit and Ben David have continuously fended off the Gaza war’s encroachment on their business. On Oct. 7, 2023, they closed for six days. Ben David said he felt driven to quit after his friend was killed and his family members hid in their safe room from the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. Dabit coaxed him back from despair.
The unlikely duo supported each other even as their message cost them Israeli and Palestinian friends from home. Ben David grew up in Ariel, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank; Dabit comes from Ramle, a mixed city in central Israel where his family has lived for hundreds of years. He had 16 family members in Gaza when the war broke out, all of whom since escaped to Australia.
In Berlin, their restaurant has been tested by tensions over the war. Both far-right and far-left factions have protested the “normalization” of an Israeli and a Palestinian working together.
In July 2024, Kanaan was vandalized after hosting a Jewish-Muslim brunch. The attackers shattered wine glasses, destroyed furniture, spread excrement and left hate messages throughout the restaurant. With nothing stolen, police suspected the vandalism to be motivated by hate. Months later, an Israeli woman was assaulted by four people while wearing Kanaan’s signature pin, which depicts a heart divided between the Israeli and Palestinian flag. One of the attackers shouted “Israel muss weg,” or “Israel must go,” while they knocked the woman to the ground and kicked her.
More recently, Ben David said they faced a downturn in revenue. Their customers were dwindling and they struggled to keep up with rising costs and high rent. He reached out to an email list of previously loyal customers, asking for feedback about why they weren’t returning. The responses weren’t about the food.
One answer came back clearly: People couldn’t figure out how to place Kanaan’s message of dialogue and coexistence. “‘We don’t understand if you are pro-Israel or pro-Palestine.’ That’s something that we heard a lot,” said Ben David.
Another response came down to fatigue with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After reading and watching news about the war for two years, when they finally had a break, many customers said they’d rather go out for sushi or Italian food.
Two weeks from bankruptcy, Ben David and Dabit tried to explain the restaurant’s significance to their community. “Kanaan was never just a restaurant,” they wrote on social media. “It’s a place where Israelis and Palestinians work together, where all guests eat together, where food is more than just enjoyment. … It’s a bridge between people.”
The following weeks saw a stunning change in fortune. Kanaan filled up again with a 300% increase in diners. Catering orders poured in, while many customers bought vouchers for the future. The support wasn’t just financial, said Dabit.
“When people react to our call, they give me — not just Kanaan, but also Oz and me — they give us the energy to continue,” he said. “They show us that we’re doing something right, even though it’s a really bad situation, but we’re doing something right.”
For now, the restaurant can keep going. And the partners have new inspiration for their persistent hope: Back home, the first phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas saw the last 20 surviving Israeli hostages returned in exchange for 1,968 Palestinian prisoners on Monday, as scenes of ecstatic reunions and continued grief washed over Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
Dabit and Ben David said they were filled with joy and relief, mixed with yearning for a lasting peace and reconciliation.
“The ceasefire feels like a breath of fresh air after so much suffering,” said Dabit. “It’s bittersweet, but it’s an opportunity for change. This is our chance to write a new narrative for our future.”
In Kanaan’s backyard, the Gaza war triggered a sharp rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents across Germany. It also drove a fraught debate over Germany’s relationship with Israel, which became central to German national identity after the Holocaust. Unlike other European countries that have recently recognized a Palestinian state, including the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain, Germany has declined to do so.
Pro-Palestinian protests in Berlin have also led to government crackdowns. In April, German immigration authorities ordered the deportation of three European nationals and one U.S. citizen over their alleged activity at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Three of the orders cited Germany’s responsibility toward Israel — a doctrine known as the country’s “Staatsräson,” or “reason of state.” (All the protesters have appealed and won measures for interim relief.)
Dabit and Ben David plan to shape the conversations about Israelis, Palestinians, Jews and Muslims in Germany through projects beyond their restaurant. On Nov. 5, they will publish a cookbook titled “Kochen ohne Grenzen,” or “Cooking Without Borders.” The book collects their recipes while also sharing their kitchen with Berliners from around the world — including rabbis, imams and priests who cook together.
During a recent phone call between Dabit in Ramle and Ben David in Berlin, they jokingly interrupted each other’s stories about their families with accusations of “propaganda.” Turning serious, Dabit said, “I’m optimistic because I see the beauty of every person. If I couldn’t see the beauty, I couldn’t be with you for 10 years, Oz.”
“That’s true,” replied Ben David. “You managed to take a settler from Ariel and make him your best friend, like your brother.”
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From the bimah to ‘Squid Game’: A rabbi finds Torah in unexpected places
(JTA) — Jamie Field was still a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College in New York City when she watched the first season of “Squid Game: The Challenge” and saw a call to action flash across the screen: “Could this be you? Apply now.”
It was 2023, and Field, who had long gravitated toward other reality television shows like “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” said she saw something deeply Jewish in them.
“The really beautiful thing about these shows is that when you’re in such a pressure cooker, for me, it’s not about the challenges, although those are fun to watch, but it’s about watching people be people and make mistakes and grow and foster connections between one another, and I’ve found so much Torah in these moments,” Field said in an interview. “I know it’s very rabbi to say.”
Two years later, Field is bringing that approach to the Netflix show’s second season, which premiered Tuesday. She was chosen to be one of over 456 contestants from around the world competing in a series of physical and mental challenges for a $4.56 million prize.
While Jewish contestants have competed on a number of reality TV shows, ordained rabbis have been rarer. Field said she went into the experience feeling a weighty responsibility around portraying Jewish clergy even as she was shackled to a team of players and competed in a relay race of mini games like stacking a house of cards and swinging a ball on a string into a cup.
“I never expected to be the very best of the challenges,” she said. “I’ve always said, I have a heart of gold, but I’m not very dexterous, and so for me, it was about trying my best and giving it my all, and also trying to be true to myself and bringing my values and wisdom and sense of community and representing the rabbinate as best I could into the show.”
Field grew up in Los Angeles and where her family attended Temple Ahavat Shalom, a Reform congregation in the San Fernando Valley.
After graduating from Boston University in 2017, she worked for the Washington Hebrew Congregation, a Reform synagogue in Washington D.C., before enrolling at HUC in 2019, spending her first year in Jerusalem.
After being ordained in 2024, Field began working as the director of education at Beth El Temple Center, a Reform synagogue in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Just four months later, she received a call back from “Squid Game: The Challenge’ asking her if she was still interested. She was soon on her way to London for an extended break for filming.
A year later, in a post on Instagram announcing her appearance on the show, Field said her experience reminded her of what she has learned from Jewish tradition.
“I often share that the Torah is a sacred story of people being people — of being hurt, of making mistakes, of building connections, of adventure, and of finding the divine in it all,” she said. “I felt this so deeply during my experience on Squid Game.”
Among her co-competitors was a NFL cheerleader, a former bomb technician and an Anglican priest with whom Field said she connected on set.
“I had a really good conversation about religion and what it means to sort of be a faith leader on the show with the priest,” said Field. “I actually found that I had conversations about faith with almost everyone I talked to because, you know, people bring things up when you tell them you’re a rabbi.”
The post From the bimah to ‘Squid Game’: A rabbi finds Torah in unexpected places appeared first on The Forward.
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Arizona man sentenced to 4 years in prison for antisemitic threats to Jewish NYC hotel owner
(JTA) — An Arizona man who sent hundreds of threatening messages to a Jewish-owned hotel in New York City was sentenced to 49 months in prison on Thursday in federal court.
Donovan Hall, 35, of Mesa, Arizona, pleaded guilty to making interstate threats and interstate stalking of the Jewish owners of the Historic Blue Moon Hotel in Manhattan. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
The Blue Moon Hotel is “dedicated to Jewish community in every way that we can be,” Randy Settenbrino said in an interview last year from his hotel, which includes rooms named for icons of the Jewish Lower East Side, a kosher cafe and a mural depicting 2,000 years of Jewish history.
At the time, Settenbrino and his employees had just begun to get what prosecutors said were nearly 1,000 threatening messages from Hall. Sent between August and November 2024, the messages threatened to “torture, mutilate, rape, and murder them and their families,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
In October, Hall texted photographs of two firearms and a machete to one of his victims, writing, “I’ve got something for you and your inbred children” and “for the Zionist cowards,” according to his federal indictment.
“Donovan Hall targeted Jewish victims with a sustained campaign of intimidation, terror, and harassment,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in a statement. “The approximately 1,000 threats he sent to these New Yorkers were alarming and brazen.”
Hall’s messages coincided with a boycott campaign against the hotel launched after Settenbrino’s son, an Israeli soldier, was identified as having posted videos of shooting at destroyed buildings and detonating bombs in homes and a mosque in Gaza.
Hall, who has been held at New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest last year, apologized for his actions in a sentencing submission to the court, writing that he “wanted to champion for a cause and hunt down the bullies, not realizing that it was me the whole time.”
In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after Hall’s sentencing, Settenbrino said “baby killer” had been spray painted on the windows of his hotel, and flyers were posted around Manhattan calling for its boycott and referring to his son, Bram, as a “war criminal.”
“We’re sitting at a pivotal time in New York City, where we’re feeling the encroachment of hate and antisemitism in the West, like our brethren are feeling it in Europe, and so it’s very scary for everyone concerned,” said Settenbrino. “It’s very important that there are strong sentences handed out to this, not just for us, but for klal yisrael [the Jewish people] in general.”
The post Arizona man sentenced to 4 years in prison for antisemitic threats to Jewish NYC hotel owner appeared first on The Forward.
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Israel, India Sign Deals to Boost Defense, Industrial, Tech Cooperation
Israel’s Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram and Indian Defense Secretary Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh sign new agreements in Tel Aviv to expand defense, industrial, and technological cooperation between the two countries. Photo: Screenshot
Israel and India on Tuesday signed new agreements to expand defense, industrial, and technological cooperation during high-level talks in Tel Aviv, as both nations aim to deepen ties amid shifting Middle East power dynamics and rising regional tensions.
Israel’s Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram and Indian Defense Secretary Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during the annual bilateral Joint Working Group meeting.
“This strategic dialogue with India takes place at a critical juncture for both countries. Our strategic partnership is based on deep mutual trust and shared security interests,” Baram said during a joint press conference.
“We view India as a first-rate strategic partner and are determined to continue deepening cooperation in the fields of defense, technology and industry,” the Israeli official continued.
Strengthening Defense Cooperation: Israel MOD Director General and Indian Defense Secretary Sign Strategic Memorandum of Understanding
@SpokespersonMoD
Read more: https://t.co/ito3P1sCQg pic.twitter.com/FjxBkwFf1C
— Ministry of Defense (@Israel_MOD) November 4, 2025
As part of the visit, the Indian delegation — which included senior officials from the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces — met with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and participated in a forum with CEOs of Israeli defense companies to advance industrial-defense cooperation between the two countries.
Among other areas of cooperation, the newly signed agreement aims to advance joint efforts in defense manufacturing, research, and technological development.
Israeli-Indian diplomatic relations have been steadily growing since India established full diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992.
Since then, the two nations have signed multiple agreements to deepen cooperation across industries, further strengthening defense and security ties.
In recent years, trade between the two countries has been rapidly expanding, with India now being Israel’s seventh-largest trade partner globally. Israeli exports to India rose from $200 million in 1992 to $2.5 billion in 2024.
Over the past decade, Israel’s exports to India have grown by about 60 percent, and investments in the tech sector are becoming increasingly significant.
Military cooperation has also grown, with Israel selling billions of dollars’ worth of weapons systems to India and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Indian military regularly participating in joint exercises.
India is one of the largest consumers of Israeli military equipment, accounting for almost 40 percent of Israel’s total arms exports.
According to media reports, India is set to acquire rockets for its ground forces and surface-to-air defense missiles developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for approximately $3.75 billion.
IAI is also expected to convert six commercial planes into Indian Air Force refueling aircraft for $900 million.