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With her ‘Totally Kosher’ cookbook, Chanie Apfelbaum aims for a wider audience
(New York Jewish Week) — Chanie Apfelbaum’s newest cookbook, “Totally Kosher,” is filled with many inventive, flavor-packed recipes, like “Miso Matzo Ball Soup,” “Berbere Brisket” and “Pad Chai,” a shrimp-free version of the Thai staple.
But while the book is designed for kosher-keeping observant Jews like herself, Apfelbaum — who boasts 101,000 followers on Instagram and runs the popular Jewish lifestyle blog “Busy in Brooklyn” — had a larger audience in mind. Her first book, “Millennial Kosher,” published in 2018, is now in its sixth printing and is available in just about every Judaica store across the country. With her second effort, however, “I wanted to reach a larger demographic,” Apfelbaum, 42, told the New York Jewish Week. “I wanted to reach people that don’t necessarily know what kosher is.”
That’s how Apfelbaum ended up publishing “Totally Kosher” with Clarkson Potter, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group and publisher of cookbooks by culinary megastars like Ina Garten and Alison Roman. When Raquel Pelzel, the editorial director of cookbooks at Clarkson Potter approached Apfelbaum in 2019 about writing a cookbook — pitched as a “celebration of kosher,” as Apfelbaum recalls it — she immediately said yes.
“I was so excited,” Apfelbaum said.
“We hadn’t published a kosher cookbook in a really long time and, with Instagram and social media, there is obviously a massive kosher community,” Pelzel told the New York Jewish Week. “To not publish a kosher cookbook seemed like a huge omission and a hole on our list.”
“When I scout for authors, I look for someone whose recipes look delicious, original and creative and who has a really strong voice and is clear who their audience is,” Pelzel added. “Chanie certainly has all that.”
Apfelbaum’s decision to go with a mainstream publisher mean the book would appear in “regular” bookstores — and not just Judaica stores — but the change meant some new challenges. One hurdle was the publisher’s decision to feature a large, color photo of Apfelbaum on the book’s rear cover — a decision that could be considered controversial in the haredi Orthodox world where many publishers refrain from showing photos of women in the interest of sexual “modesty.” (Apfelbaum’s photo does not appear anywhere in “Millennial Kosher,” published by Artscroll/Shaar Press, which serves the haredi market. A spokesperson for ArtScroll said that, to date, they have not featured any photographs of women in their cookbooks, but “we are not against putting pictures of women in our books.”)
“If my photo is on the back of the book, maybe the Judaica stores really won’t take it,” Apfelbaum recalled thinking when she was sent a mockup of the cover. “I called friends in the publishing industry. I called Judaica shops and asked if my photo is on the back cover, are you going to carry the book?” The answers, Apfelbaum said, were mixed.
And yet, she didn’t back down or ask for a change in the cover. “I was like — you know what? I’m doing this for my daughters, I’m doing this for the women out there,” she said. “There is nothing wrong with having a photo of a Jewish woman on the back of the book. I’m just doing it, and I stand behind it.”
Fortunately, validation came quickly. “When I walk down the street in my neighborhood [of Crown Heights], I pass Hamafitz Judaica and they have two books in the window — one of the front cover of my book, depicting my Pad Chai, and one of the back.”
Apfelbaum’s mother, Devorah Halberstam, a prominent member of Crown Heights’ Chabad community, couldn’t be prouder. Her first-born son, Ari Halberstam, was killed in 1994 when a Lebanese-born man shot at a van filled with Chabad Lubavitch students, killing Ari and wounding three others. In the aftermath, Halberstam fought tirelessly to have his murder formally classified as a terrorist attack, which eventually happened in 2005. She was also a founder of the Jewish Children’s Museum, which was dedicated to the memory of her son.
Of all people, Halberstam understands the power of a photo. “At Ari’s yahrtzeit [anniversary of his death], I tweet things out,” she told the New York Jewish Week, noting that her son died 29 years ago. “I got 85,000 responses because I put his picture up there. Pictures make you stop. They make you pause.”
Photos, she added, “personalize everything. A story is not a story without pictures. It makes it real. It comes to life.”
Apfelbaum agrees, feeling that her decision to include photos of herself, her boys in their tzitzit (ritual prayer fringes) and her children around a table, is “a huge step in the Orthodox world.”
“I’m doing this because I think this is something that has to change,” she said. “Jewish women should be celebrated just like men.”
As a child, Apfelbaum said, she was a rule-follower who was drawn to the creative world. “I got very into artistic projects for school,” she said. “I loved drawing and craftsy, artsy things.”
Apfelbaum’s culinary journey began in 2002 when she was 22 and newly married. Apfelbaum’s mother had been the chef in the Halberstam home, and Apfelbaum was raised on what she calls “brown food” — matzah ball soup, gefilte fish, potato kugel. She came to her marriage skilled as a web designer but not knowing how to boil an egg. Her Syrian/Argentian/Jewish mother-in-law introduced her to ingredients like rosewater and dishes like empanadas, piquing Apfelbaum’s interest.
“When I started cooking, I was always very artistic and looking for ways to put color in my food and plate it nicely,” said Apfelbaum. “I would make my mom’s recipes. But when I started hosting friends and putting out a spread, with menus and plated meals, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is beautiful. Such a beautiful way to express my artistic side.’”
When Apfelbaum left her web design job after the birth of her third child in 2010, she poured her creative juices into her nascent cooking and photography skills, and her family encouraged her to start her own blog. In 2011, she launched “Busy in Brooklyn” — at the time she was raising three children under 5, running a home and teaching Hebrew while taking knitting and crochet classes.
Her first post, in January of that year, was for sauteed chicken cutlets topped with canned dark sweet cherries. Later that year, she gave her first cooking class for the teachers at her children’s school.
In 2013, she enrolled in a program at the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts (now closed). “I started to seek out different cultural dishes and put my kosher Jewish spin on it,” she said. She also took a photography class.
The following year, her recipe for “Drunken Hasselback Salami” — a whole salami sliced, coated in a sauce of jam, brandy and mustard, then baked until crispy — went viral. Later that year, she was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal for her creative spins on the traditional Ashkenazi Hanukkah treat, latkes. In 2015, she made the first of many out-of-town food demonstrations, traveling to Montreal to prepare harissa chicken sliders with preserved lemon carrot slaw and a marble halvah mousse.
These recipes, among others, made it into “Millennial Kosher.” And although Apfelbaum swore that she would never write another cookbook because of all the work involved, that call in 2019 from Clarkson Potter made her rethink her decision. Apfelbaum’s global recipes — such as “Nachos Bassar,” nachos with hummus, Israeli salad and pickles — and how she “bounces off of trends that are happening in social media, in restaurants,” as Pelzel describes her, are what drew the mainstream publisher to Apfelbaum
“From the first time I met Chanie, I understood why she was the obvious choice to make kosher cool,” Apfelbaum’s mentor and fellow cookbook author Adeena Sussman told the New York Jewish Week via text. “She’s wildly passionate about her food and her Judaism, and makes no apologies for either.”
“Add to that her natural warmth, sense of humor and willingness to share the ups and downs of life with her followers, and you’ve truly got a recipe for success,” Sussman added.
And there have been plenty of ups and downs: After signing her book contract in 2019, Apfelbaum became a single mom due to divorce. She was also hospitalized with COVID-19 (as was one of her kids) and lost her sense of smell and taste, at a time when nobody knew that this was a side effect of the virus.
Fortunately, Apfelbaum has since regained her sense of taste and smell, and she remains very busy in Brooklyn — and elsewhere. In July, she is leading a food tour in Italy where her group will make gelato, hunt for truffles and taste olive oil. She hopes to continue culinary travel in the future. She has just come out with a line of her own spices called TK (as in “Totally Kosher”) Spices; her first two products are the Yemenite spice mix, hawaijj — one for savory foods and one for coffee, which has a sweet profile. With “Totally Kosher” now in its third printing, she is looking to (finally) hire an assistant and find work space outside of her home.
“There were many times I said I don’t have the emotional bandwidth and strength to do this book — I wanted to give up,” Apfelbaum said. “My friends believed in me and pushed me and made it happen. When I look at this book, I see so much more than recipes. It was really a journey for me.”
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British PM denounces ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at upcoming Aston Villa soccer match
The British government is reviewing a decision to bar Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a major soccer match next month over what local police had said were security concerns.
The Aston Villa Football Club announced the ban on Thursday, saying in a statement that the Security Advisory Group responsible for issuing safety certificates for the matches at the team’s Birmingham stadium, Villa Park, had made the decision.
“Following a meeting this afternoon, the SAG have formally written to the club and UEFA to advise no away fans will be permitted to attend Villa Park for this fixture,” the club said, referring to the Union of European Football Associations. “West Midlands Police have advised the SAG that they have public safety concerns outside the stadium bowl and the ability to deal with any potential protests on the night.”
The Villa Park announcement swiftly drew an uproar from a wide array of voices who said the police were abdicating their responsibility.
“This is the wrong decision,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. “We will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets. The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation.”
The local police said their assessment reflected the sweeping violence that unfolded around a Maccabi Tel Aviv-Ajax match in Amsterdam last year, exactly one year before the Nov. 6 match planned for Villa Park. Dutch, Israeli, European and U.S. officials all denounced the Amsterdam violence, which followed rising tensions that included provocations by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, as antisemitic.
Sporting events involving Israeli teams have drawn protests and disruptions during the war in Gaza, which entered a ceasefire last week. Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated against Israel’s participation in a World Cup qualifying match in Norway this week, and earlier this month a Canadian tennis match was played in an empty stadium over concerns about disruptive protests against Israel.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism, a nonprofit, said it would pursue legal action against the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.
“We will do whatever it takes to overturn this pernicious ban which has humiliated and angered the whole country,” it said in a statement. “Britain is increasingly waking up to the extremism in our midst but now we must all fight the instinctive appeasement within the authorities and our law enforcement.”
Now, the prime minister’s office is closely involved in conversations aimed at reversing the ban, which was announced the same day that Starmer announced new funding to protect Jewish communities, allocated in the wake of the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur.
“We cannot have a country where we have to tell people to stay away from an event because they can’t be protected or they may be a victim of racism,” a spokesperson told the BBC.
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Trump: ‘If Hamas continues to kill people … we will have no choice but to go in and kill them’
(JTA) — President Donald Trump appeared to threaten violence against Hamas in Gaza on Thursday as he responded to reports that Hamas was executing Gazans following the ceasefire with Israel that Trump brokered last week.
“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday, concluding with a trademark flourish: “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Soon after, he clarified that he did not mean the United States would enter Gaza. “Somebody will go in … It’s not going to be us,” he told reporters, adding, “There are people very nearby that will go in, they’ll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.”
Trump has previously said he would endorse Israeli operations in Gaza when Hamas did not meet his demands. He had said earlier in the week that he was not bothered by early reports of Hamas violence, saying that the United States had given the group a leash to “stop the problems” in Gaza for a period of time. But as clans within Gaza called out for help, he and other U.S. officials have shifted their tone.
“We strongly urge Hamas to immediately suspend violence and shooting at innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza – in both Hamas-held parts of Gaza and those secured by the IDF behind the Yellow Line,” Brad Cooper, the U.S. Navy admiral who commands operations in the Middle East, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This is an historic opportunity for peace. Hamas should seize it by fully standing down, strictly adhering to President Trump’s 20-point peace plan, and disarming without delay.”
Cooper said the United States remained optimistic that the ceasefire would hold despite the violence.
Thursday was the first day since Hamas was required under the terms of the ceasefire to free all hostages that it did not release any, after releasing all 20 living hostages on Monday and nine deceased hostages over three days. Hamas says it needs heavy machinery to be able to extricate the 19 remaining deceased hostages, but Israel, which says it has intelligence about the locations of many of the bodies, disputes the claim.
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At debate, Cuomo and Mamdani clash over Israel in pitch to Jewish voters
Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo clashed sharply over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Thursday night, in the first televised debate for New York City mayor, their first major showdown since the young democratic socialist stunned the former governor in the Democratic primary. And a Yiddish slang term even made its way into the heated back-and-forth.
Days after the implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza, many of the two candidates’ early exchanges centered on Mamdani’s critiques of Israel, positions that have roiled New York’s Jewish community — the largest outside of Israel. Beginning with the primary, Mamdani has faced scrutiny for refusing to outright condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada,” calling the Gaza war a “genocide,” and pledging to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited the city.
Commenting Thursday on the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Mamdani clarified earlier remarks he made about having no opinion on whether or not Hamas should disarm as part of a post-war deal.
“Of course, I believe that they should lay down their arms,” Mamdani said. But he declined to welcome or credit President Donald Trump’s administration for brokering the ceasefire that ended the fighting and secured the release of the remaining living hostages.
Mamdani also appeared to draw a moral parallel between Hamas’ disarmament and Israel halting strikes on the enclave. “Calling for a ceasefire means ceasing fire,” he said. “That means all parties have to cease fire and put down their weapons.” A real peace, he continued, must address “the conditions that preceded this, conditions like occupation, the siege and apartheid.”
“That means ‘from the river to the sea,’” Cuomo countered, in an effort to suggest that Mamdani’s rhetoric mirrored the popular pro-Palestinian protest slogan that many Jews view as a call for the destruction of Israel. Cuomo also wrongly claimed that Mamdani refused to condemn Hamas. “I have denounced Hamas again and again,” Mamdani said. “It will never be enough for Andrew Cuomo, because what he is willing to say, even though not on this stage, is to call me, the first Muslim on the precipice of leading this city, a terrorist sympathizer.”
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, who took center stage without his signature red beret, was largely ignored by the two leading contenders. That didn’t stop Sliwa, who has his own history of controversial remarks about Jews, from inserting himself into the debate.
“Jews don’t trust that you are going to be there for them when they are victims of antisemitic attacks,” the Republican candidate told Mamdani.
Mamdani’s Jewish appeal
Since his surprise victory in June, Mamdani has redoubled his outreach efforts in the Jewish community, including by celebrating Sukkot with Orthodox leaders.
Still, Mamdani faces hurdles with the Jewish electorate. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed Mamdani trailing Cuomo by 31 points among Jewish voters, while maintaining a double-digit lead citywide. Just 22% of Jewish voters view Mamdani favorably, while 67% hold an unfavorable opinion.
The survey found that a plurality of likely voters share Mamdani’s views on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
At the debate, Mamdani repeated past statements about his commitment to protect Jewish New Yorkers. He also reaffirmed his recognition of Israel — though not as a Jewish state. That seemed to resonate with more liberal and progressive Jews. Mamdani has been endorsed by local Jewish elected officials, including Brad Lander, the city comptroller and Rep. Jerry Nadler, co-chair of the congressional Jewish Caucus. Addressing members of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn last week, Mamdani said, “I’m going to have people in my administration who are Zionists, whether liberal Zionists, or wherever they may be on that spectrum.”
Ahead of the debate, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue said in a video statement that Mamdani’s long-standing rejection of Zionism is an example of “rigid ideological commitments that delegitimize the Jewish community and encourage and exacerbate hostility towards Judaism and Jews.”
Cuomo’s Yiddish
During Thursday night’s debate, Cuomo also deployed a Yiddish slang term when debating which of the candidates would most effectively stand up to President Donald Trump.
“He can’t stand up to Donald Trump, who’d knock him right on his tuches,” Cuomo said, wagging his finger at Mamdani and using the Yiddish term for behind.
Cuomo once described himself as the “Shabbos goy” of New York’s Jewish community — the same term his father, former Governor Mario Cuomo, once used, referring to a non-Jew who performs certain tasks for Jews on the Sabbath.
The former governor, who is backed by some Orthodox voting blocs, suggested that many of his Jewish supporters view Mamdani as antisemitic. “It’s not about Trump or Republicans,” he told his chief rival. “It’s about you.”
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