Explosion near Chabad of Santa Monica not a bomb [UPDATE]
Explosion near Chabad of Santa Monica not a bomb [UPDATE] Read More »
April 7, 2011
Michal Ansky’s Favorite Restaurants in Israel
I promised people who read my story on Michal Ansky that here on the blog they’d find a list of her favorite restaurants in Israel. Here’s the beginning of my piece:
Here’s the first thing you notice about Michal Ansky: She’s beautiful. Tall, with long black hair and a strong, lean Israeli build. In the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey, where we meet, people do double takes. She’s not quite famous here yet, though Fox TV selected Ansky from among all the cooking experts in the world to be one of three judges on its hit program, “MasterChef.” Padma Lakshmi, watch your back.
In Israel, however, Ansky is a major food celebrity. She was a judge on the Israeli version of “MasterChef,” one of the country’s most popular shows. She hosts a popular show on Channel 10, “Fresh Cooking.” And most significantly, she, along with Shir Halpern and partner/husband Roee Hemed, founded Israel’s first true farmers markets, giving Israelis direct access to farmers’ fruits, vegetables and products of the land.
I came to talk to Ansky about Israeli food, not the TV show, and about Passover. She is not religious, but she does revel in the tradition of the holiday — it’s part of the land, and it’s part of her roots.
“We live in a cynical age,” she said. “There are no surprises. One day is like the next. But I think it’s very important to have tradition that makes certain times special, and I don’t take it for granted.”
For Ansky, Passover also means the first strawberries, the first greens and herbs, the early peas.
The truth is, I wasn’t that familiar with Ansky before meeting her—as I wrote before, when it comes to TV, I’m mostly an Anthony Bourdain guy these days.
But once I had her, Ansky proved to be passionate, learned, opinionated, and an expert on all foods Israeli. I had to ask her to reel off her favorite places to eat in Israel, especially as I was leaving for a visit there the week after speaking with her. Ansky was jet-lagged, post-partum and a bit harried when we spoke, so she admitted to not having all the names on the tip of her tongue, but here were some of her favorites, in no particular order:
Yoezer Wine Bar
“One of the best.”
Jaffa, Israel
Open: Sun-Thu 12:30-1:00, Fri-Sat 11:00-1:00
Address: 2 Ish-Habira St. Jaffa (near the Clock’s Square).
Tel: (03) 683-9115
Pizza Tony Vespa
“Reminds me of Italy.”
267 Dizengof St., Tel Aviv
Catit
“For molecular gastronomy.”
4 Heychal Hatalmud. 03-510-7001.
Ha’Salon
Chef Eyal Shani is one of Ansky’s co-hosts on “MasterChef.” He has a new restaurant as well, Miznon.
Salon
8 Maavar Yabuk. 052-703-5888. Open Wed and Thurs evenings.
Beit Thailandi (Thai House)
Ansky raved about the Thai food here, placing it well above most places outside Thailand. The proprietors have their own farm for hard-to-find ingredients.
8 Bograshov , corner of Ben Yehuda , Tel Aviv
Tel: 03-5178568
Abu Hassan Hummus
1 Dolphin Street
Jaffa, Israel
+972 03 682 0387
Sun-Fri 7:45-14:45 (or until the hummus is finished)
Erez Kamorovsky Cooking School
It’s on the Israel-Lebanon border and the site is in Hebrew.
“He has magicians hands,” said Ansky, “and he’s one of the popel who is changing the food reality in Israel.”
Farmer’s Market Tel aviv Slide Show:
Michal Ansky’s Favorite Restaurants in Israel Read More »
[UPDATE] Chabad rabbi discusses explosion suspect + video footage from explosion site
For the complete story on the explosion near the Chabad of Santa Monica, click here.
[UPDATE] On Saturday, April 9:
Thursday, April 7:
[UPDATE] Chabad rabbi discusses explosion suspect + video footage from explosion site Read More »
Hamas announces cease-fire to be honored by all Gaza factions
Hamas announced Thursday that a unilateral cease-fire on the part of all factions in the Gaza Strip was to come into effect at 11 P.M. local time.
Officials in Hamas said that the decision was made following a meeting between all Gaza factions.
The Hamas offer comes as fighting flared in Gaza on Thursday after a Palestinian anti-tank missile hit an Israeli school bus, wounding two, and Israeli forces retaliated with planes and artillery, killing five Palestinians.
Read more at Haaretz.com.
Hamas announces cease-fire to be honored by all Gaza factions Read More »
Ford Foundation to end Israel funding
The Ford Foundation is denying that it is ending its Israel funding over criticism leveled at the foundation and some of the groups it helps to fund.
The Forward reported Thursday that the philanthropic foundation, which has contributed $40 million to civil society groups since 2003, will wind down its giving in two years.
Ford was sharply criticized for backing Israeli-Arab groups that helped steer what was to have been the 2001 United Nations conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, into an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish forum.
Subsequently, other groups that Ford helps fund—including the New Israel Fund, itself an umbrella fund for hundreds of progressive groups—have been targeted by some on Israel’s right wing for harsh criticism of Israel.
Ford and the NIF denied that these were factors in the decision to defund, instead noting that Israel’s civil society sector is capable of seeking funding from other sources.
Some on the left had criticized Ford and other outside philanthropies in recent years for steering money into a wealthy and Western democracy that had shown itself capable of tolerating dissent instead of spending money assisting groups in autocracies.
Ford Foundation to end Israel funding Read More »
Rice: Goldstone report should simply ‘disappear’
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, says the Goldstone report is probably beyond fixing and should simply disappear.
Rice, speaking to a hearing Thursday of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, was reacting to congressional calls on Richard Goldstone to amend the 2009 report on the Gaza War that was based on an investigation of a panel convened by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The panel, chaired by Goldstone, concluded that Israel had targeted civilians as a matter of policy. Goldstone, a former South African judge, recently withdrew that conclusion.
“I’m not sure it can be amended,” Rice said of the report. “What we want to see is for it to disappear and no longer be a subject of discussion and debate in the Human Rights Council or the General Assembly or beyond.”
Rice has led the effort to stymie the advance of the report through the U.N. system.
Rice: Goldstone report should simply ‘disappear’ Read More »
Beck to address CUFI conference
Glenn Beck will keynote the 2011 Christians United for Israel conference.
Beck’s appearance as a keynoter at the Washington Summit of the group in July was posted this week on CUFI’s website.
The volatile talk show host, who announced this week that he is leaving the show he hosts on Fox News Channel, has passionate Jewish detractors and supporters.
Liberal Jewish groups have slammed him for abusing Holocaust imagery—for instance, in likening “social justice” movements to the Nazis—and for falsely accusing George Soros, a billionaire liberal philanthropist and Holocaust survivor, of collaborating with Nazis.
More recently he has peddled theories that closely parallel anti-Semitic tracts, positing the control of the international economy and culture by a cabal. In these cases, many of the “villains” Beck names are Jewish, but he does not identify them as such.
Jewish defenders note Beck’s strong pro-Israel credentials; he was one of the only U.S. news media personalities who focused intensely on the brutal murders last month of five members of a family in a West Bank settlement.
A CUFI e-mail blast to followers describes Beck “as a leading spokesman in defense of Israel and the Jewish people. No matter what your political leanings, there can be no denying the depth, sincerity and importance of Glenn’s stand for Israel.”
Beck to address CUFI conference Read More »
U.S. could learn from Israel’s health care system, study suggests
Intense cooperation among health care plans and physicians can improve health care, according to a new study that looks toward Israel’s health care system.
The study—“What The United States Could Learn From Israel About Improving The Quality Of Health Care,” published Thursday by the peer-reviewed Health Affairs magazine—suggests that increased coordination can improve monitoring standards in such areas as colon cancer screening and flu immunization.
Whereas Israel showed a 17 percent increase in colon screenings and a 5 percent increase in flu shots from 2005 to 2007, the United States showed just a 1 percent increase in colon screenings and no increase in flu shots during the same period.
The study was conducted jointly and written by researchers in the United States and Israel, including at Harvard Medical School and the Smokler Center for Health Policy Research in Jerusalem.
U.S. could learn from Israel’s health care system, study suggests Read More »
Queens College group takes Jewish a cappella competition [VIDEO]
A group from Queens College won the inaugural Jewish collegiate a cappella competition and its $1,500 prize.
Tizmoret was named the best of the nine groups from seven U.S. campuses competing last weekend in the Kol HaOlam National Jewish Collegiate A Capella Competition in Washington, D.C. Along with the monetary prize, the New York group won a consultation with JDub Records.
Kol Sasson of the University of Maryland finished second. The third-place finisher, the Shabbatones of the University of Pennsylvania, received the audience favorite award that was determined by text voting immediately after the performances.
Other groups that performed were Chutzpah of Georgetown University; Jewish Fella A Capella of Brandeis University; Staam of Washington University in St. Louis; Kaskeset of Binghamton University; and Kol Sasson, Rak Shalom and Mezumenet, all from the University of Maryland’s College Park campus.
The judges included Jordan Gorfinkel, founder of the Jewish a capella group Beat’achon; Jason Diamond, editor in chief of Jewcy.com; Wayne Firestone, president of Hillel International; Cantor Jeffrey Weber of Adas Israel, the host synagogue; and Mike Boxer, also the master of ceremonies, who hosts KolCast, the monthly podcast dedicated to Jewish a cappella.
Tizmoret performs “Im Eshkachech” at their annual winter show (2010)
Video courtesy of TizmoretTube.
Queens College group takes Jewish a cappella competition [VIDEO] Read More »
Iron Dome intercepts first missiles from Gaza
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system for the first time intercepted rockets fired from Gaza.
Ashkelon’s Iron Dome intercepted two rockets fired Thursday on the southern Israeli city. The unit had been set up three days earlier.
Last week’s first deployment of the $200 million system in Beersheba is being called an “operational trial” by the Israel Defense Forces. The deployment came earlier than expected due to a rise in attacks on southern Israel from Gaza.
One unit also is set up in Haifa; another soon will be put up in central Israel.
A barrage of rockets hit southern Israel on Thursday following a rocket that hit an Israeli school bus near Kibbutz Sa’ad, near the border with Gaza, injuring a teen seriously and the driver, and leading to an Israeli retaliation on Gaza terror targets.
Iron Dome intercepts first missiles from Gaza Read More »