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CONTENTS 25 The ‘I Do‘ Designers
From the editor
29 Wedding Planners
A
31 Holy Fashion 32 Art of the Matter
9
34 History of the UJIA
25
6 Cut Out And Keep
Israeli Icons
9 70 by 70:
Heroes Review Heroes
13 Pride Without Prejudice 18 The Real Housewives
of Ottolenghi
37 Enosh:
The Caring Mind Charity
39 Tech Over Time 42 City of Health
13 21 Eating Your Way
Across Israel
From the cover
From back row left: chef Yotam Ottolenghi, actress Mili Avital, designer Ron Arad, wonder woman Gal Gadot, band Static & Benel, Israeli soldiers, architect Moshie Safdie, Prince Wiliam, Chaim Topol, Miss Israel, fashion designer Elie Tahari, writer Amos Oz, model Bar Refaeli, Dana International, Alber Elbaz, conductor Daniel Barenboim, basket ball player Omri Casspi, tennis player Dudi Sela, singer Sarit Hadad, actor Yousef Sweid, Uri Geller, singer Eyal Golan, Miri Regev, Ronit Zilka, Natan Sharansky, Naftali Bennett, Judo Olympian Or Sasson, footballer Tomer Hemed, David Ben Gurion, Bibi, Netta ‘Toy’ Barzilai, Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Shimon Peres, singer Idan Raichel and Golda Meir.
44 Israel’s Reel Role:
The Story of Film
49 Staying In Israel
t 4pm on 14 May 1948 David Ben Gurion, then executive head of the World Zionist Organization stood on a podium at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, banged his gavel on the table and prompted a spontaneous rendition of Hatikvah from the 250 assembled guests. It took 16 minutes for Ben Gurion to read the declaration that established the State of Israel, but the words changed history for the Jewish people forever. And now Israel is 70, a significant birthday that is being celebrated by the country’s citizens and supporters around the world through good and bad times. As I write, it’s bad with Israel under threat again and an unpredictable, tense security situation dominating the headlines. This is always sad as Israel has so much to shout about, having achieved so much over the past seven decades. Our magazine acknowledges this. We feature the men and women who shaped the state and those who continue to do so; the creatives in design, fashion, food and film who have a global following and the technology which benefits everyone – including Israel’s fiercest critics. Best of all we get to talk about Tel Aviv’s Gay Pride, an event that would not be hosted anywhere else in the Middle East. Our sponsors the UJIA have been helping Israel for longer than it has existed and on page 34 they explain how they continue to make a difference there and in the UK. The traditional gift for a 70th birthday is something in platinum, but we thought a celebration of Israel’s progress and performance was perfect.
Brigit Grant Jewish News Editor Brigit Grant
Art Director Diane Spender Designer John Nicholls Contributors Alex Galbinski Louisa Walters Stephen Oryszczuk JN ISRAEL 70 | 5
&
Israel’s cut out
KEEPERS
WITH ANY NATIONAL CELEBRATION, there is always memorabilia. Flags, mugs, tea towels and hats have been adorned with the number 70, but we wanted to mark the occasion with something original. So we asked artist Sally Grosart to create four templates of iconic Israeli figures that can be stuck to card, and then you (or your children) can make your own prime ministers David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir; General Moshe Dayan and Wonder Woman Gal Gadot. What a way to celebrate!
DAVID BEN GURION Cut along these lines. These are the holes the neck goes through.
GOLDA MEIR
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GAL GADOT
HOW TO MAKE IT
• Attach template to hard card. • Use double-sided tape as it seems to stick better than glue and causes less mess. •Leave extra pieces above the neck. •These are then folded over inside the head and taped inside to attach the body to the head. Cut line Fold line
MOSHE DAYAN JN ISRAEL 70 | 7
Built From Inspiration
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70
70
FOR 70
To mark the 70th anniversary, author and financial journalist Yaniv Magal has written 70 Faces Of Israel, a book that asks 70 prominent Israeli figures to talk about historical figures who influenced them and changed the country. Here, Jenni Frazer asseses 10 of Magal’s most significant contributors...
NAFTALI BENNETT ON DAVID BEN-GURION
Of all the people to write an appreciation of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, you might think Education Minister and chair of the rightwing Jewish Home Party, Naftali Bennett, would be the last. The two men would seem, on paper, diametrically opposed. But Bennett sets out his stall immediately, calling Ben-Gurion, a socialist politician to his fingertips, “the greatest leader of the Jewish people since King David”, and, paraphrasing the Rambam, says: “From David to David, there was none like David.” Bennett praises B-G for the way he set up the army, immersing himself in learning about military strategy because he did not come from a military background. And he draws a fascinating conclusion about B-G and his legacy, one which the man himself might have disputed: “Ben-Gurion relied on the sources of inspiration of his predecessors: Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt. Even though he was completely irreligious, his feet were
Photo © Ben-Gurion University
firmly planted in the Bible. He regarded the state of Israel as the Third Temple – a direct continuation of the First and Second Temples, and therefore brought the Second Temple, Bar Kochba and Masada back to the national ethos.
MICHAEL BAR-ZOHAR ON SHIMON PERES
Photo © Pridan Moshe
“Our primary mandate from Ben-Gurion is to make sure that the Third Temple continues forever, with its roots in the Bible, looking many years ahead into the future, and with the courage to make the right decisions, even if they involve risk.”
Michael Bar-Zohar worked for Shimon Peres and eventually became his biographer. He views Peres, the ninth president of Israel, with a cool and clear eye, praising him as a very persuasive operator who achieved great success in the early days of the state, particularly in establishing good relations with France and Germany. He speaks highly of Peres’ role during the 1976 Entebbe raid. Bar-Zohar says: “He was minister of defence when the airliner was hijacked. The terrorists demanded the release of terrorists in exchange for the hostages, and said that they would begin killing them otherwise. Everyone agreed to negotiations with them, but Peres convened a group of generals, who assembled a unit that kept on planning and planning, until they finally arrived at the operational plan that was executed.” Nevertheless, says Bar-Zohar, Peres – who held the posts of defence minister, JN ISRAEL 70 | 9
finance minister, foreign minister and prime minister during his long political career – was “a mediocre or worse politician, with a serious credibility problem”. He writes: “The Oslo Agreement was a halfbaked agreement that was not fully thought out. He and Rabin were too enthused that there was an agreement at all, and did not thoroughly examine the security parts, the quid pro quo, and implementation by the other side. Peres was right when he said, ‘Without Arafat, we would not have reached the Oslo Agreement. With Arafat, we cannot realise it.’ Arafat continued inciting and collecting arms. There was a lot of delusion involved.”
YAIR LAPID ON MENACHEM BEGIN Yair Lapid, chairman of the centrist Yesh Atid party, says the former Likud prime minister was “the most Jewish prime minister in Israel’s history”. He writes: “If you ask an Israeli whether he is first an Israeli or first a Jew, they often say there is no difference, one is linked to the other. But there is a cause and there is an effect, and the Jew is the cause. That is how Begin was. He put the Jew in the centre of the Israeli argument. This let many people feel comfortable about being Israeli. “Before Begin, Ben-Gurion’s effort to create a new man – an Israeli who is also a citizen of the world – held sway here. But it could not have been complete had Begin not brought with him the other side of the Israeli identity – the Jewish ethos.” Lapid adds: “Begin saw Judaism first of all as an identity concept, not a religious practice. On the day he was elected Prime Minister, he went to the Western Wall. It was a clear statement: before he was Prime Minister of Israel, he was prime minister of the Jewish people and of Jewish history.”
MICKEY BERKOWITZ ON TAL BRODY Mickey Berkowitz and Tal Brody were two towering names of Israeli basketball in the heady days when Maccabi Tel Aviv were European champions, and one of the greatest teams in the world. The first time Berkowitz saw Brody play, Brody was playing for the US Army against Israel. Brody made aliyah to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv and became Berkowitz’s mentor, teaching him the winning moves of top American players. Berkowitz writes: “Tal was a role model at the start of my career. He came from the American school, and was a professional. When I was a teenager, he was at his peak, and they marked me as his replacement. He knew that he had to train me to lead the team for 10-15 more years, so became my room-mate. We were together for many years. He guided
Photo © Sa’ar Ya’acov
me with respect and success. Even though we played the same position, he didn’t see me as a competitor; he knew I’d be the leader after him, and wanted to help me and Maccabi.” The two men later went into business together after Brody retired, marketing sports goods, and Brody became a goodwill ambassador for Israel. His former team-mate says: “Tal was and is a Zionist in his soul.”
LIAD SHOHAM ON AMOS OZ
Photo © Moshe Milner
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Crime writer Liad Shoham is one of Israel’s bestselling novelists and regards renowned writer Amos Oz as his hero. He writes: “It turned out that we live in the same neighbourhood. He has sat a few tables away from me in a café more than once. This in itself is awesome; a founding father of Israeli literature living among us and sat next to me. “You don’t often have the experience of sitting near a literary pioneer who is still living, breathing and writing. I saw him as a quasimythical figure. It was interesting to see people’s attitude towards him, seeing a great writer doing humdrum things like drinking coffee,
Photo © Herman Chanania
reading a newspaper and talking with his wife.” Shoham admires Oz, a prize-winning writer, foremost for his “courage... his willingness to expose himself, not hide behind literary characters, it’s very inspiring and something I have not done. I’m not sure that I ever will”. He adds: “Whether or not I agree with what he writes at the national and political level – and I do not – his leaving the writer’s room, which is private and intimate, with no one in it, for the national sphere to say controversial things, to act as a modern-day prophet and pay the price, that is very impressive. Someone who does this probably loves his country a lot, because otherwise he would not care enough to be controversial and say provocative things.”
RAN COHEN ON SHULAMIT ALONI Ran Cohen, a former Member of Knesset for the left-wing Meretz Party, knew his fiery party leader, Shulamit Aloni, very well. Aloni, with her trademark mop of unmanageable curly hair, was a teacher who became education minister in Yitzhak Rabin’s 1992 government. Cohen says of Aloni: “She may not have been a revolutionary in her daily life, but she brought about a great revolution in Israeli society. Before her, Israeli was a collectivist society. Everything was for the general benefit and the fatherland – in the name of the working class on the left and in the name of the people on the right, sacrificing the individual for the general good. She revolutionised civil rights and women. That was not popular; it was even repugnant.”
Photo © Ayalon Maggi
Although Aloni clashed many times with the strictly Orthodox, her serious learning won her many fans. “When Shulamit Aloni rose to speak, all the religious and Charedi Knesset members would quickly leave their meals in the cafeteria. When they weren’t shouting at her, they sat there open-mouthed. She would quote the Bible from memory. They were entranced at what she was saying. She was a student of sages, who outdid her teachers.”
announced they were bringing singer Shuli Natan, who sang the song, back to the stage. I remember hearing the audience roar. After hearing the song for the first time, the entire audience sang it like a prayer. “On that very night, Egypt moved its army in the Sinai up to the Negev border, and began its preparations, and Jerusalem of Gold was the song of all the soldiers, called to military service before the Six-Day War, which broke out three weeks later.” Kor says Shemer was Israel’s poet of light and her songs resonate with every citizen.
MIRI REGEV ON GOLDA MEIR It is tempting to imagine what Golda Meir, Israel’s first and only woman prime minister, would have made of her youthful counterpart, Miri Regev, the minister of sport and culture. On paper, the two women would seem to have little in common – Meir, a raspy-voiced sole woman in the early Labour governments, and Regev, a hardliner in the Likud Party. But Regev, perhaps surprisingly, is full of admiration for Meir. “She always fascinated me – a woman, in the 50s to the 70s, rising to become prime minister at a time when the image of the handsome curly-haired Palmach soldier was the symbol of Israeli macho, and when the important jobs went to decorated senior army officers.” She has sympathy for Meir, forced to resign as prime minister in the wake of the disastrous 1973 Yom Kippur War. “As a lone woman at the top of male-dominated leadership, she never got ahead because of her femininity, which may even have been a handicap. They labelled her a tough, even insensitive woman, and called her a failure because of the war.” Controversially, Regev thinks Ukraine-born Meir, who lived in the US with her family before making aliyah, would be in a different party today. “She would not have joined a party that advocates another Arab country in the heart of the land of Israel and proposes irresponsible policies. Golda fought persistently and fearlessly for Israel’s security interests.”
YOAZ HENDEL ON BENJAMIN NETANYAHU The prime minister’s former director of communications, Yoaz Hendel, is in no doubt as to his former boss’s legacy, calling him “the most experienced leader in the political arena – not only in Israel, but in the entire Western world”. Hendel says Netanyahu “has talents almost never seen in other people – the ability to listen and concentrate, to learn and understand, to analyse the strategic aspects of complicated issues fairly quickly and anticipate several moves
Photo © Fritz Cohen
ahead, and to rapidly deduce constraints and dangers. You usually find this in people with a great deal of experience, but Netanyahu had it from the beginning”. Hendel says: “His economic planning is successful, and while the widening social gaps are a problem, Israel’s prosperity is unmistakable. His diplomatic approach of digging in and warning the world about what is happening is finally leading to intervention by players who once thought of as uninvolved. Politically, he has the abilities to do whatever he wants. “His abilities as a leader and his charisma are almost unique in Israel, even compared to BenGurion. No other politician in a democracy, as opposed to a dictatorship, has had such a fan club. He was freely chosen by the people”.
Photo © Haim Zach
AVSHALOM KOR ON NAOMI SHEMER Avshalom Kor is an expert on language and the roots of modern Hebrew, and lauds Naomi Shemer, Israel’s first lady of song. Kor was just 17 when he heard Shemer’s iconic Jerusalem of Gold, for the first time during a song festival on the radio, just after Independence Day in 1967. “At the end, moderator Yitzhak Shimoni
Photo © Herman Chanania
YIFAT SELA ON ALICE MILLER Yifat Sela is chief executive of Aluma, which prepares religious women for military service. She is, perhaps, an unlikely choice to highlight Alice Miller’s unique contribution to Israeli society, but gives Miller credit for overturning decades of prejudice in the IDF against women. Miller took the IDF to the High Court in 1994 because she wanted to do an IDF pilot’s course. It was greeted with derision in Israel – then President Ezer Weizman famously said she would be better off at home, darning socks. But Miller’s action, says Sela, although not successful at the time, paved the way for a revolution in the military. “Today, over 800 roles are open to women in the IDF. This makes it possible to choose, and since the global situation has changed, with intelligence and technology becoming an important aspect of the battlefield, women can now play a significant role at the forefront of the IDF’s achievement and influence.” Photo ©Alice Miller
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d g .
Pride without
PREJUDICE
In two weeks’ time, around 200,000 people of every gender, religion and colour will arrive in Tel Aviv for the party of their lives. Brigit Grant met some of the regulars JN ISRAEL 70 | 13
F
rom the Hilton Beach to The Breakfast Club Bar (Rothschild 6) and up to the Tel Aviv Convention Centre, the agenda is the same: to party all day and then party some more at the final parade on 8 June. What has grown out of a small gay protest in Rabin Square in 1979 is remarkable, and not just because of the vast number of attendees due this year, or that Israel’s Pride celebration is considered the best in the world. It is remarkable because it is a showcase for the
country’s tolerance in a region where being gay is a crime punishable by prison or death. In the Middle East, Israel, a state defined by religion, is an oasis of acceptance, with Tel Aviv as the welcome desk. In Israel, an Arab and a yeshiva student can be drag queens without fear of repercussion, gay men can be parents and LGBTQ people can serve openly in the military. Of course, there is still contradiction and conflict with same-sex marriage not yet (or possibly ever) permitted by the government and protests including
Roy Youldous Rosenzweig lives in Kiryat Ono with his partner Or and twin four-year-old girls Elya and Liri. He is marketing and development manager at Tammuz Family, a surrogacy and fertility company he joined following his own surrogacy journey “You have to separate the legal situation in Israel from everyday life for the LGBT community, particularly in Tel Aviv. Legally, things have not progressed much in the past 20 years, with some even saying it has gone backwards with homophobic remarks from rabbis and certain members of parliament. But daily life is wonderful and, as a gay father of twin girls, I’ve never come across any negative responses. Family, friends, neighbours and kindergarten have all been welcoming and supportive. There is more acceptance of the growing number of gay families and my job now is helping more of them to fulfil their dream of having a baby. Tammuz Family has had its 10th anniversary and more than 720 babies have been born via surrogacy over the past decade, many of them from the LGBT community. Seeing this change in recent years is amazing.”
Tamba Giat grows dates in Eilat, where she lives with her partner Dikla, a dance teacher. They will be together at Tel Aviv Pride in June “Tel Aviv is very liberal, but when it comes to hosting gay pride in Jerusalem – that’s a totally different story. Generally speaking, I don’t come across homophobia very often, but getting married and having children is still 14 | JN ISRAEL 70
difficult. I believe (and hope) this will change in the near future. But Pride is great, and I have a vivid memory of Dikla and me standing on a high wall watching 200,000 colourful people dancing like crazy and feeling free and alive.”
those by a lone perpetrator from the strictly-Orthodox community who murdered 16-year-old Shira Banki at Jerusalem’s Gay Pride Parade in 2015. But violence towards LGBTQ citizens is always criticised by the government and, in 2014, a monument to the gay victims of the Holocaust was erected in Tel Aviv. Because of this and Tel Aviv’s talent for throwing the best non-stop party of the year, Out magazine named the city “the gay capital of the Middle East”. Granted it has no competition, but it says something about Israel.
A year after their daughter, Shira, was murdered at Jerusalem Gay Pride by a strictly-Orthodox extremist, Uri and Mika launched Derech Shira Banki (Shira Banki’s Way), an organisation that would educate and promote positive values and tolerance The Shira Banki Clinic for the Struggle Against Hatred in the Public Sphere runs an academic course that examines the legal, psychological, cultural, and social aspects of social exclusion and delegitimisation of groups in society. The clinic also provides pro bono legal aid for victims of incitement and racism, and publishes proposals for legislation to advance tolerance and turn the struggle against racism into a broader public agenda. Uri and Mika Banki now join the Jerusalem Pride March each year and stop with hundreds of other at the place Shira was murdered, in 2015, to lay a flower in her memory. That year, Uri said: “We hope the sane silent majority,
which sounded its voice following the murder of our daughter, Shira, will find the strength and build a healthier, more moderate society in which the loud, radical minorities are pushed to the margins.” With an audience that includes high school students at-risk girls and teachers, the organisation’s public forums draw a large audience; one takes place every Thursday evening in downtown Jerusalem. An event in memory of Shira will be held on Tisha B’Av (21 July), but it is Uri and Mika, nominees at Jewish News’ Night of Heroes in February, who keep Shira’s memory alive every day. www.sbw.org.il/en/shira-bankis-way
NADAV PERETZ WAS BORN IN TIBERIAS, WHERE HIS FATHER WAS THE MAYOR. NOW HE RUNS HIS OWN GAY TRAVEL COMPANY, OUTSTANDING TRAVEL
Nona Chalant, aka Ronny, was born in Migdal HaEmek and is now a visual artist and drag queen in Tel Aviv “In the Israeli army, I had a crush on a guy and thought ‘Okay, maybe there is something to check here.’ So I told my parents, who were very open and receptive to it,” says Nona Chalant, who has more than 6,000 followers on Instagram. As a photographer and graphic designer in the army, he emerged with skills that enabled him to work in TV news doing graphics – “But although I enjoyed it, I thought life is too short and I should do what I want to do”. That is when he began to research the culture of drag, which has a significant presence in progressive Tel Aviv. Even Jerusalem now has a gay bar, The Video, which is popular with Israelis, Palestinians and drag queens. Chalant now has an own-brand, House of Nona, and was the first Israeli queen to be featured in Italian Vogue, but is also known for photographing Israeli night life and producing fashion shoots. And as an ambassador for Tel Aviv, Pride Week will be a visible presence inside the first vegan truck on the parade route, and Chalant will later be singing a new single, Drag Will Save the World, on the main stage, keeping the party going.
“When work relocated my family to New York, I was at an age when I was sexually confused and sought help from JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing), a controversial gay-conversion therapy programme that has since closed. Coming out to my parents was tough and I returned to Israel, joined the army and found acceptance. I opened my company four years ago, but have always been involved in connecting Jews to Israel. When I visited London five years ago, I realised there was a need for a special gay travel company to take care of the many gay tourists who visit Israel. Tel Aviv Pride is one of our busiest times of year, with thousands coming from all around the world. I love the parade, which begins at Gan Meir Park, and concludes at Gordon Beach with live music and a party that goes on all night. Pride has helped OUTstanding to grow, and this year we will have around 2,000 clients, from North America, Australia and Brazil.”
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The Real Housewives of
OTTOLENGHI Louisa Walters, founder of The Restaurant Club, reveals the devotees and protégés of Israel’s superstar chef IF YOU’RE A FOODIE, you will know Yotam Ottolenghi is not only influential but inspirational. He has influenced a nation of Brits to delve into the wonders of Middle Eastern food and inspired a battery of both professional and amateur cooks to try their hands at cooking Israeli dishes. What you possibly don’t know is that there is a Facebook group dedicated to the man, his restaurants and his recipes. The Yotam Ottolenghi-Inspired Cooking Housewives group was started by a group of Dutch women in 2015 and has grown to more than 7,000 members. Cooks from all over the world (mostly, but not exclusively, women) post photos of
their Ottolenghi (and sometimes ‘Nottolenghi’) dishes, report on visits to the restaurants and share recipes. Ottolenghi’s business partner Sami Tamimi has posted on the group a couple of times, most recently asking members to share photos of their kitchens. “The respect we see among this group is hardly ever broken and although politics, taste or religion may divide us, we all love to cook, eat and share our experiences,” says the group’s founder, Ella de Stigter. “I was touched by the story of Sami and Yotam – they too found each other in food and I think one of the things that makes them so successful is their different backgrounds – one Israeli, the other Palestinian – combined in one very beautiful new taste.”
WITH OTTOLENGHI as the culinary satnav, the restaurant scene in Israel has exploded over the past five years. “Modern Israeli cuisine is interesting and exciting and it’s happening mainly in Tel Aviv” says Ottolenghi. It’s happening in London too, largely thanks to the huge number of Ottolenghi protégés venturing out on their own. Several Israeliowned restaurants, including Ottolenghi, Nopi, Honey & Co, The Barbary and Berber & Q were named in Time Out’s list of 100 best dishes in London last December. The melting pot of flavours we are privy to here is phenomenal, and some of the dishes have become legends in their own right.” 18 | JN ISRAEL 70
HONEY & CO
The best-known of dishes here is the Honey & Co cheesecake. It’s the best dessert anywhere, ever. Creamy whipped feta sits atop crisp kadaif pastry, topped with nuts, blueberries and a drizzle of honey. Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich famously trained under Ottolenghi and opened their much-loved restaurant on Warren Street in 2012. They have now expanded to a shop, Honey & Spice, and a second restaurant, Honey & Smoke. www.honeyandco.co.uk
HOT FOODIE SPOTS IN TEL AVIV
BERBER & Q
The cauliflower shwarma at Berber & Q, the Hackney-based restaurant from Zest@ JW3 founder Josh Katz, is my favourite dish – and number five on Time Out’s list. And it was even better at Berber & Q’s new permanent street-food stand at Spitalfields market! A parboiled whole cauliflower is flame-grilled with a 20-ingredient Levantine butter, sprinkled with rose petals and covered with tahini – the smokiness raises the humble cauliflower to a level far beyond its beginnings. www.berberandq.com
Taizu
Taizu is an interpretation of street foods from five countries in South East Asia: India, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. The result is pan-Asian food with Mediterranean touches and a riot of spices, colours and flavours. Great desserts, too, using a combination of savoury and sweet spices, such as curry and saffron.
Berber & Q
BALA BAYA
Ottolenghi protégé Eran Tibi brought Tel Aviv to Southwark, opening Bala Baya restaurant and bakery in 2017. Tibi’s vibrant cuisine is rooted in his mother’s Middle Eastern cooking and generations of baking expertise. Bala Baya is home to fluffy stuffed pittas at lunch (made in the pitta oven designed by his father and transported from Tel Aviv), sharing dinner plates and an Israeli-style weekend brunch. The standout offering is babka with a twist. Jostling for space with the chocolate and hazelnut spread are stewed plums and whisked crème anglaise. www.balabaya.co.uk
Abraxas North
Bala Baya
DELICATESSEN
London’s most exciting and inventive kosher food can be found at Delicatessen in Hampstead. Israeli chef Or Golan wanted to provide food he loves to eat on Shabbat. He also owns a unit on Fairfax Road, which opens every Friday as a deli selling magnificent ready-to-eat food. You must try the sublime seared duck breast with celeriac purée and heritage carrots or Old Jaffa lamb kebabs with tahini, sehug, chermoula and baby vegetables. Golan has taken inspiration from mentor Ottolenghi’s style in his Head Room café in Golders Green, with a counter groaning with colourful salads and mouth-watering pastries. www.delicatessen.company
Mashya
Hotel restaurants have taken a huge leap away from the stuffy places they once were. This restaurant (by the same chef as the well-known Kitchen Market) in the Mendeli Street Hotel is modern right through to the cooking and the North African-inspired dishes are interesting, with wonderful spices and beautiful presentation.
Shila Delicatessen
Equally busy day and night, this Greek taverna near the Levinsky market churns out innovative dishes, and it’s great fun to sit up at the bar with ouzo shots. Known as a modern ‘hamara’ – a meeting place to drink, play and discuss life – Ouzeria is a great spot to enjoy Mediterranean-style cuisine.
AND if you’re heading to Jerusalem… you simply have to go to Machneyuda. This is where The Palomar The Good Egg
DELAMINA
Limor and Amir Chen, the husband-and-wife team behind Delamina on Marylebone Lane and Strut & Cluck on Commercial Street, are not ex-Ottolenghi, but Limor is from Tel Aviv. The focus is on grilling and roasting with Middle Eastern spices; head to Delamina for koftas with grilled onions on hummus and tahini, ras-elhanout poussin with sweet potatoes and amazing desserts, such as parfait of halva and roasted almonds with date syrup and raw tahini drizzle. www.delaminamarylebone.co.uk
Casual, lively, fun and amazing fish with great meat and salads too. Well known for dishes such as fish tartare wrapped in avocado, this is a long-established place to which people keep returning, despite all the new openings.
Ouzeria
THE GOOD EGG
Ottolenghi’s former pastry chef Oded Mizrachi is one of the team behind The Good Egg, the Stoke Newington-based Tel Aviv-style cafe that recently opened a second unit in Kingly Court, Soho. Born on a food truck, The Good Egg has gained a huge following and queues stretch out the door for the Sunday brunch. The Za’atar fried chicken is a winner here. www.thegoodegg.co
Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave, you will have heard about the famous restaurant in Tel Aviv where you eat straight off the table. This is it – and Yotam Ottolenghi says it’s the best restaurant in town. The menu changes twice a day and the dishes are colourful and full of flavour. Sugarcoated bananas wrapped in dulce de leche? Yes please!
and The Barbary hail from but, incredible as they are, nothing compares to this. It’s unique. its loud, its bold, it’s full-on and full of spirit and soul. The chefs high five and dance, and the whole place becomes a party. The food? That’s amazing too (the Palomar’s famous truffled mushroom polenta dish was born here).
Delamina JN ISRAEL 70 | 19
Letizia Events is Israel’s premier boutique event planning and design production firm. With a full range of services that includes event concept and design, budgeting, venue selection, staging and guest management, Letizia creates customized weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, birthday parties and corporate galas that make each client’s unique vision a reality. Catering to an international clientele, Letizia is available to plan and impeccably execute destination events in Israel and Italy.
www.letizia-events.com
Kosher Packag from £9 es 9pp* *Price in c ludes k os catering & venue her hire & is ex VA T, T&C’s apply
20 | JN ISRAEL 70
Eating your way across
ISRAEL
Long before Israel was put on the foodie map, one man travelled the country to sample and learn about the cuisine of all the Holy Land’s inhabitants (that’s Jews, Arabs and Bedouins) STEVEN ROTHFELD ANNOUNCES his mission at the start of his book, Israel Eats: “My quest as a photographer and traveller has been to find good food, interesting people, and alluring places... This is not an orthodox cookbook. I did not begin with a list of what I expected to find. I let it find me.” On Israel’s food scene, he tells me: “It is one of the most exciting cuisines because of the high quality local products created by serious farmers, cheesemakers, and vintners, and the fusion of Palestinian, Eastern European, North African, Middle Eastern, and Asian influences.” Among Rothfeld’s favourite restaurants are: ZAKAIM (Tel Aviv) for its aubergine, fries
Fresh Fig, Rocket, and Cheese Salad with Honey Lemon Dressing Serves 4
T
Photographs and text from Israel Eats by StevenRothfeld, reprinted by permission of Gibbs Smith
he visual beauty of this salad, which is equal to its marvellous flavour, lies in the contrast between the hand-torn and sliced pieces of fig. Majda’s chef Jalil Jalil uses only the freshest, most pungent wild rocket to compete with the sweet figs and honey lemon dressing. Ingredients ½ cup (120ml) honey ½ cup (120ml) fresh lemon juice 8 fresh figs, sliced 8 fresh figs, hand-torn into four pieces 6 ounces (170g) rocket ½ pound (230g) feta cheese, crumbled 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil Sea salt
with avocado aioli, and grilled mushrooms GOATS WITH THE WIND (Goat farm in Yodfat) for its cheeses and hearty lunches URI BURI (Akko) serves inventive seafood SAVIDA IN AKKO for its fresh seafood and unique selection of salads MAGDALENA (Migdal) serves great kubbeh, fried cauliflower, and desserts MAJDA (in Arab village of Ein Rafa) serves fresh and flavoursome food MACHNEYUDA (Jerusalem) for its food that pays homage to local traditions NORTH ABRAXIS for its roasted cauliflower, beet carpaccio, fish and salads ABU HASAN (Jaffa) for its hummus
Claro’s Sour Cream Ice Cream Serves 8
I
n a dairy shop in the Carmel Market, I counted over 15 metal containers of different varieties of soft white cheese. It appeared as if they were selling clouds. This ice cream from Claro restaurant uses billowy sour cream and does not require any cooking. Chef Ran Shmueli serves his oval nimbus with a fresh cherry crumble. Ingredients - Ice cream 2 cups (475ml) half and half (blend of whole milk and light cream) 1¾ cups (450g) sour cream 1½ cups (300g) sugar 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream, chilled 1 tablespoon fresh lemon or lime juice 1 tablespoon vanilla extract Pinch of salt Cherry crumble 2 pounds (900g) cherries, pitted 1 cup (100g) sugar, divided 1 cup (60g) all-purpose flour 1 cup (100g) almond flour ½ cup (115g) butter ICE CREAM: Place all ingredients in a large metal bowl with an airtight lid and whisk until smooth and well combined. Cover and place in the freezer for one hour. Transfer to an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to another airtight container and freeze for at least two hours before serving. CHERRY CRUMBLE: Combine cherries and ½ cup of sugar in a large bowl. Let stand at least one hour. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Combine the remaining sugar, both flours, and butter in a food processor and pulse until mixture comes together. Crumble it onto the baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. To serve: Spoon cherries and liquid into shallow bowls. Top with ice cream and sprinkle with crumble.
Place the honey and lemon juice in a small heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and let the dressing cool to room temperature. Arrange two sliced figs and two quartered figs on each of four salad plates. Divide rocket among the plates and scatter over figs. Divide cheese among plates. Spoon dressing over salad to taste; you may have some left over. Drizzle 1 tablespoon oil over each plate. Season with sea salt and serve. JN ISRAEL 70 | 21
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Change a life
Save a child
Migdhal Ohr continues it’s unrelenting work to improve the lives of children at risk in Israel.
Help us help them and become a partner. Lets build their future together. For information on our work and how you can help visit our website at www.migdhal-Ohr.org Charity Registration No. 290371
CELEBRATING THE 70th BIRTHDAY OF OUR FOUNDER
RABBI YITZCHAK DOVID GROSSMAN
Come and experience the magic
The Bible Path
Children's Discovery Trail
African Savannah Maze
Topical Conservatory
Herb Garden
and more
www.botanic.co.il | +972-52-7593366 | sales@botanic.co.il JN ISRAEL 70 | 23
ONCE UPON A TIME,
bridal wear shopping was confined to the ateliers of the West End or bijou shops in the suburbs. Now it’s all about Israel. The Holy Land has become the holy grail for brides who want to silence the congregation wearing something spectacular on their big day. Leaving London, Paris and Milan in their satin-lined wake, Israeli designers have been putting the magic into marriage for some time by mastering illusion details, sculptured necklines, bare backs and shaped rears in gorgeous fabrics. With the option of being fitted for a gown in Tel Aviv or at stockists around the globe, the dress is handmade in Israel then shipped. From the many talented couturiers to choose from, we have selected three to get you started...
The ‘I Do’
DESIGNERS JN ISRAEL 70 | 25
GALIA LAHAV BORN IN RUSSIA into a family of seamstresses, Galia Lahav has been sending beautifully-dressed brides down the aisle for more than 30 years. As a little girl with a passion for sewing, she went on to teach art and then moved into fashion, launching her business of making custom-made ivory lace appliqués in Ashdod in 1985. Now famed for her haute couture gowns, Lahav is on J Lo’s speed dial and dressed actress Michelle Keegan when she wed Mark Wright – but she makes captivating gowns for all her clients.
INBAL DROR
A GRADUATE of the prestigious Shenkar Fashion Art Academy who then studied design in Milan, Inbal Dror has emerged as a leader in the super-competitive wedding dress industry. More importantly the designer, who dressed Beyoncé for the Grammys in 2016, was in the running for the royal wedding dress when a request by Meghan Markle came via Buckingham Palace. Clearly Harry’s fiancée knows an exquisite masterpiece when she sees one. 26 | JN ISRAEL 70
ALON LIVNÉ HAVING TRAINED at Alexander McQueen in London and Roberto Cavalli in Florence, Alon Livné was set to shine. He took first place on the Israeli version of Project Runway and his career skyrocketed. His New York Fashion Week debut was hailed by critics, and now his bridal line, Alon Livné White, is recognised globally for its luxurious, innovative and outstanding designs. Brides seeking a scene-stealing swathe of white perfection should look no further.
JN ISRAEL 70 | 27
Visiting Israel this Summer? Looking for a Unique, Meaningful & Fun Volunteer Activity Suitable for All Ages?
TOM
As a leader in food rescue, Leket Israel collects and distributes over 2 million hot meals and 14,000 tons of fruits and vegetables annually for Israel’s needy
To learn more, please contact: zara@leket.org • +972-54-7977008 www.leket.org
“If you WILL it, it is no dream - and if you do not will it, a dream it is and a dream it will stay” Theodor Herzl, Zionist, visionary and spiritual founder of the Jewish state. For 70 years gifts left in WILLS have enabled JNF UK to turn dreams into reality. Since 1948 when JNF UK’s legacy department (KKL) was founded, over £200 million in legacy donations have helped build and develop our amazing Jewish homeland. As well as planting millions of trees, we are proud to have built reservoirs, parks, youth centres and schools across the country since the establishment of the State of Israel. Today the main focus of our work is in the Negev, enhancing the quality of life of tens of thousands of residents with our vision to turn the vast barren desert into a region thriving with opportunity.
We have achieved so much but there is still a long way to go. Call us on 020 8732 6101 to find out how you can become a part of our vision for Israel’s future. 28 | JN ISRAEL 70
PARTY PROMISE
LETIZIA EVENTS • LETIZIA EVENTS • LETIZIA EVENTS • LETIZIA EVENTS
THE WEDDING DRESSES are enough to convince even the most committed homebody that Israel is the only place to say ‘I do’. You can rely on the weather, the serving staff are great looking and there is something special about getting hitched in the land of your forefathers. But you’ll need someone to organise it. TOMER MASRI • TOMER MASRI • TOMER MASRI • TOMER MASRI• TOMER MASRI
S
omeone like TOMER MASRI, who was previously a professional musician at simchas and grew to understand what makes a party swing. With this knowledge, he set up his own event management company and, with his impressive contacts book, can help clients to navigate the nuptial landscape. “Reliability, sharing and transparency, along with providing service and personal attention is what I do,” Masri says. “I plan and personally accompany the hosts through every event,
from the first meeting stage to building a concept, choosing the right location and managing the suppliers and the various service providers.” Masri’s top priority is to keep to the budget – “but still reflect the taste and character of the customer and his guests”, he adds. “My job is to listen, respond, plan and create an unforgettable experience.” For Tomer Masri tomer79@ymail.com Phone: +972 (0) 52-3335878 www.tmevents.co.il
LETIZIA EVENTS • LETIZIA EVENTS • LETIZIA EVENTS • LETIZIA EVENTS
I
f you are looking for someone who has European sensibilities to plan your Israeli wedding and create an occasion friends will talk about for years, Letizia Piatelli is the woman for the job. Italian and from Milan, Piatelli is a planner without compare who blends style with unique imagination. The themes for her simchas are cinematic and, for the past 20 years, her company, LETIZIA EVENTS, has arranged everything from intimate celebrations for 60 guests to spectacular weddings for 800. “All our clients bring up new ideas or inspirations from their own countries,” Piatelli says.“We are able to produce very high-level events, from creating a venue in the middle of the desert, to planning a wedding in Caesarea or Masada. “But it’s not just about the main event; I want to bring an extra
dimension to the experience so, if I have a barmitzvah, I will arrange for the guests to meet Israeli soldiers to help them to understand Israeli and Jewish values. On one occasion, I arranged an event at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and made sure guests could do tours related to their heritage. It’s not just about making a party, but about bringing meaning to the celebrations.” Piatelli, who can also plan events in Italy, is very hands-on with her clients. “Once we start working together, they can call me, consult with me and get very involved in the planning. Usually, if it’s a wedding, I have two families I have to deal with, sometimes with very different mentalities and dynamics, so in a way I can be like a psychologist as well as a planner! But I love it.” For Letizia Piatelli letizia-events.com JN ISRAEL 70 | 29
www.prima-hotels-israel.com
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Create memories of a unique vacation Enjoy the distinctive hospitality, design, atmosphere, flavors and style of each of our hotels across Israel.
Reservations: 972-3-9411219 Prima Hotels Israel Ltd. 75 Allenby St. Tel Aviv. Israel
For all your party planning needs in Israel. Corporate events, a stylish wedding, a magical bar mitzvah or special celebrations Contact Tomer Matzri to help you create an unforgettable event
Call: 020 7101 3878 or 00 972 523335878
www.tmevents.co.il
30 | JN ISRAEL 70
Holy
FASHION Israelis have achieved superstar status on the world fashion stage. Feted for their talent and worn by the truly famous, these are the stylish designers ‘made in Israel’ who have done the country proud
Alber Elbaz
Alber Elbaz is a fashion legend who has dressed the biggest names in Hollywood. Born in Morocco, he arrived in Israel aged 10, lived in Holon and later served in the IDF. After the army he studied fashion at Shenkar School of Design and then moved to New York, where he went from working for a small dressmaker’s shop to working for Geoffrey Beene, Guy Laroche, Yves Saint Laurent’s Rive Gauche and then turned the ailing couture house, Lanvin, into a sought after luxury brand until his departure in 2015. He received the French Legion of Honour. Elie Tahari is the Israeli-Iranian fashion designer worn by another bunch of famous folk who adore his tailored suits and evening dresses. In 2013, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg arranged “Elie Tahari Day” in honour of his 40 years in the fashion industry. However, Tahari says: “My head is in New York but my heart is in Israel.”
he opened his atelier and showroom in the Garment District and was inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America four years later. Known for his expert draping and defined construction, Azrouël designs are sold internationally online at yigal-azrouel.com and at his Madison Avenue flagship boutique in NYC.
NEW DESIGNER TALENT Aviva Zilberman has her own high-end ready-to-wear line and elegant day wear but with a realistic sense of proportion for real women. Comme il faut is that rare thing – a fashion house with a women’s only spa, and chef ’s restaurant. Located at the Beit Banamal (Home in the Harbor) complex at Tel Aviv port, founders Sybil Goldfiner and Carole Godin have created a women’s venue that offers culture and clothing with a mission to advance women in Israeli society.
Nili Lotan, the founder of the Nili Lotan Design Studio, was born in Israel and then moved to New York to work for Ralph Lauren and Nautica, before opening her own business. Her collections are regularly featured in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and her biggest fans are Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Gwyneth Paltrow. Yigal Azrouël was born and raised in Israel and debuted his ready-to-wear collection in New York in 1998, receiving instant acclaim, both commercially and critically. In 2000,
Yigal Azrouël
Aviva Zilberman
Nili Lotan
Elie Tahari JN ISRAEL 70 | 31
Michal Rovner Michal has had more than 60 solo exhibitions
ART
The
ofthe
MATTER
The Bezalel Academy is setting the cultural tone in Israel and across the world
Ron Arad Ron is the man behind Tel Aviv’s tallest skyscraper
F
rom a perfume bottle for Kenzo to the UK Holocaust Memorial that will eventually stand in Victoria Tower Gardens, Ron Arad never fails to make a big architectural impression. The tallest skyscraper in Israel now under construction in Tel Aviv is his work and the first dedicated design museum in Holon is also his. Such talent and success is always inspiring to those who wish to follow the same path and in order to emulate it they start by checking out the CV. In the case of Ron Arad, it says: “Born in Tel Aviv 1951; Attended the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem”. Bezalel is the equivalent of St Martins and The Slade, Israel’s oldest institution of higher education and the birthplace of its art culture. With programmes ranging across the disciplines, Bezalel’s graduates influence the world through their designs, utilising the top skills instilled within them in their time at the historic art academy in Jerusalem. Bezalel boasts more than 2,000 students studying toward eight Bachelors and five Masters degrees in such fields as fine arts, architecture, industrial design, jewellery and fashion design, photograph 32 | JN ISRAEL 70
film and animation, urban design history and theory of the arts. Along with Arad, the school has also educated Sigalit Landau, the sculptor, video and installation artist renowned for her ‘Dead Sea’ project, and Michal Rovner, who uses video as well as cinema and photography and has had over 60 solo exhibitions including a midcareer retrospective at Tate Modern, The Whitney in New York, the Jeu de Paume and the Louvre in Paris. Another of Bezalel’s celebrated students is the photographer Adi Nes, whose images in the style of Renaissance paintings reflect living in a country in conflict. What every student gains at the academy is an understanding of diversity and freedom of expression. The No Artist Left Behind programme strives to make it possible for every talented student to attend the academy, regardless of their financial situation. Taking students from all socio-economic backgrounds and walks of life is what gives Bezalel its unique character and helps maintain its place at the forefront of Israeli art. A scholarship is of course a life-changing gift for close to 30 percent of the 2,200-strong student body who are eligible for financial aid. Bezalel also offers foreign students opportunities with a celebrated international exchange programme and the Art
Sigalit Landau
Sigalit is known for her ‘Dead Sea’ project
Jerusalem Study Abroad Programme and with the building of a new campus in the heart of Jerusalem there will be more applicants as Bezalel acts as a national and international centre for art, design and architecture. The development has been hailed as the most important project currently undertaken by the city. As with all colleges, the highlight of every year is the end of year graduate show. Bezalel’s will open on 19 July and close on 3 August with all 400 graduating students displaying their climactic final projects. Each year, more than 25,000 visitors from Israel and overseas come to see the innovative exhibition, all hoping to spot the next Arad, Landau, Rovner or Nes before the rest. Adi Nes
Adi’s Renaissance style art as shown in his IDF Last Supper
WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A SCIENTIST, AN ARTIST, A CHEF, THE LIGHT OF MY MOTHER’S EYE
NORWOOD BELIEVES THAT WITH THE RIGHT HELP, EVERYONE HAS A CONTRIBUTION TO MAKE IN THE WORLD. Norwood is the largest Jewish Charity in the UK supporting vulnerable children and their families, children with special educational needs and people with learning disabilities and autism. By providing high-quality care, we transform the lives of children and their families, and vulnerable adults, by giving them the tools they need to shine. It costs £34 million a year for Norwood to provide its services in the community which mean every year we must raise £12 million from donations from people like you. We also rely on people who support us by volunteering their time; in our high street shops, in our kid clubs or as a befriender. However you contribute, it means everyone in our community can look forward to a brighter future. To volunteer please call us on 020 8809 8809, to donate go to norwood.org.uk/donate or to sign up for one of our charity challenges go to norwood.org.uk/challenges.
Patron Her Majesty The Queen • Registered Charity No. 1059050
Enosh - Israel's leading non profit mental health organization Supportive Housing
Social, leisure and recreation
Supportive employment & professional training
Early prevention services for youth
Family counseling Centers
Advocacy & Policy
for more information and donations - www.enosh.org.il JN ISRAEL 70 | 33
This is
OUR ISRAEL
1. Once, not so long ago, it was a given that Jews in the Diaspora would meet their responsibility to stand side-by-side with Israel.
2. Now this is not the case.The landscape has changed beyond recognition.For some, threats like BDS and anti-Semitic anti-Zionism have created an environment which leaves them feeling intimidated or uncomfortable.
4. UJIA’s support for Union of Jewish Students allows Jewish students across 60 Jewish societies to have the right tools to tackle difficult conversations on campus and defend themselves in the face of the new wave of anti-Semitism.
They have branched out into helping groups not traditionally reached by a mainstream Israel charity, including Arab women and Charedim. This is to promote a shared society where everyone has skills and training to enter the workplace.
5. The charity has also developed new initiatives like Fast Track, a programme for sixth formers hand-picked to be trained as the future community leaders. Participation doubled in the second year.
7.
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UJIA’s work in Israel and the UK reaches 25,000 people every year and helps to strengthen Jewish identity by building an unbreakable bond with the people of Israel. 9.
In recent years, UJIA has succeeded in leveraging donations with the Israeli government, and Israeli and international philanthropists, to increase the impact of money invested, and help more people. 8.
L
For nearly 100 years, UJIA has been committed to helping Israel. This is their story...
UJIA CEO Michael Wegier answers the important questions…
The UJIA is almost 100 years old – how does it stay relevant in 2018? UJIA has always evolved to meet the changing needs of our UK community and communities in Israel. For example, we have introduced new programmes, like Fast Track, to give Sixth Formers a deeper understanding of Israel so they feel more comfortable discussing it. And we continually develop activities for the youth movements we fund so they stay relevant to the audience. Connecting our community with our homeland continues to be the goal.
3. In the face of this generational shift, UJIA is funding 13 youth movements, activities in 34 schools and Israel experiences for Jewish young people, so they can develop their Jewish identity and form a strong bond with Israel.
During times of trouble, the UK community rallies, but should the Diaspora still be funding social and educational projects in Israel? Our community is incredibly passionate and committed when it comes to Israel – we were able to raise £232,000 in a matter of weeks during the 2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict for our Children of The South Campaign, helping hundreds of affected children. We should absolutely be continuing to support communities outside periods of crisis as well, because Israel is the greatest collective project of the Jewish people in modern times – yes, we should be hugely proud of Israel’s achievements, but all countries have communities who need more support, and that is where we have a role to play. Are there too many Jewish charities in the UK? The answer is yes, there are too many and the structure is hard to sustain. But it is also very hard for people who care deeply about a cause to see their charity close. Both mergers and shared back offices make a lot of sense and UJIA has gone in that direction and is committed to doing more. What makes you most proud of Israel at 70? Israel is now the biggest Jewish community in the world with a dynamic, innovative and creative culture, a flourishing economy, a robust democratic system and a highly active civil society. None of these things can be taken for granted and our job is to support and sustain Israel to help it fulfil the standards it set for itself in the Declaration of Independence.
6. In Israel UJIA continues to support disadvantaged communities, with an emphasis on education, employability and real sustainable change.
In 2020 UJIA turns 100 and hopes to find new ways to engage our community with our homeland and further increase their impact on the UK community and Israel. 10.
What is the biggest threat to the UK Jewish community? I think we can all agree that recent rows over antisemitism have given our community big cause for concern, but I think that we also need to focus on our need to inspire Jewish people in the UK – especially young people – to stay involved. That’s why we need to keep offering activities in schools for Jewish pupils, and youth movements and the opportunities to engage with Israel. We must give young people both a reason to live a deeply Jewish life, the roots to strengthen educational foundation and the creative power to craft their own Jewish future. Michael Wegier is chief executive of UJIA. Michael originally made aliyah in 1990 after studying at UCL and serving as national chairman of FZY and youth worker for the Jewish Agency in the UK. He has spent most of the last 24 years living in Israel with two periods abroad in the US and UK, working in Jewish education and policy planning. His previous role was executive director of the Melitz Educational Centre in Jerusalem. Michael is a graduate of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows Programme, where his research focused on public policy. He holds a Masters degree in Contemporary Jewry from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is married to Daniela, originally from Chile, and they have three children. JN ISRAEL 70 | 35
2014
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back participants in times of crisis, helping them to get back on their feet and reintegrate in the free market.
Bonnie: A success story
Enosh, the Israeli Mental Health Association, is marking 40 years of providing those in need with a meaningful future
E
nosh means humanity in Hebrew and the charity lives up to its name. Established in 1978 to promote the welfare and rights of people dealing with psychiatric disabilities, Enosh remains the only mental health nonprofit organisation in Israel that provides full and comprehensive solutions for rehabilitation within the community. Enosh has more than 60 centres spread nationwide from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat, providing services in a variety of programmes including supportive housing, vocational rehabilitation, occupational training and workshops, social rehabilitation and family counselling. These facilities employ professional health providers and volunteers and provide services to some 6,000 people. Now marking its 40th year, Enosh is evolving and developing innovative programmes focusing on early intervention and prevention and inviting the community to its facilities and activities. Owing to their mental health issues, some individuals have little or no experience in employment and many lack the practical skills to integrate in the workforce, as well as the selfconfidence to pursue employment. Moreover, professional opportunities are often closed to the psychiatrically disabled because of social stigma and these barriers set back their ability to become independent and self-reliant. As a result,
their whole rehabilitation process is delayed. Mental illness is associated with high rates of unemployment, leading individuals into economic poverty and depriving them of social networks and status within a community. To promote employment opportunities and prepare for integration into the workforce, Enosh developed vocational rehabilitation and training programmes to build participants’ social and work skills as well as give advanced training for a specific trade. Enosh’s holistic approach to this is to train in a variety of professions including cooking, working with organisations such as Hilton hotels, sales and even bicycle repairs and the practical training includes acquiring “soft” skills (e.g the ability to withstand pressures, accept authority and criticism, to work individually and as part of a team). At the start of a programme, each participant builds a personal rehabilitation programme over five months with the guidance of a coordinator. Within the training process, Enosh assists in job placement and then helps the beneficiaries on a day-to-day basis, long after the programme has ended. Enosh strives to serve as an instrumental pillar that helps participants to cope in times of need and provides a place they can return to when necessary. Its occupational frameworks welcome
Bonnie is 49, married to Freddie and has a daughter called Liat. This was her speech after graduating from Enosh’s Vocational Training in the Culinary Professions in June 2016: “Until only one year ago, I was just ‘Bonnie’, ageless, because when you lie in bed all day long the days go by with nothing that differs them from one another. “In May 2015, I joined Enosh’s Vocational Training in the Culinary Professions. During all four months of training, the task of leaving the house every day was very difficult for me. When the staff talked about integrating at a workplace at the end of the training, and about my rights as an employee, and earning my own salary, I thought there is no way I will succeed working in the free market, since the fear of interacting with people has always been a big issue for me. I didn’t believe people could recognise my abilities. “However, as difficult as it was, I was able to finish the training, and in November 2015, I started working at Biscotti, a pastry factory. The factory logo adorns my uniform – “A Home of Flavours”. For me, it truly is a home. After the four-month training, I was accepted as an intern. The internship was five weeks long, after which I received a job offer – they were happy with my work, and wanted me to continue working for them. They wanted me! Hand in hand, together with my employment rehabilitation coordinator, I went to sign my first job contract. I was handed my first work uniform, my first paycheck, and, for the first time – I felt a real sense of belonging. Today I stand before you, a woman who provides for her own home. “I wake up every morning and go to work. I work at a job I love, in an environment in which I feel equal, a place where everybody knows my name. Some days are better, some days are less, not everything is peaches and cream, but I am surrounded by people who believe in me, who don’t give up on me, and who make sure I don’t give up on myself. People who remind me of the powers I have within me. Today I am proud to say that I end every day tired – physically tired, not mentally.”
Getting back ‘to work gave new
meaning to my life
‘
14
MINDFUL of Others
JN ISRAEL 70 | 37
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IT’S IN YOUR HANDS
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presents a new way to fly from Europe to Israel. Mix & match your preferred way to fly economy class from a variety of services and pay only for your customized flight package. Book Now with your preferred agents or call 0207 624 9708 or go online www.elal.co.uk Sales start as of April 30, 2018, for flights departing as of October 15, 2018. Subject to conditions as specified on EL AL website.
THIS IS OUR LEGACY, WHY NOT MAKE IT YOURS? Technion research is changing people’s lives. At the same time Israel relies on Technion for its defence, the safety of its people and its future.
DEFENDING ISRAEL
Technion researchers and graduates are constantly developing new technologies that aid in national defence, prevent terrorist attacks on civilians, and save lives in Israel and throughout the world. Notably, the Iron Dome anti-missile defence system was developed by Technion graduates working at Rafael Advance Defence Systems.
To leave a gift in your Will and support Technion scientists and researchers, please contact:
Israel’s No.1 Science and Technology University
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Technion UK 020 7495 6824 info@technionuk.org
Powering Israel’s Future
TECH
OVER TIME
ISRAELIS EXEMPLIFY THE JEWISH HABIT of asking questions, challenging established thinking and always seeking a better way, whether it be a cure to a problem or a new way of doing things. That often manifests itself in inventions, meaning the residents of this tiny, young country have already put their stamp on all manner of areas, from robotics to medicine, mathematics to optics, computers to agriculture and more. Here, we profile just some of the things to come out of Israel, a small nation with a big brain that never stops thinking about the next novel idea. >>>
PAST & PRESENT
I
sraelis invented virus protection on computers, microprocessors for PCs and the USB flash drive (or memory stick), a memory storage device developed by Kfar Saba-based M-Systems that replaced floppy disks and CDs. Invented in 1999 by Amir Ban, Dov Moran and Oron Ogdan, the USB stick soon proved to be the world’s preferred way of storing and transferring data, a position it held for well over a decade. At the much smaller level, Israeli Dan Shechtman at Technion discovered quasicrystals, winning him a Nobel Prize, while another Israeli, Yuval Ne’eman,
predicted Quarks, one of life’s most fundamental building blocks. Quarks combine to forms hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, which make up the centre of an atom. Ne’eman of Tel Aviv University went on to become Israel’s science minister. In the world of medicine, Israeli company Given Imaging invented the Pillcam, a camera that is swallowed and subsequently records images of the digestive tract, allowing a non-invasive endoscopy. Another Israeli
company, Mazor Robotics, designed a robotic guidance system for spine surgery. The firm, founded in 2001 by Professor Moshe Shoham and Eli Zehavi, grew out of the labs at Technion, and its first product was approved by America’s FDA in 2004. As regards the armaments and defence
The pillcam non-invasive endoscopy unit
Nobel laureate Dan Shechtman at Technion discovered quasicrystals
industry, there are some well-known Israelinspired weapons – the Uzi sub-machine gun, built by Major Uziel Gal in the 1950s, springs to mind. But arguably the most important practical Israeli invention in recent years is the Iron Dome missile defence system. Developed by Rafael and Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), it intercepts short-range rockets and artillery shells. Deployed against attacks from Gaza in 2011, it has saved countless lives since, intercepting between 95 and 99 percent of inbound rockets on target to hit civilian >>>
JN ISRAEL 70 | 39
population areas. While Iron Dome provides one layer of protection, Israel’s Arrow 3 targets inbound intercontinental ballistic missiles and other long-range dangers, while David’s Sling intercepts planes, drones and ballistic missiles. Together they comprise Israel’s modern-day ‘shield’. Less practical, but far more fun, Israelis Ora and Theo Coster came up with the facebased guessing game Guess Who? in the 1970s. As many will know, each player starts with a board that includes cartoon images of 24 named people, all the images standing up. Each player chooses a card (which shows one of the 24) and the object is to guess by elimination which card (person) the other player has chosen. As many a child and parent will tell you, it’s still going strong all these years later. So is Mastermind, a code-breaking board game for two players invented in 1970 by 40-year-old Israeli postmaster and telecoms expert Mordechai Meirowitz, who sold his invention to a UK company. It went on to sell 50 million sets. Among the most miraculous Israeli inventions of modern times is the ReWalk exoskeleton, a bionic suit that lets paraplegics stand, walk and even climb stairs. Designed by Amit Goffer, himself wheelchair-bound, it was approved in the US in 2011 and most famously embodied – (the word is apt) – by paralysed British woman Claire Lomas, who used it to complete a marathon. Self-driving cars have long been the stuff of science fiction, but in 2018 they are already here and entering public service. Much of the cleverest technology underpinning these vision-based driver assistance systems comes from Israeli firm Mobileye, whose software provides “warnings
for collision prevention and mitigation”. Intel thought it so valuable that it paid more than $15billion for the firm last year. Maybe one day traffic won’t be so bad, and we all live in hope, but until then drivers in big cities increasingly say they cannot do without Waze, an Israeli-designed satellite navigation system that helps avoid the worst of jams and cut journey times. Now 10 years old, it constantly updates travel times, route details and traffic information, the algorithms and interface doing the rest.
FUTURE SOME OF THE BEST new ideas from Israel are affecting and disrupting the medical industry. In diagnostics, for example, researchers at Ben-Gurion University have just built on Technion’s Sniff Phone (a mobile phone that sniffs out some cancers) by announcing that they had come up with “early and accurate” breast cancer screening using a similar electronic “nose”. This gas sensor is so-named because it ‘smells’ various biomarkers on someone’s breath. Together with gas-chromatography mass
spectrometry (I’ve no idea…) to sample urine, researchers found they could diagnose breast cancer with 85 percent accuracy. After this month’s mess-up with breast screening, could it be a lesson for the UK’s NHS, perhaps? Over at Technion in Haifa, they’re having fun developing Nano-swimmers, with Professor Alex Leshansky only this month identifying the optimum shape for these tiny nanoscale robots to enable the fastest and most efficient travel through the body to deliver medicine to specific areas affected by disease. The most fascinating bit is the inspiration for the design for these mini-robots is bacteria, which move around using little helical tails called flagella. As the flagellum rotates in bodily liquid, it creates friction that propels it. Researchers copied this model, developing tiny spirals driven by a rotating magnetic field. If you can’t beat nature, copy it! And finally, Israeli inventor Rafi Yoeli is currently working on a project that will create flying cars. Now if there’s anything better than Waze at beating the traffic… Technion’s Sniffphone can help to detect cancers
>>>>>>>>
Left, the ReWalk exoskeleton designed by Amit Goffer; above, a prototype of Rafi Yoeli’s flying drone car taking shape; inset top left, the Guess Who game board
40 | JN ISRAEL 70
an
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JN ISRAEL 70 | 41
One Israeli hospital is leading the way with cutting-edge antidotes and preventative medicine, writes Ken Stephens
City of
HEALTH
F
rom injecting new life into critically-ill hemophiliac patients to providing a revolutionary one-stop, across-the-board cancer diagnostic process that is saving time and lives, Israel’s top medical innovators are changing the way we deal with sickness and health.
A one-year old child is injected with a novel drug for hemophilia
“Israel serves as a global incubator of innovative ideas for a variety of reasons,” says Dr Eyal Zimlichman, deputy director-general, chief medical officer and chief innovation officer at Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan, the largest facility of its kind in Israel and the Middle East. “First, it’s in our genes. Second, there is the military aspect, where we are taught to improvise when necessary in the field. These things allow us to be naturally innovative. This has trickled down into the medical field, where we are offering the highest level of care. We truly 42 | JN ISRAEL 70
believe unique innovations in medicine, that will impact the world for the next 100 years, will be developed in Israel.” While several renowned hospitals across Israel are involved in creating medical innovations, Sheba Medical Centre is leading the charge. Israel finance minister Moshe Kahlon and deputy health minister Rabbi Yakov Litzman have declared the centre is to become the country’s first “City of Health”. The talented staff are not only working on cutting-edge medical technologies to cure patients but also investing time, money and manpower in preventative medicine. To accelerate this, UK, USA and EU pharmaceutical and tech companies are in close touch with Sheba’s doctors and researchers as they work with unique applications to combat potentially fatal diseases such as hemophilia and cancer. Last month, a one-year-old boy became the youngest patient suffering from both severe hemophilia A and an unusual allergy to be treated at Sheba with a novel drug approved only recently by America’s Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Developed by a biopharmaceutical company in the USA, it contained a “bispecific antibody” that was injected into the child. Clinical trial results published in the renowned New England Journal of Medicine say the new drug has shown a 90% reduction in bleeding in children and a 70% reduction in adults.
Dr Damien Urban and his staff
David Mishali, top, head of Sheba’s International Congenital Heart Centre, and Nigerian colleagues
Professor Gili Kenet, director of the National Hemophilia Centre at Sheba Medical Centre, says: “This is a new exciting era with many novel options for improved care and even complete cure of patients with hemophilia. “The child’s mother is so happy with the new treatment. The child experienced a head trauma, but required no further therapy. Usually, this type of injury with a hemophiliac patient would involve hours in the emergency room with repeated doses of intravenous coagulation factors. However, there were no complications as his hemostasis (blood factors) was completely normal!” Dr Damien Urban, head of Sheba’s Oncology Department, has developed a cutting-edge Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Unit. Unique to Israel and yet to be developed in most Western countries, it is enabling patients to cut through stifling medical bureaucracy and receive the results of their oncological tests within weeks – a technique virtually unheard of in the Western world. Currently, in the UK, Israel and beyond, the gruelling process of determining if a person has cancer can take up to three months. The race against time becomes a life-or-death factor. The ultimate goal of Urban’s unit, which he says can cut the waiting time from three months to two weeks, is to help patients to overcome this devastating process. “It will also enable patients to see an oncologist more quickly so they can get the treatment they need, which also has a positive psychological effect,” he adds. “We know the unit, which started only this past winter, is working quite well and we can now increase the number of patients seeking our assistance. “Waiting for results over a three-month period can have a devastating effect. It freezes people in their daily lives, so we are trying to overcome this. Diagnostic oncology is a new form of medicine being developed and will be the future of medicine in general.”
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JN ISRAEL 70 | 43
IsraeI’s
REEL ROLE For a small country there’s a lot of entertainment, says Brigit Grant
I
Train Station in Jerusalem
Oded the Wanderer
44 | JN ISRAEL 70
Sallah Shabati
srael has been nominated for more Academy Awards for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ than any other country in the Middle East. Not a bad starting point for a cinema history that began with the Lumière brothers in 1896. Evidently the pioneer filmmakers made the first ever motion picture – Train Station in Jerusalem – in Ottoman Palestine Lia van Leer which was a hit with the then untravelled European audience. So much for the exciting start Sephardi immigrant, played by Chaim in film, as after that in Mandatory Topol. This was the first Israeli film Palestine, it was a diet of documentary to get an Oscar nomination. or news roundups until 1933 when Israel’s film-makers became more the first feature-length movie was colourful in the sixties. There was Uri produced. Based on Zvi Lieberman’s Zohar, who was a stand-up comic Oded the Wanderer (1933), it was really until he turned to directing such films a lesson on the importance of working as Hole in the Moon and Three Days the land as told through a young boy and a Child, only to decline the Israel who gets separated from his classmates Prize (cipher) for cinema in 1976. on a school trip. Oded was screened in Zohar eventually became a Charedi a shed or café, possibly Café Lorenz, rabbi and wore a kippah to host a which opened that year on Jaffa Road television game show. The other great in the new Jewish neighbourhood characters were Menahem Golan and of Neve Tzedek – now one of Tel his cousin Yoram Globus, aka ‘The Aviv’s most fashionable areas. Go-Go Boys’, who had success with All subsequent films had Zionist Israeli films in the 1970s that funded themes, which focused on the heroism their era-defining studio, which made of the Jewish pioneers fighting for their survival, and then in 1954, the Knesset passed the Law for the Encouragement of Israeli Films. Ephraim Kishon didn’t get the memo until 1964, when he made the cult favourite Sallah Shabati, which satirised Zionism with a story about a lazy Uri Zohar and manipulative
WHAT’S ON
Waltz With Bashir
The Go Go Boys
action films in the 1980s starring Sylvester Stallone, Sean Connery and others. From the 1990s onwards, Israeli cinema came of age and began to win awards in film festivals around the world. Credit for this was partly due to the late Lia van Leer, who founded the cinematheques and film festivals in Haifa and Jerusalem, which were attended by international stars and directors. This taste of world cinema inspired a new generation of film-makers who wanted to study movie making in Israel, hence the opening of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School. Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort, Avi Nesher’s Turn Left at the End of the World and Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir were followed by Strangers No More winning the Oscar for Best Short Documentary in 2011. The Gatekeepers was Oscar-nominated in 2013. Ten Israeli films have been nominated for the Foreign Language Oscar, but so far they have yet to win the coveted prize. The presence of Israeli directors Nesher and Cedar in Hollywood, along with others, can only improve the country’s chances, although many return to the Holy Land for ‘reel’ inspiration. Should big-screen trophies elude them, there is consolation in the Israeli domination of the small screen, where their
international hits are on par with the US and UK. Memorable hits include Homeland, based on the Israeli spy series Hatufim (Prisoners of War) created by Gideon Raff. Raff was a producer on the US adaptation and has since created The Spy for Netflix, starring Sacha Baron Cohen as Eli Cohen, an undercover Israeli operative living in Damascus during the 1960s. Then there’s The A Word, an Amazon series about a family coming to terms with their son’s autism, which is based on the Israeli series Yellow Peppers by Keren Margalit; The Angel, a spy thriller directed by Ariel Vromen based on Uri Bar-Joseph’s bestselling novel, and When Heroes Fly, written and directed by Omri Givron, co-creator of Hostages, which tells the story of four veterans of a special commando unit from the 2006 Lebanon War who reunite for a final mission. You can still watch Fauda, Mossad 101 and False Flag (Kfulim), which revolves around five Israelis who wake to discover they have been splashed across the world’s media on suspicion of a high-profile kidnapping. They’ve yet to remake Oded the Wanderer, but Netflix bosses may not have seen it yet.
THE JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL is on from 26 July – 5 August. For 11 days, more than 200 films will be screened, offering a rich and varied programme alongside numerous professional events for film industry members from Israel and abroad.
The Jerusalem Film Festival’s gala opening ceremony takes place at Sultan’s Pool, an ancient water basin with a spectacular view of the Old City walls. The opening night attracts thousands of viewers, and consists of a film screening on an enormous screen in the presence of film directors, actors, local and international members of the film industry, and members of the public. Visit : www.jff.org.il/en
WHO IS PERFORMING IN ISRAEL THIS SUMMER... 23 June – Ringo Starr with his band including 10CC’s Graham Gouldman
4 July – Gilberto Gil 1 August – Jason Derulo & Rita Ora 1 August – Ziggy Marley 7 August – Brian Wilson Sacha Baron Cohen
Ariel Vromen
14 August – Marc Almond JN ISRAEL 70 | 45
WE’RE HERE FOR EVERY MOMENT OF JEWISH LIFE. Come and experience for yourself what Jewish living feels like from the inside – with all of us at the New West End.
Our community pulses with Jewish Life at the heart of West London. The synagogue will awe you with its beauty and impress you with its history. With its Grade 1 Listed status from English Heritage, it is the most stunning Jewish place of worship in the UK. It is also one of the most historic Jewish buildings in the world. Visit us and immerse yourself in the wonderful music, both traditional and original, overseen by our rabbi, Dr Moshe Freedman, our Chazan and our resident choir, Mosaic Voices, led by Michael Etherton. But don’t think that all is formality. Join us after the main service or the monthly alternative service for the friendliest Kiddush in London. Maybe come for Cholent, Chill and Chat or for one of our monthly birthday Kiddushim. All are welcome, including our out of town and foreign visitors. We are waiting to get to know you.
What else? There is a thriving cheder, the Rabbi’s regular “Spirits and Spirituality” sessions, his talks on a variety of fascinating topics. Sunday night lectures on various aspects of Jewish history and culture. And the subjects may surprise you – Jewish pirates of the Caribbean anyone? There is the monthly friendship club, with lunch and entertainment. Planning a Simcha? Weddings, anniversaries, Bat/Barmitzvahs? The New West End provides a great venue for all of these. If you were married in our beautiful Shul, you are cordially invited to our Special Shabbat Service and celebratory Wedding Kiddush on 7 July 2018.
St. Petersburgh Place Bayswater, London W2 4JT
Bring all your family and friends along. The New West End is one the oldest, friendliest, and most beautiful synagogues in London.
+44 (0) 20 7229 2631 nwes@newwestend.org.uk www.newwestend.org.uk
Don’t just take our word for it. Join us for Shabbat and find out for yourself.
Contact Eli Ballon
JN ISRAEL 70 | 47
HOT FIT Promotion for August 2018 at Tel Aviv area Herods Tel Aviv $280 Free child
Leonardo Art Tel Aviv $225 Free child
Leonardo Beach Tel Aviv $205 One free dinner
Leonardo City Tower $225 Free child
Leonardo Plaza Netanya $275 Free child
Leonardo Suite Bat-Yam $170 Free child
Terms and Conditions: Above rates are on BB basis, for a double room, per night & GROSS ***Valid for reservations for minimum 3 consecutive nights made until the 15th June 2018 • May NOT be combined with any other Special offers. • All other terms and conditions are as per BAR contract for 2018/19. • The hotel reserves the right to change / stop this promotion/rates at any time. • Special offer is now valid via GOC and interface • Bookings should be sent to our FRC at INCFITS@fattal.co.il • 1 free dinner will be provided per person, per stay (not including Friday dinner) *** Free child in parents' room
For Reservations:
+972 3 5110099 or call your travel agent
TA hotels-Summer 2018-216x306.indd 1
38 Hotels Nationwide
www.fattal-hotels.com www.leonardo-hotels.com
09/05/18 12:16
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Stay in
ISRAEL Next year in Jerusalem could be this year with hotels this tempting, says Brie Bailey WITH ITS BIBLICAL HISTORY, celebrated cuisine and great-looking people, Israel is a tempting destination, but you’ll need a place to stay. There are many sensational hotels, but one of them has only just been unwrapped. The Setai Tel Aviv belongs to the renowned Nakash brothers (Joe, Ralph and Avi) and they have brought their good taste and firsthand experience of staying in hotels around the world to this dynamite property. “Luxury Meets History” is how the brothers pitch The Setai Tel Aviv, and guests will agree when they experience a new level of premium accommodation at the five-star hotel located in Old Jaffa by Clock Square and the city’s coastline at the historic site known as the “Kishle”. A fortress during the Crusades, and then a prison in the Ottoman period, the original building has been meticulously restored to its original grandeur during a 20-year preservation process, which included extensive archeological digs that unearthed 12th century artefacts. The hotel’s design, led by London-based Ara Design, is a perfect blend of the Middle East and the Mediterranean with lots of modern oak, leather furnishings and oriental rugs. There are 120 rooms and suites decorated in
rich reds, chocolate browns and metallics, and each one has a handmade king-sized bed, rainfall showers and 49-inch IPTVs. Add to this a spa with classic massage treatments and traditional Eastern experiences, a bar serving hand-crafted cocktails and food at the Jaya Chef Restaurant honouring the culinary heritage of Jaffa and the property’s Turkish roots, and you know it doesn’t get better. The Namash brothers know what makes a hotel great and this extends to another of their established properties, The Herbert Samuel in Jerusalem. Based in the central Zion Square, the hotel has 137 rooms decorated authentically with Jerusalem stone, and there is a gym, indoor swimming pool, sauna and extensive treatment menu. The hotel’s rooftop dining restaurant, with 360° panoramic views of the city, serves wonderful food and, with the bustling Nahalat Hashiva promenade, Dome of the Rock and Western Wall all close by, staying at the Herbert Samuel could be the making of your trip. www.thesetaihotel.co.il
THE SETAI TEL AVIV
HERBERT SAMUEL JERUSALEM
CARLTON TEL AVIV “We didn’t want to leave,” wrote a guest on Trip Advisor summing up his stay at the Carlton Tel Aviv. “The staff are all professional and courteous, and the place is so very clean. The best way to begin each day is breakfast at the unique indoor/outdoor setting on the beach. There was food from front to back, all fresh and just made.” And that is all you need to know about this panoramic sea-view property with rooftop pool, spacious rooms and a chef, Meir Adoni, who makes innovative Jewish food in the Lumina restaurant. You will love it! www.carlton.co.il JN ISRAEL 70 | 49
FATTAL HOTELS With 95 trip awards,16,700 rooms and 10,000 employees, it is no surprise to discover the Fattal hotel chain is Israel’s largest hospitality organisation. The 38 hotels in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Tiberias, Dead Sea and Eilat all deliver incredible value. This is because founder David Fattal understands what guests want as he started out as a waiter and rose up through the ranks to become general manager at King Solomon’s Palace in Eilat, all the time noting what is required for repeat custom. Fattal introduced the all-inclusive holiday to Israel, and the children’s clubs in his hotels are legendary, so be sure to visit www.fattal-hotels.com to find out where you can experience them.
INBAL JERUSALEM HOTEL
For a five-star stay in the holy city, the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel is hard to beat. Sophisticated and comfortable, the hotel has suites to match every kind of visit – from family holidays to large conferences and weddings. There are 283 exquisite guest rooms that have cosy beds, bathrooms stocked with thoughtful amenities, free Wi-Fi, and 24hour room service offering an abundance of gourmet food. It is close to everything, and a busy day sightseeing can end in the health spa or heated pool, followed by a delicious dinner at the newly-renovated Sofia restaurant (it reopens after 31 May). www.inbalhotel.com
PRIMA HOTELS
LESHEM HOTELS
Established in Israel in 1990, Prima Hotels caters for guests who want a unique Israel experience, be it urban explorations in Tel Aviv or beach escapes in Eilat. Central, but not in the hub, each hotel has an average of 100 bedrooms, which keeps things intimate and allows staff to learn guests’ names. The design of each hotel, from colour to fabrics, is inspired by its location, and then there are the concept properties, such as the Prima Music in Eilat, which has dedicated each floor to a different genre of music, so guests can unwind to their favorite songs, and the Spa Club at the Dead Sea, which is for the ultimate chill, as no mobile phones in public spaces or guests under the age of 18 permitted. www.prima-hotels-israel.com
Avi Shvecky and Eran Kviatek have worked in the hospitality industry for more than 50 years and, together, these hoteliers have opened some of the finest properties in Israel. Last summer, they opened the Ramada Resort Hadera; Tryp Jerusalem Bat Sheva, and the Ramada Olivie Nazareth. By catering for a range of clients, the hotels are all unique. So Tryp Jerusalem is a work of art, with designs inspired by Bukharan Jews from Central Asia, and the Alma is a boutique property in Tel Aviv that should grace every interiors magazine. Visit Leshem Hotels and revel in the creativity. www. leshemhotels.com
TAMARES HOTELS The Tamares Hotels chain is all about giving guests beautiful memories in meticulously decorated premium and boutique properties. The group includes the Daniel Herzliya Hotel, Daniel Dead Sea Hotel, West Boutique in Tel Aviv and Ashdod, the West Lagoon in Netanya, and the adults-only Shizen Resort and Spa. The Shizen has 40 elegant, spacious Japanesestyle rooms and 16 treatment rooms offering massages and treatments, both new and traditional from the far East. There is also an indoor pool, wet and dry saunas, a Jacuzzi, gym, and classes for aerobics, yoga and Pilates, as well as lectures. www.tamareshotels.com 50 | JN ISRAEL 70
Experience life-changing Jerusalem moments
Our “extra mile” service is already included At The Inbal Jerusalem, we’re always ready to accommodate you with our famous warm personal service, that always goes the extra mile to make you feel welcome. Enjoy your stay at one of the finest locations in Jerusalem, while you collect invaluable moments in this eternal city.
For reservations: 972.2.675.6669 reservations@inbalhotel.com www.inbalhotel.com
Liberty Bell Park, 3 Jabotinsky St., Jerusalem, Israel
Overlooking Jaffa’s ancient port and the Mediterranean Sea coastline, The Setai Tel Aviv is one of the best hotels in Tel Aviv. Sophistication and tranquility, it is as historic as the neighbourhood that surrounds it.
The 5-Star Hotel is a magical and attractive choice for leisure and business tourists. Breathtaking views of Israel’s holy capital, Jerusalem. Steps from Zion Square’s Nahalat Hashiva promenade, the Dome of the Rock, Wailing Wall and the Church of All Nations.
VISIT OUR OTHER HOTEL PROPERTIES IN ISRAEL
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