Tel Aviv's Gastronomic Amusement Park

Israel’s freshest and zaniest produce, plus wines, cheeses, fish and meat, beckon visitors to this high-end daily market in Tel Aviv port.

By Viva Sarah Press for ISRAEL21c 

On a walk through a farmers market in France, Israeli food journalist and entrepreneur Michal Ansky came across some of the most delicious-looking red tomatoes. When she asked the tour guide about them, she wasn’t expecting to hear that they were imported from Israel.

“In Israel, there are the best fruit and vegetables and herbs I’ve ever seen. But it doesn’t reach the customer. Usually the good stuff goes to export,” Ansky, who specializes in food products quality, tells ISRAEL21c. “There is no buyer diversity here.”

So Ansky, together with chef/journalist Shir Halpern and architect/entrepreneur Roee Hemed, founded Shuk Hanamal (Port Market) to give customers more choice, better products, and knowledge about where their food is coming from.

The one-stop shop for the best ingredients and produce is located in a hangar at the Port of Tel Aviv, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. During the week, vendors in the covered market offer up local and seasonal fruits and veggies, specialty wines, cheeses, baked goods and fresh meat, fish and deli goods. There are also imported delicacies that are unavailable locally. Think Eataly in New York, but in Hebrew.

On Friday mornings, Shuk Hanamal welcomes the Tel Aviv farmers market vendors and it is culinary and gastronomic heaven for everyone. The small producers set up stalls packed with locally grown, exotic-looking, super-tasty fruits and vegetables that you don’t usually see in Israel. 

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Israeli Invention Will Cool Cyclists Off On A Hot Day

 BY AYA EPHRATI, for NOCAMELS

Cycling can be a strenuous activity – especially during long rides in the summer heat. Two Israeli inventors now think they have the solution to the severe discomfort of overheated riding: Q-FOG. They describe their invention as the “world’s first spray device for cyclists, which attaches to the bicycle handlebar.”

As they explain on their Indiegogo page: “Cooling apparatuses for cyclers available on the market today are not the most comfortable and efficient. They have to be carried or worn on our bodies and this can create discomfort while riding. Q-FOG is a new and innovative, field proven cooling water sprayer that addresses the cyclist’s need for a minimalistic, comfortable and easy to use device.”

“The idea of ​​Q-FOG was born on a particularly hot day,” Inventor Arik Bar Erez tells NoCamels. ”I rode my bike, sweating, and suddenly I passed a house where the sprinklers were on. I knew immediately what needed to happen. I had to build a small device for bicycles that will provide the same pleasant and refreshing experience.”

“Until Q-FOG, the problem was that my inventions always remained in a drawer. I realized that the Q-FOG is too good of an idea to be left in the drawer, and began developing the product along with my partner today, Kobe Rain,” he continued.

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How I Became A ‘Green Zionist’

by Arielle Sperling, Special To The Jewish Week

When I think about growing up in the suburbs of New York City, I remember blue and white Yom Ha’Atzmaut cupcakes and Israel advocacy seminars. I was raised with a joyful love of Israel that is inherently part of who I am.

Starting college at Colgate University last August was a breath of fresh air. My friends, peers, and professors did not all think like I did. My Zionism was challenged, and rightfully so: just loving Israel was not enough anymore. I wanted to speak up for Israel, but I quickly found that politics put everyone around me on the defense. I needed to find a way to show my pride in Israel, and to protect and defend her at the same time.

As a freshman I developed an interest in environmental studies. I became a recycling buff and joined a group that promotes sustainability in the local community. Discussions with my father transitioned from politics to photovoltaics. Now I was juggling my passion for Zionism with my new enthusiasm for the environment, and it became increasingly important for me to find a way to link the two.

A disagreement with a friend helped me understand that the causes are intricately connected. I’d spent the day teaching school children about why they shouldn’t drink from disposable plastic bottles. That evening I had dinner with my friend, who, lo and behold, was drinking from a plastic bottle. Halfway through my lecture on the evils of plastic, he stopped me. “Don’t you think there are bigger things to worry about? I thought you cared about Israel.” I got quiet, embarrassed at his affront. But it was his prying questions that helped me tie the issues together.

“I do care about Israel,” I said. “Think about it. Billions of gallons of oil are used each year to produce, transport, and dispose of plastic bottles. It binds us to oil-rich, politically corrupt, anti-Israel countries. If we lessen our dependence on oil, just imagine the possibilities for the way politics would play out. Can you imagine an Israel that doesn’t rely on oil?”

With a nod, he threw out the bottle. I smiled. That was when I became a “Green Zionist.”

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Residents appeal against redevelopment of Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin

Portobello residents object to proposed demolition of five terraced houses

Residents of Portobello are appealing against Dublin City Council’s decision to approve plans for a expanded Irish Jewish Museum on the site of five terraced two-storey houses at Walworth Road.

The proposed development, which is being handled by the Office of Public Works, would involve demolishing the five houses and building a two-storey over basement museum incorporating a café and synagogue.

The new structure would also include archive storage, an audiovisual theatre, toilets and staff area at basement level, more generous exhibition space on the ground and first floors as well as a museum shop and a garden to the rear.

A synagogue was first opened in 3 and 4 Walworth Road in 1916 and was used for regular worship until the early 1970s. With a steep decline in the area’s Jewish population, the two houses were turned into a museum in 1985.

Its mission is to collect, preserve, interpret and present material evidence of the Jewish people’s experience in Ireland and their contribution to Irish society as well as promoting public awareness of the Holocaust.

The Walworth Road synagogue is the last remaining physical evidence of Portobello’s once-thriving Jewish community, which at its peak accounted for up to 80 per cent of the population of this tightly knit part of Dublin.

The three adjoining houses have been vacant for some time, having been acquired for the museum’s future expansion in an area that is zoned Z2 -- “to protect and/or improve the amenities of residential conservation areas”. 

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Arizona Is Fertile Ground for New York Matzo

YUMA, Ariz. — Here, on a Christian farmer’s land five miles from the Mexican border, lies the holiest of fields for some of New York’s most observant Orthodox Jewish communities. Wheat harvested on these 40 acres is destined to become matzo, the unleavened bread eaten by Jews during the eight days of Passover.      

It is not an everyday plant-and-pick operation, and the matzo made from this wheat is not everyday matzo.

Yisroel Tzvi Brody, rabbi of the Shaarei Orah synagogue in Borough Park, Brooklyn, stood at the edge of one of the fields on Monday, stooping to rub a grain of wheat between his wrinkled thumb and index finger. Removing his glasses, he brought the grain close to his eyes and turned it from side to side, like a gemologist inspecting a precious stone.

“It is to ascertain that it’s not sprouted,” Rabbi Brody explained. “If it has, it’s not valid.”

For seven weeks, while the wheat grew in scorching heat under impossibly blue skies, two men clothed in the traditional black and white garments of the Hasidim stayed in a trailer overlooking the crop, to be able to attest that the wheat, once matured, had been untouched by rain or other moisture. Workers were prohibited from carrying water bottles in the field. Dust danced in the air as the wind blew, but unpaved roads could not be wet while the wheat was growing. The goal was to prevent any natural fermentation from taking place in the grains before they were milled into flour and the matzo was baked, sometime in the late fall.

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