Podcasts about Yemenite

Erez Zobary spent a long time downplaying her Jewish identity in her music career. Her earlier work—a blend of R&B, pop, soul and jazz—dealt with issues relevant to her audience of largely twentysomethings: love lives, quarter-life crises, feeling stuck and aimless. It may not be surprising, then, that a woman whose songs so often looked inward would eventually turn to her heritage. As she tells Culturally Jewish, The CJN's arts and culture podcast, her songs began feeling increasingly disconnected from who she really was, and she wanted to try something drastically different. The result is Erez, her new album, which dives deep into her Yemenite family history—specifically her grandmother's escape from Yemen to Israel as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Zobary joins the show to explain her process and backstory, and to share how she feels releasing an album with Middle Eastern musical flourishes, covered in Hebrew writing, just one year after Oct. 7. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

This week I have three stories for Chanukah, the first about Lubavitcher Rebbe telling a young Polish chassid about the fifth light of Chanukah and it's power, the second about a wealthy miser who is blessed to host Reb Mordechai of Chernobyl for a tea party and the last about two Yemenite brothers who are separated when they arrive in Israel. Then I have all of the Chanukah stories from previous episodes. Chanukah Sameach! If you're enjoying these Chassidic stories, please take a quick moment to buy me a coffee. https://ko-fi.com/barakhullman Thank you! I deeply appreciate your support! Also available at https://soundcloud.com/barak-hullman/the-fifth-light-of-chanukah. To become a part of this project or sponsor an episode please go to https://hasidicstory.com/be-a-supporter. Hear all of the stories at https://hasidicstory.com. Go here to hear my other podcast https://jewishpeopleideas.com or https://soundcloud.com/jewishpeopleideas. Find my books, Figure It Out When You Get There: A Memoir of Stories About Living Life First and Watching How Everything Falls Into Place and A Shtikel Sholom: A Student, His Mentor and Their Unconventional Conversations on Amazon by going to https://bit.ly/barakhullman. My classes in Breslov Chassidus, Likutey Moharan, can be found here https://www.youtube.com/@barakhullman/videos I also have a YouTube channel of ceramics which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@thejerusalempotter

Our goal will be accomplished one drop at a time so as to never bring suspicion upon ourselves. This will also prevent them from seeing the changes as they occur.    Clips Played:  Why Israel was Created (youtube.com)    Why did over 2,000 Yemenite babies disappear in 1950s Israel? | Al Jazeera World Documentary – […] The post The Ringworm Children – Jewish Genocide for ALL JEWS except Ashkenazi.  USA funded Genocide same way it funded RWANDA.  Stealing Yemens children to populate.  The push to make Israel the right kind of Jewish State. appeared first on Psychopath In Your Life.

Toronto R & B musician Erez Zobary was always proud of her Yemenite Jewish identity, but didn't explore it in her music - until now. Her new album, Erez, is a soulful, personal collection of songs that draws on her family's stories of life in Yemen and Israel. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Erez helps us kick off Mizrahi Heritage Month, when we celebrate the cultures and contributions of Jews from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. Erez talks about her family story, the troubled history of Yemenite Jews in Israel, and her feelings about her identity—and we hear songs from her brand new album.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

“I never thought there's antisemitism. It's something from the past, for my grandparents, for my mom a little, but it's not something in my generation, or my kids' generation. It's done . . . apparently, not.” Einat Admony is a chef, cookbook author, comedian, and social media star who grew up in Bnei Brak, Israel. With parents from Iran and Yemen, Einat spent her childhood in the kitchens of Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi neighbors. Learn about her family's deep-rooted Jewish heritage in Iran and the broader Middle East. Along with her mother Ziona's journey from Iran to Israel in 1948, Einat discusses the antisemitism she's dealt with online and on the streets in the past year. Hear her stories of Jewish-Muslim coexistence in Iran and memories of spices and perfumes that inspire Einat's dishes. Her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk, along with her Manhattan restaurant Balaboosta, reflect a blend of tradition and innovation. “You could not have Judaism today, if it were not for the Jews of Iran,” says Houman Sarshar, an independent scholar and director of publications at the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History in Los Angeles. Sarshar highlights the historical relationship between Iran and Israel, noting that Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel post-1948.  The conversation also touches on the challenges faced by Jews in Iran, their cultural integration, and the impact of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  —- Show notes: How much do you know about Jewish history in the Middle East? Take our quiz. Sign up to receive podcast updates. Learn more about the series. Song credits:  Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Suspense Middle East” Publisher: Victor Romanov, Composer: Victor Romanov; Item ID: 196056047 ___ Episode Transcript: EINAT ADMONY: I've been in Israel a few months ago. It's like you always feel loved, you always feel supported. It's still home. It's always going to be my home. MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations despite hardship, hostility, and hatred, then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not.  This is The Forgotten Exodus. Today's episode: Leaving Iran. MANYA: Whether she's deviling eggs soaked in beet juice, simmering Oxtail in shawarma spices, or sprinkling za'atar on pastry dough, chef Einat Admony is honoring her family's Middle Eastern heritage. Both the places where they have lived for generations, as well as the place they have and will always call home: Israel.   EINAT/Clip: Start with brushing the puff pastry with olive oil and za'atar. Have some feta all around and shredded mozzarella. Take the other sheet and just cut it to one inch strips. Now we're going to twist. Need to be careful. Now we're just gonna brush the top with the mix of oil and za'atar. Get it some shiny and glazy. This is ready for the oven. Bake at 400 until it's golden. That's it super easy, just sprinkle some za'atar and eat. MANYA: For the chef, author, reality TV star, and comedian, food reflects the Zionist roots that have been a constant for Einat, the self-made balaboosta, who is largely credited with introducing Israeli cuisine to the U.S. That love for Israel goes back generations, long before the modern state existed, when her maternal ancestors lived in the land, that until 1935 was known as Persia, but is now known as Iran. Her own mother Ziona, the third of seven siblings, was even named for the destination where Einat's grandparents aspired to one day raise their family. Returning home to the land of Zion from which Jews had been exiled centuries earlier was always the goal. When you ask her why, Einat laughs in disbelief.  EINAT: Why? Why? That's homeland. I think a lot of Jewish people for hundreds of years was, that's in every prayer, it's in every Shabbat dinner evening. MANYA: The hatred directed toward Israel by Iran's regime in the form of the deadly attacks on Israel by Iran-backed terrorist groups and the Islamic Republic of Iran itself make it hard to believe that Iran was once a place where Jews and the Zionist movement thrived. But in fact, Iran's history includes periods when the wide-open roads between Iran and Israel ran two ways and the countries not only lived in harmony but worked in close partnership.  Iran was the second Muslim-majority country after Turkey to recognize the modern state of Israel after its formation in 1948, and the two established diplomatic ties. Regular flights ran between Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport and Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.  SARSHAR: We cannot overlook the fact that since October 29, 539 BCE the Jewish community of Iran remains to this day the largest community of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside the state of Israel. To this day. You could not have Judaism today, if it were not for the Jews of Iran.  MANYA: Houman Sarshar is an independent scholar and director of publications at the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History in Los Angeles. He has edited a number of books, including Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews.  SARSHAR: The history of the Jews in Iran begins about 2,700 years ago, when the first community of known Jews was taken to Iran. They are commonly believed to be one of the 10 Lost Tribes. And then when we fast forward to when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and took Jews into captivity. Some years after that at 539 BCE on October 29, 539 BCE, to be exact, Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, liberated Babylon and gave Jews the permission to go back to Israel and rebuild the Second Temple. MANYA: Cyrus the Great – a Persian emperor particularly renowned among contemporary scholars for the respect he showed toward peoples' customs and religions in the lands that he conquered. According to the Book of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible, Cyrus even paid for the restoration of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. SARSHAR: This is known as the Second Temple period in Jewish history, and under the Achaemenid dynasty, Jews participated in every level of society. And a few centuries forward, around the 5th Century, we know the Jews continue to live with many freedoms, because that is the era when the Babylonian Talmud was originally produced in Iran by Rav Ashi. So, you know, there was a thriving rabbanut (rabbanite) in Iran who had the freedom and the luxury and the time to be able to produce such an important document as the Talmud, which has become the cornerstone of all jurisprudence that we know, Western law, and everything. MANYA: The advent and arrival of Islam in Iran in the 7th Century CE changed circumstances somewhat. As was the case across the Middle East, all non-Muslims became dhimmis – residents who paid a special tax and lived under certain restrictions. The situation for Jews worsened in the 16th Century when the Safavid dynasty made the Shiite creed the dominant form of Islam in Iran. Fatwas made life for all non-Shiites quite difficult. SARSHAR: And for reasons that are still open to discussion, all of these restrictions were most vehemently imposed on the Jews of Iran. And because of these restrictions, all non-Shiites were considered religiously impure. And this religious impurity, kind of like the concept of the untouchable sect in India, they were considered pollutive. MANYA: Jews could not look Muslims in the eye. They were placed in ghettos called mahaleh where they could not leave on rainy days for fear the water that splattered on them could contaminate the water supply. They wore yellow stars and special shoes to distinguish them from the rest of the population. They were not allowed to purchase property from Muslims or build homes with walls that were higher than those of their Muslim neighbors. SARSHAR: They could not, for example, participate in the trade of edible goods because, you know, fruits and vegetables and meats carried this pollution. So Muslims could no longer consume the foods that were touched by Jews. And as a result, this created a certain path forward in history for the Jews of Iran.  They went into antique trades. They went into carpet trades. They went into work of textiles. They became musicians. And for the following 500 years, these restrictions kind of guided the way the Jews of Iran lived in that country, even though they had been there for thousands of years previously. MANYA: Houman said the 1895 arrival of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Paris-based network of schools for Jewish children throughout the Middle East and North Africa, including within the mahalehs in Persia, was the first step in a series of improvements for Jews there. SARSHAR: Previous to that, Jews were not allowed to get any kind of an education whatsoever. The only teachers were the Muslim clergy, and they refused to teach anything to Jewish students. So this allowed for the Jewish community to finally start to get a Western-style education, which was very important at that time, given all of the dynamics that were going on in society with modernity. MANYA: As educational opportunities increased in the middle of the 19th Century, so did opportunities for the courtiers and elite to travel and see the Western world as it industrialized and modernized, expanding international trade and sharing wealth more widely. SARSHAR: Often they would be sent by their families to go and try to see if they can, you know, find a way to expand the family's businesses and lives as merchants, and they would come back shocked. I mean, Iran was a place where you know of mostly mud brick homes and dirt roads and people riding around on donkeys. And imagine this is all you've known. You never see women walking around the street. The only women you have ever seen with your own eyes in your life are your mom, your sister, your daughter or your wife, and occasionally, sex workers. And that's it. So all of a sudden, you know, you travel a couple of months by boat and train, and you get to Paris, and it's impossible to try to even conceive of the experience. It must have been something like the Hegelian experience of the sublime. What can the world look like? And where is it that I live in, and why isn't my country the same as this? MANYA: By the early 20th Century, the Persian people concluded the answer to that question was in the rule of law. The reason the European nations provided such opportunity for the community at-large had to do with the fact that the law of the land was not arbitrary or enforced by religion or royalty. It was embedded in a constitution – a set of laws that define the structure of a government and the rights of its citizens – a Western tenet that reduced the power of the clergy and created a parliament called the Majles. SARSHAR: They were starting to read travel journals. They were starting to understand the perspective that Westerners had on Iranians, and those perspectives were often awful. You know, the Western world believed, for example –the country was corrupt to the bone in every respect.  So all of these things gradually led to a call for a constitution, the major pivot of which was the establishment of a legislature of law that would start to create a community where everyone can feel like they're equal in the eyes of the law and have something to gain by trying to improve the country as a whole. Iran became the first constitutional monarchy in the Middle East in 1906 when that revolution happened, it was a momentous event. And really, things really, really did, in fact, start to change. MANYA: In 1925, Reza Shah Pahlavi – an arch nationalist who wanted to propel Iran forward into the industrial age – took over the crown of Iran. He welcomed any Iranian citizen to participate in that agenda. SARSHAR: By now, we had a good two generations of Jews who had been French-educated by the Allianz Society.  They had all gone to France at some point in their lives, so they were able to participate in this industrialization of the country, given the language skills that they had and some of the connections they had built in the Western world. MANYA: Both World Wars in Europe took a massive toll on Iran. Despite declaring neutrality, Iran was occupied by European nations that took over the nation's agriculture, treating Iran as a pantry to feed the armies. Droughts and disease worsened the toll. SARSHAR: One of the lesser-known factoids about history is that during World War I, the nation that lost the most individuals as a result of the war was Iran. Above and beyond all European nations who were at war, because of a famine that had started in Iran. The same dynamic started to happen in World War II. MANYA: With nationalist fever sweeping Europe and Iran, the Allies feared the arch-nationalist Shah would go the way of Franco in Spain, Mussolini in Italy, and Hitler in Germany. They also feared the Shah would collaborate with Hitler's Germany to provide oil for the German oil machine and cease being the pantry the Allies needed it to be. In 1941, the Western powers convinced him to abdicate the throne to his son Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. And when the war ended, Iran was able to enjoy the same economic benefits as the rest of the world at peace time. Most importantly, it was able to profit from its own oil reserves, significantly boosting Iran's national income. SARSHAR: In 1941, it was really the beginning of what is commonly referred to by the scholars of Jewish Iranian history as the Golden Age of Iranian Jewry. From 1941 until the revolution in 1978, the Jewish community of Iran saw a meteoric rise to power and social wealth. Industries such as pharmaceuticals, banking, insurance, real estate development, and other major industries, the aluminum plastics industries in Iran, all were either directly owned by the Jews of Iran or managed under their management.  And during this period, really, we can say that for the first time, after 2,500 years, the Jews of Iran really started to experience the kinds of freedoms that they had not seen since the Achaemenid dynasty. And it is during this time that, you know, we see, really, that life started to change for the Jews of Iran, even though some of the age-old social dynamics were still there.  The institutionalized antisemitism had not been completely wiped out. But for the most part, things had changed because Iranian society in general was also being Westernized, light speed. And many educated people had realized that antisemitism was really looked down upon, you know, that kind of prejudice was really no longer acceptable in the world at large. So many, many sections of the community really had shifted, genuinely shifted. And some, even though maybe their feelings had not changed, knew that their antisemitism was something that they needed to keep private. MANYA: At that time, Iran also became a refuge for Jews fleeing Europe and other parts of the Middle East. On June 1, 1941, a brutal pogrom in Iraq known as the Farhud, incited by Nazi propaganda, targeted Jews celebrating the holiday of Shavuot. Nearly 200 Jews were murdered in the streets. The violence became a turning point for Iraqi Jews. Thousands fled, many stopping in Iran, which became a way station for those headed to Palestine.  In 1942, thousands of Jewish refugees from Poland who had fled across the border into the Soviet Union during the German invasion traveled on trains and ships to Iran. Among the refugees – 1,000 orphaned children.  As Zionist leaders worked to negotiate the young Jews' immigration to Palestine, the Jewish Agency established the “Tehran Home for Jewish Children” – a complex of tents on the grounds of a former Iranian Air Force barracks outside Tehran. More than 800 orphans, escorted by adults, most of them also refugees, moved from Tehran to kibbutzim in Palestine the following year. Later, in 1948, when most Arab League states forbade the emigration of their Jews after the creation of Israel, the Zionist underground continued to smuggle Jews to Iran at about a rate of 1,000 a month, before they were flown to Israel. SARSHAR: The Zionist movement was fairly strong in Iran. It was a very lively movement. The Balfour Declaration was celebrated in all of the Allianz schools in Iran, and very soon thereafter, the first Zionist organization of Iran was established. And truly many of its founding fathers were some of the leading industrialists and intellectuals in Iranian society, in the Jewish Iranian community for the years to come. It was not unlike the kind of Zionism we see today in the United States, for example. You know, the wealthy families of the Jewish communities in New York and Los Angeles, all are very passionate about Israel, but you don't see very many of them selling their homes and packing up and moving to Israel because they just don't want to do it. They feel like they're very comfortable here. And what matters is that a state of Israel should exist, and they are political advocates of that state and of that policy and of its continued existence, but not necessarily diehard participants in the experiment itself. Iranians, after the establishment of the State of Israel, were being encouraged to move to Israel, and the Israeli government was having a lot of difficulty with that, because a lot of Iranians were seeing that life had become better for them, and they weren't as willing to leave, despite the fact that the Kourosh Project provided airplanes to get Jews out of Iran. My own great-grandmother was one of those passengers. She is buried in Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. She was one of the early citizens of Israel who went to live out the Zionist dream. MANYA: Both sides of Einat's family – her mother and father's ancestors – were among those early Israeli citizens. Einat's father was born in Tel Aviv. His parents and grandparents had come from Yemen in the late 19th Century. Einat's mother Ziona was 10 years old when in 1948, the family left Kerman, a city in southeastern Iran known for its carpet weaving and woolen shawls. They arrived in Israel with their suitcases ready to fulfill their dream. But living the dream in the new Jewish nation was not easy. After all, the day after Israel declared its independence, Arab nations attacked the Jewish state, launching the first of a series of Arab-Israeli Wars. EINAT: The story of my mom, it's a very interesting story. The family didn't have much money. There wasn't like, rich family that left, very different story. No, both of my parents come from very, I would say, very poor family. My grandpa was, like, dealing with textile. He was like, traveling from town to town with fabric. And that's what they did. They put them in what's called ma'aborot, which was like a very kind of small villages, tin houses. My mom always said there were seven kids, so all of them in one room. In the winter it's freezing; in the summer, it's super hot. But it was also close to the border, so the one window they have, they always had to cover it so at night, the enemy cannot see the light inside that room and shoot there. Also in the ma'aabarot, nobody speaks the same language. So, it was Moroccan and Iraqi and nobody speak the same dialect or the same language. So, they cannot even communicate quite yet. MANYA: Most of Ziona's six siblings did not go to school. To make it possible for Ziona, her parents placed her in a foster home with an Iraqi family in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv. EINAT: My mom's family decided that for her, she should get education, because most of the siblings didn't went to school or anything, So they put her in a foster home. In an Iraqi home, and she didn't speak a word there. So my mom, as a 10 years old, became a kid for foster parents that live in a center in Ramat Gan, where I basically grew up. And she got education, which was great. She learned also Iraqi, which is Arabic. So she speaks fluent Arabic, but she had not an easy life in coming to Israel from a different country. MANYA: Ziona has shared many of these stories with her daughter in the kitchen and dining room as they prepare and enjoy dishes that remind them of home. When she visited her daughter at her home in upstate New York at the end of the summer, Einat collected as many stories as she could over cutting boards, steaming pots, and sizzling pans. EINAT: There's a lot of story coming up, some old story that I know, some new stories. And it's really nice, because my mom is 84, 85. So, it's really nice to capture all of it, all of it. There is a lot of interesting stuff that happened during the first 10 years when she came to Israel.  That's the main, I think, I always talk about, like, how I grew up and how much food was a very substantial part of our life, if not the biggest part. You know, it's like, family can fight and this, but when it's come to the dinner, it's just change everything, the dynamic. For us, it was a big, significant part of everything. So obviously, most of these stories and memories come in while we're cooking or eating. A lot of time she used to talk about, and still talking about the smells, the smells of the flowers, the smells of the zafar (perfume). She still have the nostalgia from that time and talking very highly about what Iran used to be, and how great, and the relationship between the Muslims and the Jews back then. My grandpa's best friend was crying when he left, and he said: ‘Please don't go. Stay with us.' And he said: ‘I want to go to homeland.' So, they have a really great relationship. She's always talking, actually, about how they come for Shabbat dinner, the friends if they put the cigarettes outside of the door in Shabbat because they were observant. So cigarettes, lighter, everything, they keep it outside, in the garden, not coming inside the house. So a lot of mutual respect for the religion to each other. And I love that stories. It just showed what's happened when people take it extreme. MANYA: Einat's cookbooks and restaurant menus are filled with recipes from her own childhood and her parents' upbringing. To satisfy the appetite of her father, a former Israeli athlete, her house always had hummus and every weekend, the family made a hilbeh sauce --  a traditional Yemenite fenugreek dip made with cardamom, caraway seeds and chili flakes. Other recipes reflect her mother's Persian roots. And then there are recipes that, at first blush, seem to come out of left field, but are inspired by the Iraqi Jewish foster family that raised her mother, and the Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi neighbors that passed through the dining room and kitchen where Einat was raised in Bnei Brak.  Now a Haredi town east of Tel Aviv, it was then a diverse population of Jews from, well, everywhere. Einat still remembers standing on a stool next to the Moroccan neighbor in her building learning how to roll couscous. EINAT: One neighbor that was my second mom, her name was Tova, and she was Moroccan, so it was like, I have another Moroccan mom. But all the building was all Holocaust survivors. None of them had kids, and they were all speaking in Yiddish, mostly. So I grew up with a lot of mix. I wouldn't say, you know, in my time, it's not like our neighborhood. I grew up in Bnei Brak, and our neighborhood was very, it was before Bnei Brak became so religious like today. It was still religious, if you go really in, but we're close to Ramat Gan, and I have to say that it's, I would say, I didn't grow up with, it's very mixed, very mixed.  Wouldn't say I grew up just with Moroccan or Mizrahi, I say that it's very, very mixed. And my mom same. I think a lot of her friend is like, It's my mom would speak some Yiddish. She would do Kugel on Shabbat next to the jachnun and all the Mizrahi food. You know, this is the multi-pot and one things I love in Israel. You can see in one table so many different cultures. And that's something that would have happened in my house a lot. MANYA: That amalgam of Jewish cultures is reflected in her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk. It also shows up in her menu at the brick-and-mortar Balaboosta, a quaint Middle Eastern trattoria on Mulberry Street in Manhattan.  The name Balaboosta is borrowed from Yiddish meaning “a perfect housewife” – a twist on ba'al habayit, Hebrew for master of the house, or boss. But Einat insists that the term is no longer exclusively Ashkenazi, nor does it refer exclusively to a woman's domestic role. EINAT: An old friend, chef, asked me when I went to open Balaboosta, and I said, ‘I don't have a name.' She said: ‘What do you call a badass woman in Hebrew?' I'm like, ‘balaboosta.' She said, ‘It's a perfect name. We done.' Took five minutes to find this name, and I love it. It's really connected because for me it's so so much different things. You know, I always talk about the 20th century balaboosta. The balaboosta that outside going to work, the balaboosta that asking a man for a date. The balaboosta that it's not just like she's the housewife and the homekeeper. It's much more than that. Today, she's a multitask badass.  It's much more spiritual than what it is. I think it's the one that can bond the people together and bring them together and make peace between two parties clashing. So for me, it's much more than somebody that can cook and clean. So, much, much more than that. MANYA: Einat's parents became more religious when she was 12, which of course had the opposite effect on their daughter: she rebelled. When her time came to do her mandatory service in the Israel Defense Force, she was determined not to serve in a role typically assigned to women. She requested a post as a firing instructor. But after reviewing the high school transcript shaped by her rebellious adolescence, the IDF assigned her to the Nevatim Air Base where she served as a chauffeur for fighter pilots. EINAT: Back then most women would be secretaries giving coffee to some assholes. I was trying not to do that, and somehow I got very lucky, and I was in the same division, I was in the Air Force. I had amazing time for two years. I start the military a very different person, and left a very different person. I used to hang with a lot of bad people before, really bad people. And when I get to the military, I was a driver of pilots, it's the top of the top of the top in the hierarchy in the military in all IDF. So now I'm hanging with people that have the biggest ambition ever, and I'm learning new stuff, and everything opened up, even my language changed completely. Everything. I was want to travel more than I ever want before, and I have like, crazy dreams. MANYA: To make sure the elite pilots were well-fed, the IDF bused in a group of Yemenite grandmothers to provide ochel bayit, or home-cooked meals. Einat befriended the kitchen staff and helped out from time to time. Then in January 1991, she was tapped to cook a meal that probably launched her career. The IDF chiefs of staff had convened at Nevatim base to discuss the U.S. plan to bomb Iraq during the Gulf War and what Israel would do if Saddam Hussein retaliated with an attack on the Jewish state. But they needed to plot that strategy on full stomachs. A couple of pilots served as her sous chefs. That night, the Israeli generals dined on Chinese chicken with garlic, honey, and soy. And a rice salad. EINAT: It was definitely the turning point, the military.  I would say there is some values of relationship and working ethics that I wouldn't see anywhere else, and that's coming, I think because the military. They're waking up in the morning, the friendship, they're no snitching or none of this. It's to stand up for each other. There is so many other values that I grabbed from that. So when I start my culinary career, and I was in a fine dining kitchen, it was very helpful, very helpful. MANYA: After spending five years in a van driving around Germany – an extended celebration of freedom after IDF service --  it was time to get serious about a career. A culinary career made as good a sense as any. Einat worked as a waitress in Eilat and enrolled in culinary school. At the end, she marched into the kitchen of Keren, one of the first restaurants in Israel to offer haute cuisine. She got an internship, then a job. The former restaurant, run by Israeli Chef and television host Haim Cohen, is credited for reinventing Israeli cuisine. Now, as a restaurant owner and TV personality herself, Einat is largely credited for introducing Israeli cuisine to the U.S. But before she became the self-made Balaboosta of fine Israeli dining, Einat was America's Falafel Queen, made famous by two victories on the Food Network's show Chopped and her first restaurant – now a fast food chain called Ta'im Falafel. But her fame and influence when it comes to Israeli cooking has exposed her to a fair bit of criticism. She has become a target on social media by those who accuse Israelis of appropriating Palestinian foods – an argument she calls petty and ridiculous. So ridiculous, she has found the best platform to address it is on the stage of her new hobby: stand-up comedy. Cooking has always been her Zen. But so is dark humor. EINAT: I like comedy more than anything, not more than food, but close enough. EINAT/Clip: Yeah, this year was great here on Instagram, lot of hate comments, though. A lot about food appropriation, me making Arabic dishes. So let me clarify something here. I check my DNA through ancestry.com and I am 97% Middle Eastern, so I fucking bleed hummus. EINAT: It's very petty. Food, supposed always to share. Food supposed to moving forward.  It's tiring and life is much more complex than to even argue and have a debate about stupid things. I'm done. OK, yes, we're indigenous.I have connection to the land. My parents, my grandparents and great grandparents have connection to that land. Okay, I get it. Now we need to solve what's going on, because there was Palestinian that lived there before, and how we can, for me, how we change the ideology, which I don't see how we can, but how we can change the ideology, convince them that they want peace. And they want…I don't know. MANYA: Needless to say, in the year that has followed the attacks of October 7, stand-up comedy has not been the balm it once was. The attacks that unfolded that day by Iran-backed terrorists that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 250 more was simply too devastating. EINAT: I was broken there, my husband was with me, I was every day on a bed crying, and then going to work, and it was like I couldn't hear music, because every music thinking about Nova and my friends and then I couldn't see babies with a mom. Everything was a trigger. It was bad. We had a disaster of October 7 and then October 8 to see the world reaction was another. It's not just enough that we going through so much grief and need to kind of contain all that emotion and crazy and anger and rage and now we need to see the world's. Like, ok. I never thought there is antisemitism. It's something from the past, for my grandparents, for my mom a little, but it's not something in my generation, or my kids' generation. It's done, apparently, not. MANYA: The lack of sympathy around the world and among her culinary peers only amplified Einat's grief. As a way to push for a cease-fire and end U.S. support for Israel, nearly 900 chefs, farmers and others in the food industry signed a pledge to boycott Israel-based food businesses and culinary events that promote Israel. EINAT: I felt very, very alone, very alone. The first few months, I felt like, wow, not one call from anyone to check on me. It was pretty sad. At the same time, I'm in the best company ever Jewish community. There is nothing like that, nothing. MANYA: Her team at Balaboosta also checked in on their Israeli boss. But they too were scared. Soon after she posted pictures of the hostages on the window of her restaurant, she confronted a group of teenagers who tried to tear them down. EINAT: I stand in front of them and I said, ‘You better move fast'. MANYA: It's no secret that Iran helped plan Oct. 7. What is not as well known is how many Jews still live and thrive in Iran. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there were nearly 100,000 Jews in Iran. Today, Israeli sources say the population numbers less than 10,000, while the regime and Iran's Jewish leaders say it's closer to 20,000. Regardless, Iran's Jewish community remains the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.  To be sure, the constitution adopted in 1906 is still in place nominally, and it still includes Jews as a protected religious minority. Jews in Iran have synagogues, access to kosher meat, and permission to consume wine for Shabbat, despite a national ban on alcohol. There's also a Jewish representative in Iran's parliament or Majlis. But all women and girls regardless of religion are required to wear a veil, according to the Islamist dress code, and Jews are pressured to vote in elections at Jewish-specific ballot stations so the regime can monitor their participation. Zionism is punishable by death and after Oct. 7, the regime warned its Jewish citizens to sever contact with family and friends in Israel or risk arrest. They also can't leave. Iranian law forbids an entire Jewish nuclear family from traveling abroad at the same time. At least one family member, usually the father, must remain behind to prevent emigration. But Houman points out that many Iranian Jews, including himself, are deeply attached to Iranian culture. As a resident of Los Angeles, he reads Persian literature, cooks Persian herb stew for his children and speaks in Persian to his pets. He would return to Iran in an instant if given the opportunity to do so safely. For Jews living in Iran it may be no different. They've become accustomed to living under Islamist laws. They may not want to leave, even if they could. SARSHAR: The concept of living and thriving in Iran, for anyone who is not related to the ruling clergy and the Revolutionary Guard, is a dream that feels unattainable by anyone in Iran, let alone the Jews. In a world where there is really no fairness for anyone, the fact that you're treated even less fairly almost fades. MANYA: Scholars say since the Islamic Revolution, most Jews who have left Iran have landed in Los Angeles or Long Island, New York. Still, more Jews of Iranian descent live in Israel – possibly more than all other countries combined. The reason why? Because so many like Einat's family made aliyah–up until the mid-20th Century.  It's hard to say where another exodus might lead Iranian Jews to call home. Einat will be forever grateful that her family left when they still could and landed in a beautiful and beloved place. Though she lives in the U.S. now, she travels back to Israel at least twice a year. EINAT: It's a dream for every Jew, it's not just me. It's the safe zone for every Jew. It's the one place that, even if we have, it's not safe because there is people around us that want to kill us. It's still emotionally. You know, I've been in Israel a few months ago, it's like, you always feel loved, you always feel supported. It's incredible. And it's still home. It's always going to be my home. MANYA: Persian Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Middle Eastern and North African countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Many thanks to Einat for sharing her family's story. You can enjoy some of her family's favorite recipes in her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk. Her memoir Taste of Love was recently released in  an audio and digital format.  Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible. You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC. You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

Do you ever find your soups bland, and missing that extra something — like a zippy, flavorful sauce that turns a humble meal into something extra special? In this bite-sized episode, we share delicious moments about the best things we ate this week to inspire each other – and you! You'll want to make this hearty bean soup topped with herby green hot sauce that comes together in seconds in your blender, and you'll get inspired to serve dinner in a crispy tortilla bowl – filled with an updated take on the classic taco salad that's full of veggies, and makes for an easy meatless meal. Tune in for a quick dose of home cooking inspiration! ***Links to from this week's show:Sonya's Yemenite white bean soup with zhougHow to make crispy taco salad shells from Natasha's Kitchen, and a roasted cauliflower taco bowl to serve inside it from Budget BytesFor a more classic take, try taco salad by Sohla from NYT Cooking***We love hearing from you — follow us on Instagram @foodfriendspod, or drop us a line at foodfriendspod@gmail.com! Or give us a CALL on our kitchen phone! 323-452-9084Sign up for Sonya's free Substack, or order her debut cookbook Braids for more Food Friends recipes!

“When we show the world that we're not what they say about us, that we're not white colonizers, that we're actually an indigenous tribe of people that was kicked out of their homeland . . .  the only argument I can think about to put against the story is ‘you're lying.' . . . If they accuse you of lying when you tell your family story, they lost.” Last week's episode featuring Adiel Cohen—Jewish activist, social media influencer, and Israel Defense Forces reservist—received heartfelt feedback. In part two of this conversation, Adiel joins us live from the AJC Global Forum 2024 in Washington, D.C., where listeners had the chance to ask their questions directly. Adiel discusses a plethora of topics, including his social media activism and how Israeli society today reflects the story of Jews returning to their ancestral homeland after over 2,000 years in the diaspora, refuting the false narrative that Jews are white settler colonialists.  If you haven't heard The Forgotten Exodus: Yemen: Live Recording with Adiel Cohen – Part 1, listen now.  —--- How much do you know about Jewish history in the Middle East? Take our short quiz! Sign up to receive podcast updates here. Learn more about the series here: The Forgotten Exodus: Yemen: Live Recording with Adiel Cohen – Part 1 The Forgotten Exodus: Yemen, with Israeli Olympian Shahar Tzubari Song credits:  Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Meditative Middle Eastern Flute”: Publisher: N/A; Composer: DANIELYAN ASHOT MAKICHEVICH (IPI NAME #00855552512) “Suspense Middle East” Publisher: Victor Romanov, Composer: Victor Romanov; Item ID: 196056047 —-- Episode Transcript: Adiel Cohen:   When we show the world that we're not what they say about us, that we're not white colonizers, that we're actually an indigenous tribe of people that was kicked out of their homeland and spread throughout the diaspora for 2000 years . . . they can try to argue with that. But at the end of the day, the facts are on our side. Manya Brachear Pashman: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations–despite hardship, hostility, and hatred–then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman:. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not. This is The Forgotten Exodus.  There has been moving and frankly overwhelming feedback from listeners of our second season, especially last week's live interview with digital influencer Adiel Cohen: about his family's journey from Yemen. If you didn't listen last week, be sure to go back and tune in. Then you'll know why there's been such a demand to release the second part of that interview – a question and answer session.  Why are we sharing this? It's a sampling of the conversations these episodes have generated in homes across the nation and around the world, inspired by this series. What would you ask our guests? Here's what a handful asked Adiel when he joined us at AJC Global Forum 2024 in Washington D.C.  Today's episode: Leaving Yemen, Part 2.  Thank you for this conversation, Adiel. But now I'd like to turn to our audience and give them an opportunity to ask what's on their minds. If you have a question, please raise your hand, someone will bring you a microphone. Be sure to state your name, where you're from, and keeping with the spirit of the event, tell us where your family is from going back generations. Audience Member/Carole Weintraub: Hi, thank you for coming. My name is Carole Weintraub. I'm from Philadelphia. And depending on the week, my family was either from Poland, Ukraine, or Russia – the borders changed all the time.  Adiel Cohen:   Oh wow, ok. Carole Weintraub: Take your pick. My question's kind of a fun question. You mentioned some dishes that your grandmom would make. You gave us the names, but I never heard of them, and could you describe them? Adiel Cohen:   Yes. So the main food that we eat, I would say it's like the equivalent to matzo ball soup. That's like the default dish for holidays, for day-to-day. It's Yemenite soup. It's just called Yemenite soup. It's very simple. It's a soup made with a lot of spices, I think. Kumkum and hell. It can be vegetable, chicken, or beef based, with a side of either potato or pumpkin inside the soup. It's very good, very healthy. We eat it, especially in winter, every Shabbat. Like it cleans your entire system, all the spices.  Some breads that we have that are also very common. Lachuch or lachoh, you know, in the Yemenite pronunciation, it's a flatbread similar to pancake. It's kind of like a pancake, only fried on one side with holes, yeah. And the other side, the top side becomes full of bubbles that turn into holes. So it's fluffy, like very, very soft, very good to eat with dips or with soup.  We also have saluf, which is just a regular pita, it's a flatbread. Zalabiyeh, which is kind of like the, in Yemen they used to eat it during Shavuot and in Israel, now we eat it a lot in Hanukkah, because it's fried. It's kind of like a flatbread donut. I don't know how else to explain it. Right. It's kind of like sufganiyah but made flat, like a pita. There's so much more wow, I'm starting to salivate here. Manya Brachear Pashman:   If you don't mind me just interjecting with one of my own questions, and that is, do you encourage people to make these recipes, to try out different parts of your culture or do you feel a little bit of or maybe fear appropriation of your culture? Like what is… Adiel Cohen:   No, not at all. Go look up Yemenite soup recipe on Google. It's all there in English. And it's delicious. It's healthy. Do it, really. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Do you try other Jewish cultures in fact? Adiel Cohen:   Kubbeh must be one of my favorite foods that is not Yemenite. It's Iraqi-Jewish. My hometown, Ramat Gan, is the capital of Iraqi Jews and Israel. Every time I say that I'm from Ramat Gan, people ask me ‘Oh, you're Iraqi?' I'm like, no, no, Yemenite. So kubbeh, sabich. Sabich, that's the best food, I think, Israel has to offer. Also Iraqi Jewish.  I feel bad that I don't have anything good to say about Ashkenazi foods. I tried matzo ball soup for the first time. I'm sorry. My sister, she married an Ashkenazi Jew from Monsey – can't get any more Ashkenazi than that. And this was actually my first time trying and getting a taste of Ashkenazi culture and cuisine. Can't say that it, like, blew me off. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Alright, next question. Audience Member/Amy Albertson: Hi, Adiel.  Adiel Cohen:   Hi, Amy. Amy Albertson: My name is Amy Albertson. I personally am from California and my family's from Russia, Poland, and China. And my question for you is, as a fellow social media creator, especially during times like this, I get asked a lot about racism in Israel since Americans are obsessed with racism. And they always want to point out how the Teimanim, the Yemenites, the Ethiopians, the other what Americans like to say not white Jews are discriminated against and have been discriminated against since the establishment of Israel.  Obviously, we can't deny that there is racism. However, I would like to know your perspective obviously as a Yemenite Jew living in Israel and also the good and the bad, where you find that things are hopefully better than they were in the past in Israel, and also where you think that Israeli society still has to improve when it comes to things like this. Adiel Cohen:   So part of the cultural discourse in Israel, we always make fun of how every wave of aliyah, from every place in the world that Israel experienced, the last wave of aliyah discriminates against them or makes fun of them, because ‘oh, the new ones.' And in a sense, it is true, you see it a lot. And racism, unfortunately, exists in Israel, in Israeli society, just like in every society in the world. I think that if you compare it to how it was in the 50s, we're way better off now.  And racism is widely condemned, all throughout Israeli society, against anyone, against any communities. We still have the stereotypes, we still have, you know, these jokes that sometimes are funny, sometimes are less funny about different communities. I would say for the most part, we know how to maintain a healthy humor of kind of making fun of each other as different communities but also making it all part of what it means to be Israeli. When my grandparents came to Israel, they were discriminated against. They were ‘othered' by the rest of society that was mostly dominated by secular Ashkenazim.  The same thing can also be said on Holocaust survivors that first arrived in Israel and also faced discrimination from their brothers and sisters, who are also Ashkenazim. So I don't know if racism is the right word. I don't think there's a word that can describe this dynamic that we have between our communities. But yeah, I definitely can say that throughout the generations it's become way better. We see way more diverse representation in Israeli media, in Israeli pop culture. If you look at what's Israeli pop culture, it's majority Mizrahi, and a lot of Yemenites if I may add, because, you know, we know how to sing. Not me, though, unfortunately. But yeah, we see a lot more representation. I believe we're on the right path to become more united and to bridge between our differences and different communities. Audience Member/Alison Platt: Hi, I'm Alison Platt. I live in Chicago by way of Northern California. My family is from all over Europe, and then about 1500 years before that Southern Italy. So I lost my grandmother last week, so I really thank you, I really appreciate the importance of telling our grandparents' stories. So thank you for sharing yours with us. For those of us who are millennials or Gen Z who are for better or worse, very online, storytelling is important and telling our own personal Jewish stories, very important, telling our collective Jewish story, very important. So for someone who does that on social media, what is your advice for those of us who are really trying to educate both on a one-to-one level and then communally about our Jewish identities, what has been successful for you, what has been challenging and where do you see that going? Adiel Cohen:   So, you know, telling a story, you can tell a story with words, you can also tell a story with visuals. Some of the most successful videos that I made about Yemenite Jews involved my grandma cooking and my mom cooking, making lachuch and showing the Seder, the table, how beautiful and colorful it is. So don't be afraid to pull up your phone and just show it when you see it. And in terms of verbal stories, speak to your grandparents as much as you can. When my grandma passed away, I realized how it can happen like that, and then that's it. And there's no more stories from Savta around Shabbat table and what you managed to gather, that's what you're carrying on to the future. So collect as many stories as possible from every generation so that these stories can live on and exist. And just tell them on social media, open your camera, tell it to the world, because this is how they get to know us. Audience Member/Ioel: Hi, everyone. I'm Ioel from Italy. I'm the Vice President of the Italian Union of Young Jews. And part of my family comes from Egypt. So I relate to your storytelling.  Recently, I have attended the inaugural seminar of Archon Europe. It's an organization that's fostering heritage towards Europe. And we were wondering how to share our stories. So I want to ask you, what is the best thing for you to make the story of this sort of silent exodus known in the Western society, and especially in our university. And how do you think your activism is contributing to fight antisemitism? Adiel Cohen:   I think it's as simple as just taking the leap and start telling these stories. As I said, sit with your grandparents, with your parents and just talk about it. Write down notes and turn it into a story that can be told through social media, make videos about it. You know, Egyptian jewelry, if you look into it, there's so much there. There's the Genizah, right, the Cairo Genizah – so much knowledge and Jewish history, not only from Egypt, but from the entire Middle East.  You got accounts in the Cairo Genizah about how Jews lived in Israel, in the Land of Israel, under Muslim rule; stories that are not heard. When you expose the world and people on campus to these stories, first of all, you burst the little bubble that says Jews poofed in Israel in 1948 and up until then, they didn't exist there. And second of all, you show them that Jews existed, not just in Europe, but also in other parts of the world – in Egypt, and in the Middle East as well.  Your question was, how does my activism contribute? I hope to inspire more young Jews, Gen Z, millennials, to share their stories and get connected to them and understand the importance of sharing stories because you can enjoy listening to your grandparents stories, but then do nothing about it. So I hope that my content and then my activism inspires other Jews to speak up, just like I am inspired by other creators who also tell their stories. Manya Brachear Pashman:   And I think the other aspect of his question was about fighting antisemitism, whether or not you feel that sharing these stories helps in that effort. Adiel Cohen:   Definitely. Again, when we show the world that we're not what they say about us, that we're not white colonizers, that we're actually an indigenous tribe of people that was kicked out of their homeland and spread throughout the diaspora for 2000 years, they can try to argue with that. But at the end of the day, the facts are on our side, and also the importance of a story, you can't argue with a story.  If you're telling a story from your family, from your own personal experience, the only argument I can think about to put against the story is ‘you're lying.' And ‘you're lying' is not a good argument. If they accuse you of lying when you tell your family story, they lost. Audience Member/Daniel: Hi, my name is Daniel. I'm American-Israeli and my family background is I'm half Lithuanian and half Yemenite. I just wanna say I feel very and thoroughly inspired by you, and thank you so much for coming today.  Adiel Cohen: Thank you. Daniel: As a child, I was fortunate enough to hear stories from my grandparents and my great grandfather about their lives in Yemen. Recently, I read Maimonides' letter to Yemen Adiel Cohen: Beautiful. Daniel: And I was particularly inspired by the fact that it was originally written in Arabic and it was translated into Hebrew so that it could be properly disseminated in the community. It remains my favorite primary source regarding Yemen's Jewish community. But with 3000 years of history, almost, there's plenty to choose from. So what's your favorite text or book relating to Yemen's Jewish community? Adiel Cohen:   That. Iggeret Teiman, the letter of Maimonides to the Yemenite Jewish community is a transformative letter. It came in a time that was very, very tough for the Yemenite Jewish community. It was a time of false messiahs that started popping out of nowhere in Yemen, both in the Muslim community but also in the Jewish community. And a false messiah that pops out of nowhere creates civil unrest. It sounds a little weird and otherworldly in the world that we live in now, but when someone pops out of nowhere and says, I'm the Messiah. I'm coming to save you all, and back at the time, it was revolutionary.  And there was a lot of troubles that the Jews faced at the time because of the false messiahs. The Yemeni leadership was very hostile to Jews, just like, every time there's problems in society, who gets blamed? The Jews, for different reasons, and that time was the reason that Jews were blamed. That was the reason Jews were blamed for.  And out of Egypt, Rambam comes. He did not set foot in his life in Yemen. But the head of the Yemenite Jewish community sent him a letter all the way to Egypt. He was in Egypt at the time after migrating all the way from Spain to Morocco to Egypt, asking him for help. And he sent him this letter, Rambam sent him back this letter, Iggeret Teiman, where he basically empowers and strengthens the Jewish community, telling them to maintain their faith and do not fall for the false messiahs and keep their faith in Hashem, and they will be saved.  It was as simple as that to save the Jewish community who was suffering at the time, and ever since then, Jews adopted, not fully, but adopted a lot of the Rambam's Mishnah, his ideas. And till this day, the Rambam is the most notable figure that Yemenite Jews look up to. He did not set foot in Yemen one time.  The Jews did not go to Egypt and sought for help, but it shows you why it's my favorite text in our history. It's because it shows that even in the diaspora, even when, you know, we were seemingly disconnected, we always relied on each other. And it's amazing to think about it, how a letter got to Egypt, sent back, and he saved a community from all the way far over there. So yeah, that's the answer. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So I think we are out of time. Thank you for all those thoughtful questions. That was really wonderful. And thank you for being such a lovely audience. And thank you, Adiel. Adiel Cohen: Thank you. Manya Brachear Pashman:   For joining us and sharing your family's story and hopefully inspiring some of us to do the same. So thank you. Adiel Cohen:   I hope so. Thank you so much. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Yemenite Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Adiel for sharing his story. Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible.  You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

Zohara flies from New York to Israel for her mother's funeral. She'd already been through a tough year; a divorce from her American husband and trouble getting started on her doctoral dissertation at NYU. As she clears out the house where she grew up, Zohara finds tapes of her mother singing Yemenite songs in Arabic, and evidence of a secret romance. During her first thirty days of mourning, Zohara has conversations with her mother's longtime friends, joins her mother's Yemenite women's choir, and rekindles old friendships. Songs for the Brokenhearted (Random House, 2024) is a beautiful dual-timeline novel about the Yemenite community struggling in overcrowded immigrant camps in 1950's Israel, family bonds, mother-daughter relationships, political realities in 1995 Israel, and a young woman learning to be honest with herself. Ayelet Tsabari is an Israeli Canadian writer born in Israel to a large family of Yemeni descent. Her book of stories, The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award. The book was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, was nominated for The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and has been published internationally. Her memoir in essays The Art of Leaving, won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir, was finalist for the Writer's Trust Hilary Weston Prize and The Vine Awards. She's the co-editor of the award-winning anthology Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language. Ayelet teaches creative writing at The University of King's College MFA and at Guelph MFA in Creative Writing. She lives in Tel Aviv with her family, and when she's not writing or teaching, she loves to cook, do yoga, sing with her neighbourhood choir, and spend time at her favourite place in the world, the beach. These days, more than anything, she wishes for peace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Zohara flies from New York to Israel for her mother's funeral. She'd already been through a tough year; a divorce from her American husband and trouble getting started on her doctoral dissertation at NYU. As she clears out the house where she grew up, Zohara finds tapes of her mother singing Yemenite songs in Arabic, and evidence of a secret romance. During her first thirty days of mourning, Zohara has conversations with her mother's longtime friends, joins her mother's Yemenite women's choir, and rekindles old friendships. Songs for the Brokenhearted (Random House, 2024) is a beautiful dual-timeline novel about the Yemenite community struggling in overcrowded immigrant camps in 1950's Israel, family bonds, mother-daughter relationships, political realities in 1995 Israel, and a young woman learning to be honest with herself. Ayelet Tsabari is an Israeli Canadian writer born in Israel to a large family of Yemeni descent. Her book of stories, The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award. The book was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, was nominated for The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and has been published internationally. Her memoir in essays The Art of Leaving, won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir, was finalist for the Writer's Trust Hilary Weston Prize and The Vine Awards. She's the co-editor of the award-winning anthology Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language. Ayelet teaches creative writing at The University of King's College MFA and at Guelph MFA in Creative Writing. She lives in Tel Aviv with her family, and when she's not writing or teaching, she loves to cook, do yoga, sing with her neighbourhood choir, and spend time at her favourite place in the world, the beach. These days, more than anything, she wishes for peace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

“We can't expect people to stand up for us against antisemitism if they don't know who we are. And we can't expect them to know who we are if we're not there to tell our story.”  Adiel Cohen: Jewish activist, social media influencer, and Israel Defense Forces reservist, has a passion for storytelling – especially that of his beloved grandmother, Savta Sarah. She fled Yemen under harrowing circumstances to come to Israel in the mid-20th century. At just 12 years old, she left the only home she'd ever known, braving dangerous terrain, bandits, and gangs – to reach safety in Israel. Recorded live at AJC Global Forum 2024 in Washington, D.C., this conversation explores the vibrant life of Yemenite Jews and the scarred history of Jewish persecution in the country. In a candid conversation, Adiel reflects on his advocacy, both online and off, and emphasizes the importance of sharing diverse Jewish stories. —- Show notes: Sign up to receive podcast updates here. Learn more about the series here. Song credits:  Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Meditative Middle Eastern Flute”: Publisher: N/A; Composer: DANIELYAN ASHOT MAKICHEVICH (IPI NAME #00855552512)  “Suspense Middle East” Publisher: Victor Romanov, Composer: Victor Romanov; Item ID: 196056047 ___ Episode Transcript: Adiel Cohen: Because they dare to fight back, they knew that they're no longer safe, because God forbid Jews resist to oppression and to violence. And the same night, my grandma told me that her father gave her a pair of earrings, silver earrings, and he told her, ‘Sarah, take these pair of earrings and keep them safe. That's the only thing that you can take with you to Eretz Yisrael.' Manya Brachear Pashman:   The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations despite hardship, hostility, and hatred, then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not.  This is The Forgotten Exodus. Today's episode: leaving Yemen. _ On the night of October 7, while Hamas terrorists were still on their murderous rampage through Israel, 26-year-old Adiel Cohen was drafted to serve in a reserve artillery corps unit and rocket division of the Israeli Defense Forces. He went directly to a base near one of Israel's borders to start working on his unit's vehicles and tools. But that is not the only battlefront on which Adiel has been serving.  Adiel is a content creator on social media, creating Instagram posts and TikTok videos to counter the antisemitism and anti-Israel messages proliferating online. One way Adiel dispels some of these misconceptions is by sharing his own family's story. Adiel's grandparents on both sides were in that group of 800,000 Jews who fled Arab lands and started life anew in Israel. In 1950, they fled Yemen, making their way to Israel to help build a Jewish state.  Today's special episode of The Forgotten Exodus presents an exclusive interview with Adiel, recorded in front of a live audience at the AJC Global Forum 2024 in Washington D.C. Adiel, you heard stories from your Savta Sarah who passed away only a few months ago. She was your paternal grandmother. Could you please share that side of your family story in Yemen? Adiel Cohen:   Of course. So first of all, I want to thank you all for coming and listening to my story. It's my first time in this type of AJC event, especially on that scale. It's very exciting to me, and it's amazing to see this beautiful display of Jewish solidarity and strength. So I'm very, very honored to be here. Thank you.  So the history of the Jewish community in Yemen dates back for as long as the Israelite Kingdom existed. It dates back all the way to King Shlomo (Solomon) and the First Temple when we had trade with the kingdom of Sh'va (Sheba), at the time that ruled Ethiopia and Yemen.  And for my family, as far as we can tell, we go back all the way to that era. I do know that I have one ancestor somewhere along the line 15 generations ago from the Jewish community of Iraq that migrated into Yemen.  But my ancestry for the most part is in Yemen, Yemenite Jewish. I did a DNA test. The results were nothing too revolutionary, aside from 1% Nigerian. But yeah, it just came out Yemenite Jewish. And they spent pretty much the entire diaspora in Yemen until 1950. Manya Brachear Pashman:   And your grandfather was a jeweler, right? A silversmith? Adiel Cohen:   He was. So fun fact: the work of silver and crafts made of silver, was a profession only done by Jews in Yemen. So you can imagine how impactful it was for the economy in Yemen. And you know, a lot of people say that Jews, like, control the economy and all these, you know, stereotypes that we know. In Yemen, we really drove a big part of the economy, because of the professions that we did that were pretty much only Jews doing them.  So he used to do silver work and jewelry. He did both the traditional Yemenite jewelry which is made of thin silver wires, creating these beautiful patterns. And not just jewelry, but also Judaica, candlesticks, and all these ritual tools like the can for the b'samim (ritual spices), for the Havdalah.  Beautiful, beautiful art, passed from his father and then his father, all the way, thousands of years as far as we can tell. And nowadays, my uncle, my father's brother, is preserving this tradition. He has a gallery in Tzfat, if you're ever planning to go there. Now, it's not really a good time, but definitely hit me up, and I'll send you his way. Very proud of that tradition. Definitely. Manya Brachear Pashman:   That's lovely. Were they city folk? Or did they live in a more agricultural area? Adiel Cohen:   They were fully city folks. They lived in Sanaa, the capital, both sides of my family. It's interesting, not a lot of people know, but there's a lot of nuance in the Yemenite Jewish community. So Yemen is a pretty big country and pretty diverse. You've got mountains and green terraces and agriculture, but you also have very, very dry desert, and you have port cities.  So every Jewish community in Yemen was very unique in its culture and its essence in their professions. And in Sanaa specifically, they were more into spirituality and humanities. They were intellectuals and thinkers, a lot of philosophy, a lot of the Jewish philosophy and poetry in Yemen came from Sanaa. And this is where both sides of my family come from. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Did they live in harmony with their neighbors in Sanaa for most of that time? Adiel Cohen:   Yeah, so the relations between Jews and Arabs in Yemen vary. It was a roller coaster for the most part of history, and it really depended on the king and the leadership at every single time. And there were times of great coexistence and flourishing and times where, you know, you could see Jewish poetry and literature and just like in Spain, like what we hear in Spain.  But there were also times of great conflict and oppression and violence. One instance that I can point out to was in the 1600s, in 1679, it was an event called the Mawza Exile. Not a lot of people know about it, which is a shame, because it is the single most traumatic event in the history of our community. It lasted one year, and during this year, the king decided that all the Jews in Yemen should be expelled to the desert.  And the desert in Yemen is very, very harsh – wild animals, climate, lack of food, soil that cannot be cultivated. And of course, this also came with burning of books and literatures and archives. Yemenite Jews, up until then, kept archives of their family trees and scriptures and poetry. We don't have a lot of it left before the 1600s, because of this event. Two-thirds of the community perished during that year, there was no one to fill the jobs that Jews used to do.  And at some point, the king allowed Jews to come back to their homes and live in their own ghettos. That was from the 1600s till 1950 with Operation Magic Carpet. But in the more modern, in the more recent history, we can point out the 40s as an uptick in violence and antisemitism against Jews in Yemen.  A lot of people think that what happened in Europe at the time did not really affect Jews in Arab countries, but it is completely the opposite. We had Nazi emissaries visiting some Arab countries and Jewish communities trying to inspect options to transfer Jews from the Middle East to concentration camps in Europe and even building and establishing concentration camps in the Middle East for Jews. The Mufti of Jerusalem at the time, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, was also very involved in trying to transfer the Jews of Yemen to concentration camps. It did not succeed. At the time, there was a pretty friendly king. But Nazi propaganda infiltrated every single society at the time in the Middle East.  The Farhud in Iraq is a great example of that, right, of Nazi involvement in the Middle East. And the same thing happened in Yemen. And I can point out to one event that was kind of like the turning point and then we can also continue to the story of my grandma's aliyah.  There was a blood libel that was spread in Sanaa. Hundreds of Arabs who used to be neighbors just turned against their Jewish neighbors, started attacking them, looting their homes, raiding the Jewish Quarter of Sanaa.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   So did the violence reach your family directly? Adiel Cohen:   My grandma's family, they used to live all in the same house. It was a big family in Yemen. It was common that the entire family, the entire clan, lives in the same house, especially if they're well off. And my family, Baruch Hashem, they were pretty well off. They were jewelers and traders, and they had a big house with the entire family. And their neighbor came, broke into their house. All the grandchildren, including my grandma, had to hide in the pantries and in the closets, and their grandfather, Saba Avraham, was there protecting the house.  Their neighbor came, assaulted their grandfather, knocked him to the ground. And my grandma, when she told me this story, she told me that they were looking, they were peeking through the cracks of the door and they saw what's going on. And when they saw the assault, they decided to storm out of the pantries and the closet with pans and pots and knives and attack the neighbor. And she tells me they chased him down the street and this is how they saved their grandfather's life.  And this is a story over Shabbat dinner. It's crazy, crazy stories that we used to listen to. Manya Brachear Pashman:   And how long after that incident did your family say, we have to leave? Adiel Cohen:   The same day, the same day. But because they dare to fight back, they knew that they're no longer safe. Because God forbid Jews resist to oppression and to violence. And the same night, my grandma told me that her father gave her a pair of earrings, silver earrings, and he told her, ‘Sarah, take these pair of earrings and keep them safe. That's the only thing that you can take with you to Eretz Yisrael.'  And the same night they were packing everything that they could but not too much because they needed to walk by foot. They packed their stuff for the way, and with dawn they set to the city of Aden. In Aden, there was the transit camp, Hashed, which all Yemenite Jews from all over Yemen fled to during this time.  And from there, Operation Magic Carpet commenced, but the journey was incredibly hard. My grandma used to tell me that the entire world was in the 20th century, and Yemen was still somewhere in the 18th century – no roads, camels, donkeys, sometimes Jeeps. And she told us one story which completely blew my mind. It was a few weeks before she passed away. About how she, at some point, they traveled night and day, continuously, and at some point, her donkey with her sister and her little brother, baby brother, broke off from the caravan.  The rest of the family, they had to stay somewhere. And they were held up, basically. But my Savta continued with their donkey, with her sister Tzivia, and their baby brother, one-year-old Ratzon. And, you know, along the way, they had to face bandits and gangs, and it was very, very tough. They had to pay ransom every few miles.  And at some point, when they broke off from the caravan, a bandit came and assaulted them. He pushed them off the cliffside and took the donkey with everything, everything they had – food, the equipment, they had nothing left. And they were left stranded on the cliffside. It was already starting to get dark. And they don't know where the rest of the family is, somewhere in the back, and they don't know if they can ever find them.  And she told me that it began to get darker and darker. And at some point, they looked up and all they saw was pitch black and just night sky full of stars. And they were praying and they were singing, just hanging on a cliffside. Imagine that at the time, she was 12. Her sister was 14. And they were both holding a little one-year-old baby.  And she said that when they stopped singing, they kind of lost hope already. Their brother started crying. And when he started crying, that's exactly when their family passed on the trail up on the mountain. And this is how they got rescued in the middle of the night, in the middle of the desert after being attacked and robbed. And they had to just continue walking all the way to Camp Hashed. They spent a few months there as well. Not easy months. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Your grandmother was one who believed in miracles, I believe. Adiel Cohen: Yeah. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Yeah, okay.  Adiel Cohen: Yeah, definitely. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Yes. Well, instead of going into the details of Operation Magic Carpet, or On Eagle's Wings was really the name of that operation, I encourage our audience to listen to the first season of The Forgotten Exodus, where we interviewed Israeli Olympian Shahar Tzubari. His family also came from Yemen and the details of Operation On Eagle's Wings, there's a lot of details about that in that episode. So I encourage you to go back and listen to that, so that we can move on to your family's arrival in Israel, which also was not easy. Adiel Cohen:   Yeah, definitely not easy. I believe you all heard of the conditions in the transit camps in Israel. My family arrived in the winter of 1950. It was considered probably the coldest winter recorded in Israel. So cold it snowed in Tel Aviv. And that was the first time my grandma ever saw snow.  They arrived at the transit camp in Ein Shemer, and they were one of the lucky families. I guess, maybe, because they were pretty well off. They didn't sleep in a tent, but they slept in a tin shack, a little tin shack. Not the best conditions, obviously. No heating, no beds, sleeping on the ground, the entire family, and, you know, passing the tough winter months. Mud, rain, everything.  And, after a few months there, they were assigned a new place in Kadima, which is a small village in the Sharon, in central Israel. Agricultural community. And my family – who are all traders, jewelers, they don't know anything about farming – they lasted there for very, very little time.  At some point, the head of the family, the grandfather said, we're out of here. And part of the family moved to Tel Aviv, to Kerem HaTeimanim, the Yemenite quarter, which is very, very dear to my heart. And the other half to Ramat Gan, my hometown, which is even more dear to me. This is where I was born and raised. My grandma met my grandfather there, and this is where they married. Manya Brachear Pashman:   How did they plant roots in Israel? I mean, they left with hardly anything, except for a pair of, your grandmother had a pair of silver earrings in her possession. How did they start with nothing and build from there? What did they build? Adiel Cohen:   There was a lot of, like, hustling and, like, trying to make things work, and moving from job to job until she got married and became, how do you call it, like? Manya Brachear Pashman:   Homemaker or housewife? Homemaker, mother. Adiel Cohen:   A housewife, yeah. She took care of the kids, and my grandfather, he did most of the work. He did, again, silversmith, some trading, a lot of hustle as well, in between. They really just kind of made it work somehow.  Also, they were organizing a lot of events in their homes, a lot of community events and parties for the community, for the neighborhood, which is also something that looking back now that, you know, I spoke to my parents about it, it makes a lot of sense. You know, I grew up on these values of how important the community is and how important it is to be involved in the community. So it came from my grandparents.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   In addition to those values, what traditions have you been able to preserve that are very meaningful to you in terms of – when I say traditions, I mean, religious rituals, recipes, attire? Adiel Cohen:   Yeah, so if you mention attire, I have a very, very special item in my closet that I got from my grandfather, from Saba Pinchas. It is his original Yom Kippur gown for men. It's a beautiful, white, long shirt, with golden embroidery, all the way from Yemen. And it still sits in my closet waiting for the right project to kind of show it off. I tried wearing it, I'm not gonna lie, tried wearing it. It looks weird – it's very, very archaic, but it's beautiful nonetheless.  And in terms of recipes, of course, my grandma used to make all the Yemenite Jewish food from Yemenite soup, to all sorts of bread which we're very famous for. People think that Yemenites only eat bread, but it's not true. But we do have a lot of types of bread.  So every Friday growing up I used to wake up and see a pile of zalabiyeh, which is kind of like a fried pita flatbread. Very amazing, like, crunchy but also soft. Every Friday morning, lahuhe, all the recipes. And if you follow my Instagram and you see sometimes when my grandma was alive, I used to post a lot of videos about her and about our traditions.  She had her own recipe for charoset for Pesach. In Yemenite Jewish dialect we call it duqeh. It's kind of like the regular charoset that you know, only with a little bit of Yemenite spice mix, so it's very sweet but also has a little, like, zing to it. Very, very good.  If we're talking about Pesach, then I also made a video about that. The Yemenite Seder is very, very unique in the sense that we don't have a plate; we don't have a Seder plate. All the simanim (signs) and all the food is on the table as decoration. So we use the lettuce and radish and all the simanim (signs) as kind of like a frame for the table, it looks like a whole garden on the table. And we just eat from what we have on the table. And, of course, the religious traditions, the way of pronouncing the Torah. I spent months before my Bar Mitzvah relearning Hebrew in the Yemenite dialect. It's like learning a whole new language, not to talk about the te'amim, the melody that you need to read it. You need to be very, very punctuate. All of it – it's a huge part of my identity. Manya Brachear Pashman:   You must have done a wonderful job because there's also a photograph of you and your Savta at your Bar Mitzvah, and she looks quite pleased. So you must have done a fine job. Adiel Cohen:   She was my best friend. Yes, we lived together in the same house. In Israel, we kind of preserved the original way of living in Yemen. So we lived in the same house with my Savta. And I was very lucky. Most of my grandparents, all of my grandparents beside her, passed away when I was very young, but I was very lucky to live with her for as long as she lived and hear all these stories, every single week.  And, you know, even after I started my activism, she was my biggest supporter. I used to come back from trips to different Jewish communities and delegations and trips to Dubai and Morocco.  And the first thing I did was knock on her door, sit with her for a good 20 minutes, and just share my experiences and she was so pleased. And if I can share one example: a year ago, I came, not a year ago, it was this summer, I came back from a trip to Dubai where I met a Yemeni guy that took me to a Yemeni shop owned by actual Yemenis from Yemen, with spices and honey from Yemen and jewelry and, really, everything from Yemen.  And they offered me, when I told them the story of my family and I showed them pictures, they offered to give my grandma a gift. They told me, pick whatever you want from the jewelry section, and it's a gift for your grandma.  And when I came back from Dubai, and I gave her that, her eyes were just lit and filled with tears, because, you know, she hasn't been to Yemen, where she was born, ever since they left. So it was really one of the most touching moments before she passed away. Oh, I'm gonna cry. Yeah, we were very, very close. And I'm very, very lucky to be her grandson. Manya Brachear Pashman:   What happened to the earrings that her grandmother gave her? Adiel Cohen:   Wow, I wish we still had them. They sold them when they got to Israel to make a living. It was very, very tough, especially in the 50s. In Hebrew we call it t'kufat ha'tzena (period of austerity). All of Israel was basically a huge refugee camp, and the government had to, you know, make sure everyone has enough food and, you know, supply and all that. So they, unfortunately, sold it. Manya Brachear Pashman:   I do love it when you share your family stories and your heritage on your social media channels and, you know, the videos of making charoset and the language, the sharing of the vocabulary words. I'm curious what kinds of reactions you get from your audience. Are they surprised to hear that you hailed from Yemen? Are they just surprised by your family's origins? Adiel Cohen:   So it's interesting to see the progression throughout the years. I started my activism and content creation in 2020. And when I just started talking about my Yemenite heritage, people were very surprised, people from our community, from Jewish communities around the world, were surprised. I heard a lot of more surprised reactions.  I think nowadays and in the past few years there's a lot more awareness to different stories and different Jewish communities, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. So I'm happy to see that. And I see a lot of interest among Jews from other parts of the world. People ask me all the time to share about my traditions, to share about, you know, how we celebrate that and how do we pronounce that and all of that.  And from the non-Jewish audience, I'll start with reactions from the Arab world. I managed to forge a lot of amazing connections and friendships with Yemenis, Yemeni Muslims, based on our shared traditions and commonalities between our cultures. Yemeni Jewish culture and Yemeni Muslim culture is a little bit different, even in terms of food, but there are some commonalities, of course.  So it's very fun and fulfilling to be able to be a bridge between these communities who are alienated from Israel, to Israel. We're sort of a bridge between our nations. For sure, there are also a lot of hateful comments that I receive from people telling me, you're not really – the Zionists kidnapped you and you shouldn't be in Palestine, you should be in Yemen, come back to Yemen where you actually belong.  They made sure that we can't come back to Yemen throughout these years, and they showed us where we really belong. So, you know, there are these comments as well. But I can definitely say that the majority of the comments and reactions are very positive, and people are thirsty for knowledge and for stories about different communities. I see it. Manya Brachear Pashman:   I mean, everyone in this audience has a family story to share, has their own heritage. And I'm curious, Adiel, how does it serve the Jewish people to share our stories and where we all come from? Why is that so important to share, especially at a time like this, when there are so many false narratives out there? Adiel Cohen:   This is my favorite question. Because telling stories is my whole shtick. This is my bottom line of every single, you know, speaking engagements with students and stuff like that. Two things that make telling stories, telling our stories very important.  First of all, is outside of the community. People don't know who Jewish people are. Non-Jews, they don't know who Jewish people are. I see it all the time, a lot of ignorance, which I don't blame them for, right? I don't know a lot about Uyghur people in China. And we can't expect people to stand up for us against antisemitism if they don't know who we are. And we can't expect them to know who we are if we're not there to tell our story.  Because unfortunately, a lot of haters love to tell our story for us. It's kind of like a tactic for them. And the way they tell their story about us is completely different, and it serves a purpose that doesn't align with our purpose. To put it in good words.  So that's one important thing, telling our stories open up who we are to other audiences. When they get to know us, they can, more chances that they will stand up for us against antisemitism. And just in general, you know, just getting to know different communities and building bridges is always good.  And the second important point of telling stories is within our community. I can for sure say that before I started my activism on social media and being more involved with other Jewish communities, I did not know much about Yiddish. I did not know much about, you know, Ashkenazi culture or other cultures, even those we have in Israel. Because, you know, in Israel, we don't really talk about it. It's all on the surface level.  You know, Yemenites eat jachnun, Iraqis eat kubbeh. But once you get to know other Jewish communities and build bridges between these communities based on our stories, your individual Jewish identity and connection to the bigger Jewish collective would be stronger.  I feel a lot more Jewish – now that I know what Ashkenazim have gone through, what Ethiopian Jews have gone through, what Indian Jews have gone through, and all throughout the world. When we build these bridges, between our communities, we bring our people and our nation to the next step in history. We've been in diaspora for 2000 years, disconnected from each other, loosely connected but generally disconnected.  And now that we have Israel and now that we have social media and that we are more connected and that we have this very strong compass that points at this one land, it's easier for us to build these bridges.  And when we build them, we turn from a nation that is dispersed and made of disconnected communities to a network of communities that make a bigger, better, stronger nation, together with our diversity, with our stories, with our different experiences. Manya Brachear Pashman:   That's beautiful. Thank you so much. Adiel Cohen:   Thank you so much. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Yemenite Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Adiel for joining us at AJC Global Forum 2024 and sharing his family's story in front of a live audience. Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible.  You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

This week we're testing your metal in Israel! FIrst we meet Ben Zion David, an eighth generation jeweler from a Yemenite family. We met him at his shop in Jaffa to find out more. Then we talk to to two Iraelis using martial arts to better themselves and overcome PTSD.

Support us at https://patreon.com/2njb *** We're BACK for another thrilling weekly recap! Tune in!

You need to first find out what they're about. Only after some time can you tell who is running the show and what is really happening. https://www.torahrecordings.com/rebbe/igroskodesh/011/009/3538

Doreet Jehassi started making and selling Yemenite Jewish breads out of her home kitchen6 years ago. She now offers a variety of savory and sweet wraps, baked goods, dips, andother Yemenite/Israeli specialties for pickup and delivery at The Ma'lawah Bar, whichoperates out of her new brick-and-mortar restaurant in Palo Alto.On this episode of The Holy Sparks Podcast, join me on an audio ( and visual on YouTube)tour of the San Francisco Bay Area's new Kosher restaurant - The Ma'laweh Bar!You'll learn about some tasty Yemenite foods, hear Doreet's story and how sheis combining her three Identities, American, Israeli, and Yemenite into her passion for food.For more info on the Ma'lawah Bar go to https://www.themalawahbar.com/to make a tax deductible donation to the podcast go to Holy Sparks DONATIONShttp://igfn.us/form/haHSSQwww.holysparks.tv

This episode celebrates the diverse Middle Eastern flavors that are part of the Midwestern culinary landscape. Meet Zehorit Heilicher, a Yemenite raised in Israel who is now a Minnesota based culinary instructor behind the website mideasttomidwest.com. And, get a taste of Galit, a Middle Eastern fine dining restaurant in Chicago. I will talk with their co-owner and chef, James Beard Award winner Zach Engel.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Eat Your Heartland Out by becoming a member!Eat Your Heartland Out is Powered by Simplecast.

Are you ready to shrug off that cold winter for the fresh, vibrant flavors of spring? In this episode, we explore 6 spectacular spring soups to prepare you for the change in seasons. We're shedding the heaviness of winter meals in favor of lighter, fresher dishes. Soup offers that cozy comfort we still need, but it also welcomes in seasonal greens, leeks, sugar snap peas, fresh dill, and more. You'll discover how to make the most of that vibrant seasonal produce from your farmers market haul, how to easily cook up a nutritious, healthy dinner, and how a few pantry staples can transform a simple chicken soup into an unexpected and delicious meal! Tune in now for the soups you'll be making on repeat until summer arrives!**Links to from this week's show:Gnocchi leek soup with greens by Kendra Vaculin via Bon AppetitSpring chicken miso soup by David Tanis via the NY TimesThe Love Soup cookbook, by Anna Thomas, which has her recipe for pickle soup!Another take on pickle soup by Mica Sivah for The NosherSonya's Yemenite white bean soup with zhougSoup au pistou by David LeibovitzRoasted rutabaga soup from Yummy Addiction – Sonya makes something similar but adds a few potatoes for creaminess instead of cream, and she also adds thyme instead of nutmeg***We love hearing from you — follow us on Instagram @foodfriendspod, or drop us a line at foodfriendspod@gmail.com! Order Sonya's debut cookbook Braids for more Food Friends recipes.

We are in Pesukei Bitachon, Tehilim 143.8 הַשְׁמִ֘יעֵ֤נִי בַבֹּ֨קֶר ׀ חַסְדֶּךָ֮ כִּֽי־בְךָ֢ בָ֫טָ֥חְתִּי הוֹדִיעֵ֗נִי דֶּֽרֶךְ־ז֥וּ אֵלֵ֑ךְ כִּי־אֵ֝לֶ֗יךָ נָשָׂ֥אתִי נַפְשִֽׁי Let me hear in the morning Your kindness. I relied on You. Tell me the path to take because to You, I gave up my soul. What is this term of giving up your soul, in relation to relying on Hashem? Rabbenu Yonah, in Mishleh 3,26, tells us that one of the levels of Bitachon is called, “ to give your soul up to Hashem, ” This is a high level. הוֹדִיעֵ֗נִי דֶּֽרֶךְ־ז֥וּ אֵלֵ֑ךְ “ I am relying on Hashem to choose the path for me. ” That means I know that everything Hashem does is what's good for me. I know that even if it seems bad, it's a kapara and eventually it will be for good for me, and that whatever Hashem picks for me is better for me than anything I can possibly think of, because I don't know what's good for myself. That's what Iyov said “ Will I only take the good and not the bad?” This is the level where a person says, ‘ Hashem, I'm handing it over to You. I don't know what's good. I don't know what's bad. My opinion doesn't mean anything.' Again, this is a high level. Most of us are not there. The Hovot Halevavot, in Shaar Heshbon HaNefesh , goes through different things that a person is supposed to think about. The 28th thing to think about comes after you've relied on Hashem and given your soul your money, and children to Him, after you've given everything you have to God, and then something happens that you don't like, or you heard something that you don't like. Shaar Heshbon HaNefesh gives a reframe. Imagine a man gives his friend a house or a field as a gift, and then the one that received the gift decided to knock the house down to rebuild it or just change it in some way. Can the one that gave him the house start complaining? Can he say, “ Why'd you do that?” No. You gave him the house. Now it's his house. He can do with it as he pleases. The Hovot Halevavot says, “ My brother, you just dedicated your soul and your money and everything you have to God. How can you now bemoan what God did? If it doesn't look right to you, calm down and trust the way He's dealing with it. Don't go and renege on what you just gave Him.” That's the way you deal with your fellow man. You gave him the field, you gave the contractor the rights. You told him, “ Figure it out yourself ,” Surely this is so when you're dealing with your Creator. He quotes a pasuk in Hoshea , “ I was directing Ephraim (the Jewish people). I carried him in My hands. And they didn't realize that I healed them.” Rabbenu Yonah brings this pasuk as well, in Shaar Teshuva Shaar 2, אות ד , “ I took Ephraim in My hands. They don't know I'm healing him.” He says this refers to somebody that Hashem is taking care of. He quotes the famous mashal of the father, rebuking the son that he still has hope for. He doesn't rebuke the son that he gave up on. Rabbbeu Yonah says this is the mistake that people make when we, so to say, give ourselves over to God and things turn wrong . I heard a great story (I can't verify whether it's true) once from Rabbi Ades. I may have told it in the past, but it fits in nicely. In the early years of the state of Israel, they brought in the Yemenite population. The Yemenites had been previously protected from the western civilized world and lived a simple life for hundreds, if not thousands, of years of Yemen. When they boarded the airplanes, they thought they were on wings of eagles. There was an older Yemenite man who had very sharp pains in the stomach. He went to the local hospital but they said, “ You don't have insurance. You have to go to Hupat Holim and become a member.” So he followed their instructions and became a member. He later went back to the hospital where they discovered that he had severe appendicitis. They put him under and removed his appendix. He woke up with his family all around him, hooked up to all kinds of machines. Groggily, he said, “ What kind of stupid country is this? Before I was a member, I was just fine. Now I signed up, became a member, and look what they did to me?! They sliced me up. They put me in a hospital!” Of course, now that you're a member, we'll take care of you. Beforehand, you weren't a member so didn't take care of you. And that's what happens. You give yourself over to Hashem. You join the club, and now you say, “ What's going on? Why are they doing this to me?” Because now you're a member! So don't regret it. Hand yourself over to God and be happy with your membership.

In this episode, Rivky Boyarsky's mother, Etti Hahn, a Yemenite Jew, speaks to us about her childhood and the Yemenite community. We discover how an ancient community clung to their identity, and how each household kept their simple Emunah at the forefront of their existance.The winds of change occurred with Operation Magic Carpet, a mission of both deliverance and upheaval. The journey of nearly 50,000 Yemenite Jews to their new home in Israel, is both a bitter sting of cultural shock and severed family bonds. It's a portrait of resilience too, of women who, though unable to read, were walking repositories of Minhagim and Torah.While we grapple with the complexities of Operation Magic Carpet,  including the pain of searching for lost relatives, and the challenge of nurturing Torah values in an ever-changing landscape, we also speak about the anticipation for a future era of peace,of the faith we have in the coming of Moshiach.Support the show

It was an absolute honor having on Matan and his family friend, Tuvia, a Yemenite Jew whose family arrived back in Israel in 1925. One of the greatest misconceptions in circulation is that Yemenite Jews are all converts. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just like Ashkenaz Jews are not Khazars. Many Jews left Israel after the destruction of the first Temple in 586 BCE. Some Jews headed west into North Africa, others ventured into what is now Saudi Arabia, while another group migrated into what is now called Yemen, or, for a long time, the southern portion of Saudi Arabia. Regarding the Khazars, only the King converted, while the rest of his Kingdom converted to Islam. The philosemitic Himyarites in Yemen, did 'convert' to Judaism, but those same people later on embraced Islam. Genetic Jews, those who came from Israel, did not accept Islam and remained strong and proud Jews. Tuvia masterfully explains, in detail, the differences between the Jews who ended up in Saudi Arabia vs. those who ended up in Yemen. The toll, both direct and indirect that dhimmitude played on how Jews were treated in Yemen. But, all was not hopeless. There was a symbiotic relationship between Jews and Muslims, despite and, because of dhimmitude, and it was interesting to find out why the ruling Imam of Yemen let Jews go back to Israel in 1950, without much hesitation. Yemenite Jews played an outsize role in shaping post-liberation Israel, even prior to liberation. Foods, music, behavior, and overall culture was heavily influenced by Yemenite Jews, helping the Jewish homeland be seen as a rightful Middle Eastern country, which it has always been. 

Israel's Law of Return was designed to solve the problem of persecuted Jews who had nowhere to flee, for no country would allow them entry. They would all be welcomed in Israel. Israel did not just open her doors, but actively took part in dangerous rescue missions to bring entire populations to Israel where they could be resettled in safety. One of the most famous missions was Operation Magic Carpet which, in the span of one year, clandestinely airlifted nearly 50,000 Jews from Yemen, where they were suffering attacks and lived in constant danger. Transporting Yemen Jewry to one central place where they could be extracted, required the impoverished people to trek at least 300 kilometers by foot through deserts and mountains as they were attacked along the way and suffered from hunger and disease. A motley group of young air force veterans from WWII, piloted transport planes, licensed to carry no more than 60 people, with 600 passengers on board. The entire flight from southern Yemen to Israel was fraught with danger, flying above Arab territory and always with a need to refuel along this hostile route. Conducted in total secrecy, a miracle was achieved without the loss of a single loss of life on these exceptionally perilous flights. 

Engage with the Yemenite rabbis and explain to them that there are already precedents for permitting such joyful celebrations as part of a mitzvah. Resolve this promptly so that they won't suspect that you want to impose Ashkenazi customs on the Yemenite community. https://www.torahrecordings.com/rebbe/igroskodesh/010/005/3299

Sally Abed, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Politics of Memory— Is it possible to keep politics outside the gates of our cemeteries? —Kids & Vids— Seven Ashkenazi teens at a religious high school for girls make a video full of stereotypes about Sefaradim. Sure, it's icky, but what's it mean? —Definitely Not Live— There's a new duet by two of Israel's most revered, tragic, Yemenite singers, who have been dead for decades. What happens to culture, once AI can vanquish death? —For Some, Like Sally, It's Going to Be a Complicated Week— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: What is it like to be Sally, during this fraught eight-day-week from Holocaust Memorial Day, to Memorial Day for Israel's Fallen, to Independence Day? All that and a farewell to Meir Shalev, Easter in the Galilee and the remarkable music of young Israeli artists inspired by the stories of aging Holocaust survivors.

A rare Yemenite film about abortion on the backdrop of the civil war. The post Amr Garal – The Burdened #Berlinale2023 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

A rare Yemenite film about abortion on the backdrop of the civil war. The post Amr Garal – The Burdened #Berlinale2023 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

A rare Yemenite film about abortion on the backdrop of the civil war. The post Amr Garal – The Burdened #Berlinale2023 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

A rare Yemenite film about abortion on the backdrop of the civil war. The post Amr Garal – The Burdened #Berlinale2023 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

A rare Yemenite film about abortion on the backdrop of the civil war. The post Amr Garal – The Burdened #Berlinale2023 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

A rare Yemenite film about abortion on the backdrop of the civil war. The post Amr Garal – The Burdened #Berlinale2023 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

We are an online and global Bet Midrash with international students, striving to know God by embracing the world through the lens of Torah. Web: www.TheHabura.com WhatsApp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LAurH2Lw3y92gF31PhzN42Instagram: @TheHabura Facebook: The Habura A project of the Senior Rabbi's Office (www.seniorrabbi.com), S&P Sephardi Community of the UK, Montefiore Endowment, and Dangoor Education.#torah #talmud #yeshiva #betmidrash #sephardi #sepharadi #sephardic #sefardi #sefardic #rambam Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, is this Pizza Hut? Excellent. My name is Ben Shapiro. Conservative thought leader. Prominent white YouTuber. The Muggsy Bogues of the intellectual dark Web. And—look, it's just a fact—I would like to order some pizza pie. If you are triggered by that request, I do not care. I truly do not. Now let's discuss conditions. First, thank you for agreeing to debate me. Typically, in fora such as this, I am met with ad-hominem mudslinging, anything from “You racist creep” or “Is that your real voice?” to raucous schoolyard laughter and threats of the dreaded “toilet swirly.” However, your willingness to engage with me over the phone on the subject of pizza shows an intellectual fortitude and openness to dangerous ideas which reflects highly on your character. Huzzah, good sir. Huzzah. Second, any pizza I order will be male. None of this “Our pizza identifies as trans-fluid-pan-poly”—no. Pizza is a boy. With a penis. It's that simple. It's been true for all of human history, from Plato to Socrates to Mr. Mistoffelees, and any attempt to rewrite the pillars of Western thought will be met with a hearty “Fuh!” by yours truly. And, trust me, that is not a fate you wish to meet. Now. With regard to my topping preference. I have eaten from your pizzeria in times past, and it must be said: your pepperoni is embarrassingly spicy. Frankly, it boggles the mind. I mean, what kind of drugs are you inhaling over there? Pot?! One bite of that stuff and I had to take a shower. So tread lightly when it comes to spice, my good man. You do not want to see me at my most epic. Like the great white hero of Zack Snyder's classic film “300,” I will kick you. Onions, peppers—no, thank you. If I wanted veggies, I'd go to a salad bar. I'm not some sort of vegan, Cory Booker weirdo. And your efforts to Michelle Obama-ize the great American pizza pie are, frankly, hilarious. Though not as funny as the impressively named P'Zone—when I finally figured out that genuinely creative pun, I laughed until I cried and peed. A true Spartan admits defeat, and I must admit that, in this instance, your Hut humor slayed me, Dennis Miller style. And, with that, you have earned my order. Congratulations. Ahem. Without further ado, I would like your smallest child pizza, no sauce, extra cheese. Hello? Aha. A hang-up. Another triggered lib, bested by logic. Damn it. I'm fucking starving.   I think that it's ok to be sexually aroused by Pokemon. More so, I think it should be encouraged in the games and anime, and GameFreak should lean into it. Firstly, some Pokemon are shown to be much smarter then humans. Kadabra has been said to have an IQ over 5000, which is gigantically more than the definition of an animal, which have an IQ between 0 (Worms and Fish) and 65 (Apes and Octopus). Thus, they are smarter then needed to be able to give consent. Secondly, the argument could be made they are not as empathetic as humans, and thus can't give consent. This is proven not to be true numerous times in the anime, by watching Meowth. In Season 2, Episode 16 of the Pokemon show, it is established that he is no smarter or different then regular Pokemon, he simply learnt to walk by watching a dance rehearsal and later learnt English through a picture book. Throughout the following seasons, it's shown how he schemes, laughs, cries and even at points, deceives people into thinking he is a human (in order to steal Ash's Pikachu of course). And the last piece of damning evidence - a folk tale in the Canalave Library (Pokémon Diamond and Pearl) literally STATES that humans used to marry Pokémon. This was removed in the English translation. Gamefreak, if you wanted us to fuck Pokémon, just say it. Conclusively, Pokemon aren't animals. They are intelligent, with empathy and kindness, and should be treated as equals. Denying them the right to have sex with humans removes their freedom, which is racist, and frankly, unamerican.   An Afghan, an Albanian, an Algerian, an American, an Andorran, an Angolan, an Antiguans, an Argentine, an Armenian, an Australian, an Austrian, an Azerbaijani, a Bahamian, a Bahraini, a Bangladeshi, a Barbadian, a Barbudans, a Batswanan, a Belarusian, a Belgian, a Belizean, a Beninese, a Bhutanese, a Bolivian, a Bosnian, a Brazilian, a Brit, a Bruneian, a Bulgarian, a Burkinabe, a Burmese, a Burundian, a Cambodian, a Cameroonian, a Canadian, a Cape Verdean, a Central African, a Chadian, a Chilean, a Chinese, a Colombian, a Comoran, a Congolese, a Costa Rican, a Croatian, a Cuban, a Cypriot, a Czech, a Dane, a Djibouti, a Dominican, a Dutchman, an East Timorese, an Ecuadorean, an Egyptian, an Emirian, an Equatorial Guinean, an Eritrean, an Estonian, an Ethiopian, a Fijian, a Filipino, a Finn, a Frenchman, a Gabonese, a Gambian, a Georgian, a German, a Ghanaian, a Greek, a Grenadian, a Guatemalan, a Guinea-Bissauan, a Guinean, a Guyanese, a Haitian, a Herzegovinian, a Honduran, a Hungarian, an I-Kiribati, an Icelander, an Indian, an Indonesian, an Iranian, an Iraqi, an Irishman, an Israeli, an Italian, an Ivorian, a Jamaican, a Japanese, a Jordanian, a Kazakhstani, a Kenyan, a Kittian and Nevisian, a Kuwaiti, a Kyrgyz, a Laotian, a Latvian, a Lebanese, a Liberian, a Libyan, a Liechtensteiner, a Lithuanian, a Luxembourger, a Macedonian, a Malagasy, a Malawian, a Malaysian, a Maldivan, a Malian, a Maltese, a Marshallese, a Mauritanian, a Mauritian, a Mexican, a Micronesian, a Moldovan, a Monacan, a Mongolian, a Moroccan, a Mosotho, a Motswana, a Mozambican, a Namibian, a Nauruan, a Nepalese, a New Zealander, a Nicaraguan, a Nigerian, a Nigerien, a North Korean, a Northern Irishman, a Norwegian, an Omani, a Pakistani, a Palauan, a Palestinian, a Panamanian, a Papua New Guinean, a Paraguayan, a Peruvian, a Pole, a Portuguese, a Qatari, a Romanian, a Russian, a Rwandan, a Saint Lucian, a Salvadoran, a Samoan, a San Marinese, a Sao Tomean, a Saudi, a Scottish, a Senegalese, a Serbian, a Seychellois, a Sierra Leonean, a Singaporean, a Slovakian, a Slovenian, a Solomon Islander, a Somali, a South African, a South Korean, a Spaniard, a Sri Lankan, a Sudanese, a Surinamer, a Swazi, a Swede, a Swiss, a Syrian, a Tajik, a Tanzanian, a Togolese, a Tongan, a Trinidadian or Tobagonian, a Tunisian, a Turk, a Tuvaluan, a Ugandan, a Ukrainian, a Uruguayan, a Uzbekistani, a Venezuelan, a Vietnamese, a Welshman, a Yemenite, a Zambian and a Zimbabwean all go to a bar.. The doorman stops them and says "Sorry, I can't let you in without a Thai." also i'm gay

Grave exhumed in Yemenite children's affair. Germany offers compensation to families of Israeli athletes murdered in 1972 Munich Olympics. Unarmed Palestinian injured by IDF fire near NablusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're not a "player" if you don't have the "Kapach Edition" of Rishonim

Tens of thousands marched in this year's מצעד הגאווה, gay pride parade, in Tel Aviv, which gave us a good excuse to talk about the Hebrew word מצעד and its root צ.ע.ד. Listen to the All-Hebrew Episode on Patreon   New Words and Expressions: Mitsa'ad ha-ga'avah – The gay pride – מצעד הגאווה Mits'ad ha-pizmonim / ha-shirim – Hit music parade – מצעד הפזמונים / השירים Ha-mits'ad ha-shnati – The year-end top music hits countdown – המצעד השנתי Beit Meshuga'im – Madhouse – בית משוגעים Tse'ada – A march, a walk – צְעדה Tse'adat ha-Gilboa – The Mount Gilboa hike – צעדת הגלבוע “Tsa'ad tsa'ad hi mitkarevet” – She's getting nearer, one step at a time – צעד צעד היא מתקרבת Rega, tsa'ad-tsa'ad, le'an ata memaher? – One step at a time, where are you rushing to? – רגע, צעד-צעד, לאן אתה ממהר Kama tse'adim tsarich lalechet be-yom kedei lishmor al ha-briut? – How many steps do you need to walk each day in order to keep healthy? – כמה צעדים צריך ללכת ביום כדי לשמור על הבריאות Tse'adim pshutim – Simple steps – צעדים פשוטים Eich limtso ahavat emet be-hamisha tse'adim pshutim – How to find true love in five simple steps – איך למצוא אהבת אמת בחמישה צעדים “Ha-geshem shelanu karev be-tsa'adei anak” – “Our rain is getting nearer by leaps and bounds” – הגשם שלנו קרב בצעדי ענק Tsaadei ha-memshala – Steps taken by the government – צעדי הממשלה Ha-memshala noketet tse'adim – The government is taking steps – הממשלה נוקטת צעדים Be-tsaadei tsav – At a snail's pace – בצעדי צב Tsaad kadima, shnayim achora – One step forward, two steps back – צעד קדימה, שניים אחורה Tsa'ad teimani – Yemenite step – צעד תימני Rikudei am – Folk dance – ריקודי עם   Playlist and Clips: Ha-mits'ad Ha-shnati 1978  Ran Danker – Beit Meshuga'im (lyrics) Benny Amdursky – Ha-na'arah mi-ipanema (lyrics) Kama tse'adim tsarich lalechet be-yom? Yael Levy – Geshem Hakshev La-nashim (lyrics) Tsa'ad Teimani – Yemenite Step Episode no. 136 Episode no. 289

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday. Knesset correspondent Carrie Keller-Lynn and reporter Amy Spiro join host Jessica Steinberg for today's podcast. Keller-Lynn reviews Wednesday's Knesset session, as Likud members argued among themselves and with coalition members about the bill for academic scholarships for newly released IDF soldiers. Spiro discusses her feature looking at the Haredi community six months after the Chaim Walder abuse scandal broke, researching whether anything has changed in the ultra Orthodox community. She also talks about next week's planned exhumation of a grave, the long-awaited next stage in the decades-old Yemenite Children affair, in which the Israeli government is accused of allegedly kidnapping Yemenite children for adoption by Ashkenazi families. Discussed articles include: Defying Netanyahu, Likud MKs want to back coalition bill on funding for IDF vet 6 months after the Walder abuse scandal broke, has the Haredi world seen change? For first time, grave of alleged ‘disappeared' Yemenite baby to be exhumed Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: Leader of the opposition and head of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu leads a Likud faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on May 16, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the late 1940's and early 1950's, thousands of Middle Eastern Jews left their countries of origin and moved to Israel, among them, the Jews of Yemen. About the Yemenite Jews there is a myth, believed by some in Israel and around the world, that upon their arrival, hundreds of their children were taken from them by government officials, without their consent, and placed for adoption in the homes of Ashkenazi Israelis. It would be a grave injustice if that were true, but according to this week's podcast guest, it isn't. Motti Inbari is a professor of religion who specializes in unusual Israeli social and religious movements. In a new essay, he reviews several recent Hebrew-language books that look at the history, the evidence, and the surprising mutations of the so-called Yemenite Children Affair. In conversation with Mosaic's editor Jonathan Silver, he explains what really happened and charts how the myth has evolved over time.  Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

The history of the Jews, including Ashkenazim, Sephardim and smaller communities like Greek, Yemenite, Moroccan, and Chinese Jews, and how their experiences diverged around the world. Plus, the miracle of modern genomics. “I'm imagining a future where genomics gives us a window onto the biochemical metabolic processes that are going on. We shall be as gods. We are biting of the apple” “The first human genome was $3bn. In 2010 the human genome was $20,000, and now it's $200.”

Naphtaly Shem-Tov's book Israeli Theatre: Mizrahi Jews and Self-Representation (Routledge, 2021) introduces readers to the stagecraft produced by Mizrahi (Middle Eastern Jewish) directors and artists. Describing the work of Yemenite, Iraqi, Moroccan and other minorities whose trauma was represented on Israeli stages, dramaturgy known to local Israeli audiences is made known to readers through this monograph. This book draws on the theoretical insights Israeli directors who theorized their philosophies of community-based theatre, while drawing on the work of W.E.B. DuBois, Frantz Fanon and African-American theorists of aesthetic self-representation. This book will appeal to readers in Israel Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Jewish Studies, Aesthetics and Performing Arts. Ari Barbalat holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of California in Los Angeles. He lives in Toronto with his family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following issues are discussed by Rabbi Raskin in this week's episode: At the last Shiur, you suggested that bread-croutons are HaMotzi. But the packet asserts that the brocho is Mezonos? [1] Revisiting the brocho for an avocado, tomato and cucumber salad: [2] I work in the accounts office of a non-frum Jew. If I am confronted with charges to a Jew that involve Ribbis, am I allowed to process that account? [3] I baked with wholemeal flour after having checked cursorily. Later I found a slug in the remaining flour. Are the baked goods permitted? [4] Does a meat-thermometer require tevilah? [5] Some species of locusts are kosher, and the Yemenites have a tradition as to which variety is kosher. May others rely on the Yemenite tradition? [6] The National Census includes the question of which religion. Effectively that will produce a number for the Jewish population in the UK. Is there not an issue with counting Jews? [7] Due to illness ר”ל, a name was added. Does the Kesuba need to be updated? [8] A man was born left-handed, but later on, he trained himself to write with his right hand, but he still uses his left hand for other skills. Upon which arm should he place the Tefillin? [9] The UK National Lottery symbol is of crossed fingers. May we display that icon?

My guest this week is 2019 Masterchef Contestant and Founder of Basbas Sauces and Amal's Pantry, Amal Hassan. Now there's a reason why this is the longest episode we've done so far… Amal has had a long and winding path to where she is now. We talk about the history of her Somali upbringing and Yemenite culture. We discuss her conflict with Islam and being able to set boundaries for herself to lead a free life without oppression and how her grandmother, inspired her to not only be proud of her cultural heritage through food and feeding, but to transform it into joy that can be shared with others. Amal has recently launched a fantastic website, amalspantry.com where you can find her range of mind blowing sauces, and she's in the process of launching her first cookbook! Find Amal on social media with the handle @amalspantry. This episode is sponsored by UTC Events. utcevents.co.uk/techservices -- If you'd like to support Sod's Law you can become a Sod's Law patron at patreon.com/sodspod from as little as £1 /$1 a month - there are different tiers including ad-free episodes, giveaways and more!

Supreme Court rules that lawsuit from Yemenite immigrant families over missing children should be heard. Leviathan gas rig test postponed. Internal Likud court nixes party primary for Knesset slate.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hamas hacks I.D.F. phones Hamas cyber-spies have just managed to successfully hack hundreds of smartphones belonging to Israeli soldiers stationed near the Gaza border. According to the I-D-F, this operation was detected relatively quickly, and before it erupted into a major security breach. 4.1 magnitude earthquake wakes up the North Shlomi Adar, Global Crisis Professional speaking at ILTV Studio about the problem that Israel is terribly underprepared for the major earthquake coming our way. Netanyahu to meet Putin next week Prime Minister Netanyahu is taking Russian President Vladimir Putin up on his offer and will come to Moscow next week for a front-row seat to the world cup semifinals game but Netanyahu didn't immediately accept the invite when it was made last week. That's probably because of one of the other people confirmed on the guest list, Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Iran willing to remain in ‘nuclear deal' With the JCPOA Iran ‘nuclear deal' still very much in limbo, Iran's president has just announced that he is willing to stay in the deal as long as Iranian interests are still met. This would require Europe, Russia and China to offer a new economic deal to offset incoming American sanctions following President Trump's withdrawal from the deal nearly two months ago. Knesset approves law in Yemenite children affair The Knesset has just passed a new law with potentially groundbreaking implications for families involved in the Yemenite children affair. Families say that their infants were stolen from them in the hospital, after being told the child had suddenly died but according to the families, the children were actually given up for adoption to Jewish Ashkenazi immigrants and this bill allows families to access adoption records to see if this, indeed, was the case. Israeli man makes first at the U.N. For the first time ever, an Israeli has been chosen to head the U.N.'s Human Rights Committee. This committee is different from U.N.'s Human Rights Council but still, this is a major benchmark, nonetheless. Law Professor Yuval Shany who is also a Deputy President of the Israel Democracy Institute will be making history as the country's first head of the human rights committee. Why invest in Israel? Shelly Hod Moyal, Founding Partner at Iangels speaking at ILTV Studio about the world's most capital-efficient startup ecosystem for early stage investors. Seven nation Netta? The writer's of Netta Bazrzilai's Eurovision-winning song ‘Toy' are being accused of plagiarizing the song! Not only that, they've just been hit with a letter from Universal Music saying that Universal is preparing to take this to court. The letter claims that ‘toy' was copied from the well-known song by the white stripes, ‘seven nation army'. Israeli tennis star knocked out of Wimbledon Going up against the world's number 1 seed in tennis is quite the honor or a nightmare depending who you ask. For Israeli tennis star Dudi Sela, it was the latter as 17-time grand slam winner Rafael Nadal defeated him seemingly with ease, ending Sela's hopes of advancing at Wimbledon. 2,000-year-old pottery found in Galilee Israeli excavators have just uncovered an amazing find in the Western Galilee of a large cooking pot, wine jars, and other ceramic pottery vessels dating back over 2000 years. The discovery was made in a small cave off a sheer cliff in the nature reserve along the northern Israeli border with Lebanon. Hebrew word Of The Day: P'GISHA | פְּגִישָׁה = MEETING Learn a New Hebrew word every day. Today's word is "Pgisha" which means "meeting" See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bloodshed on the Gaza border There's been horrific violence along the Gaza border this weekend, tens of thousands of Palestinian protesters have begun a six-week demonstration that has quickly erupted into violence, I.D.F. troops along the border have responded with force and even live-fire in some cases. As dust settles, accusations swirl The dust is still only beginning to settle from this weekend's bloodshed, which saw some of the worst clashes between Israel and the Palestinians in years, and as can be imagined, the accusations are already flying over who's to blame for the violence. Too much force; or not enough? Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar Ilan University speaking at ILTV Studio about Israeli leaders that are weigh into returning to the policy of targeted assassinations against Hamas operatives. Personal Story Imagine being reunited 67 years after you learned you had a long-lost sister, that may be dead, that's exactly what happened to Ofra Mazor and Varda Fox, two siblings that were separated in the Yemenite children affair, a scandal that has ripped apart thousands of Israeli families. The perfect Easter gift Today is Easter Sunday, one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar, at the same time, of course it's also Passover, one of the holiest weeks on the Hebrew calendar. Unfortunately there's an incredible effort underway right now in the West Bank, one that sees Palestinians and Jews alike bringing a long-abandoned Christian site to life. State seeks delay on Asylum Seeker deportations The Israeli government says it needs more time to implement its controversial plan to deport thousands of African Asylum Seekers. The high court has frozen the deportations, and demanded the government to explain its case for such an unprecedented move, but now the state has filed for a delay and won't have an answer until after Passover. 7. New cardiology department opens in Galilee Amir Yarchi, CEO Friends Of Galilee Medical Center speaking at ILTV Studio about the Galilee Medical Center that is one of the largest hospitals in northern Israel with new center 'fully protected' against conventional and unconventional threats. 8. One N.G.O. goes for the ultimate goal Jerusalem's Jaffa gate has unfortunately become known as a flashpoint for violence, but with the world cup just a few months away, one N.G.O. is hoping to transform those gates into a goalpost for peace, this summer during the world cup those gates will be used as a soccer goal for the very first Jewish-Arab penalty kick off tournament. 9. An app for Israel's two true loves - Hummus & Tech Think of the Holy Land, what two things pop into your head? For many people, Hummus and Technology may come to mind, and it looks like google Israel seems to agree! They've combined both intone delicious Israeli app. Hebrew word Of The Day: LESHTALGERK | לשטלגרק = TO FEEL PAIN/SHAME BY BEING CLUMSY Learn a New Hebrew word every day. Today's word is "Leshtalgerk" which means "To feel Pain" See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Report: Misjudgment led to downing of Israeli f-16 jet The IDF has just released a report, revealing what really led to the downing of an Israel f-16 fighter jet by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile, it looks like an error of judgement by the crew was the culprit, rather than negligent behavior. 2. Hezbollah issues fresh threat to Israel The secretary general of the United Nations is expressing major concern that a direct confrontation is about to break out between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. 3. Israeli schools prepare for rocket attacks Schools throughout Israel are taking extra precaution and preparing for potential rocket attacks, search and rescue drills are being held across the country as tensions escalate. 4. Delek drilling, noble energy sign historic gas deal Israel's Delek drilling and America's noble energy have just announced a historic 15-billion-dollar deal, that will provide natural gas to Egypt. 5. Delek, noble sign accords for historic gas deal Amir Foster, Head of Research and Strategy at Israel Association of Oil & Gas speaking at ILTV Studio about the Israeli drilling company Delek that is involved in multi-billion dollar gas deal. 6. Knesset passes law: Yemenite children affair graves to be exhumed The Knesset has just passed a law that will permit hundreds of Israeli families to exhume the alleged graves of their children who disappeared decades ago. Deadlines passes, no African Asylum Seekers deported The first deadline has passed for 200 Eritrean Asylum Seekers in Israel to choose between deportation or imprisonment, but it looks like no action has been taken as of yet. The 8200 social program Neta Li Meiri, Managing Director of The 8200 Social Program speaking at ILTV Studio about the launch of a unique program that solves social problems through technology.                                                                            9. Israeli P.M. to NFL stars: be gladiators for Israel A group of visiting NFL players are about to wrap up their trip in Israel, not before the Israeli Prime Minister had asked the visiting NFL delegation to use their influence back home to gather support for the Jewish state. 10. Israelis build first dairy farm in Papua New Guinea A group of Israelis have actually just built the first ever milk farm on the Pacific Nation, Israeli construction, agriculture and water tech provides fresh milk. 11. Meet My6sense Avinoam Rubinstain, Founder & CEO of my6sense speaking at ILTV Studio about how to build a native ad network for your company, and how the world of native advertising just got easier. Netflix set to produce series about murdered Alberto Nisman The online streaming service, Netflix, has just decided to produce a miniseries about the mysterious murder of the Argentine-Jewish Prosecutor Alberto Nisman. 13. Rapper Azealia Banks to perform in Israel Another big celebrity is making their way to Israel, and this time it's none other than the controversial rapper Azealia Banks. 14. Hebrew word Of The Day: HALAVI | חֲלָבִי = DAIRY Learn a New Hebrew word every day. Today's word is "Halavi" which means "Dairy" The Weather Forecast The winter heat-wave looks to be coming to an end, expect a drop in temperatures with partly cloudy skies this evening, the low tonight should be about forty-nine, or nine degrees Celsius, and the high tomorrow will be around sixty seven, or nineteen degrees Celsius. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Netanyahu and Trump at odds? Prime Minister Netanyahu may have just landed himself in a bit of hot water with U.S. President Donald Trump, White House strongly denies claim that Israel and U.S. were talking settlement annexation. Abbas meets Putin in Russia Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas has just met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, to deliver a major request. Trial begins for Palestinian teen The trial of seventeen year-old Ahed Tamimi begins today, Tamimi is the Palestinian teen who was filmed slapping an I.D.F. soldier near her home in the West Bank last December. To annex or not to annex? Dr. Martin Sherman, Founder & Executive Director of the IISS speaking at ILTV Studio about the advantages and disadvantages to the unilateral actions in the West Bank. 1,000 Ethiopian Jews set to immigrate in 2018 There are still around 8 thousand Jews living in Ethiopia, and now the Israeli government has just ruled that 1 thousand of them will be allowed to immigrate to Israel in 2018. 6. B.D.S. VTR The government is taking dead aim on the B.D.S. Boycott of Israel with a new international effort, ILTV's Yael Shir brings us to the floor of the ‘2018 Legal Network Initiative' to explain how. 7. Bill to open alleged graves nears final vote The government has just reached a deal with the families of allegedly kidnapped Yemenite children, to green-light the opening of alleged graves so that DNA evidence can be gathered. David Grossman snags Israel prize for literature Grossman is already considered one of the most important modern Israeli writers of all time, and now he's just been awarded one of Israel's biggest writing awards, the Israel prize for literature. 9. Keeping our medical facilities clean Aharon Gedanken PH.D., Co-Founder & V.P. of R&D for Nano Textile speaking at ILTV Studio about the new technology to help save lives in hospitals. Israel: Yes, ‘we want it that way' Nick, Kevin, A.J., Brian and Howie of the Backstreet Boys are headed to the Holy Land and they're scheduled for a springtime concert in Rishon Lezion. Fake Mossad, real funny Merch The famous Satircal Twitter account “Fake Mossad”, looks like the comical account is launching a online merchandise store with some really cheeky gear. Hebrew word Of The Day: MERAGAL | מרגל = SPY Learn a New Hebrew word every day. Today's word is "Meragal" which means "Spy" The Weather Forecast The winter heat-wave looks to be staying, expect a drop in temperatures as rain showers will continue throughout the evening. The low tonight should be about fifty-three or twelve degrees Celsius, and the high tomorrow will be around sixty-five or eighteen degrees Celsius. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trump, Netanyahu meet at Davos President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu have just met face-to-face at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which is one of the world's biggest gatherings of international leaders in business and industry. 2. Iran sets up shop in Lebanon Dr. Martin Sherman, Founder & Executive Director of the IISS speaking at ILTV Studio about the IDF Spokesperson that begged the Lebanese to "open their eyes". Israel enraged over Polish Holocaust Law A new law passed in Poland that makes it illegal to refer to Nazi Camps in Poland as murder Jews, Netanyahu slams 'baseless' bill, saying that the Holocaust cannot be denied. Holocaust survivor releases personal memoir Yoseph Komem, Holocaust Survivor & Author of “Courage and Grace” speaking at ILTV Studio about his incredible story as a Holocaust survivor, and the autobiography that he has written about his experience. Ex-Israeli diplomats urge not to deport Africans A larger group of Israelis are joining the protest against Israel's Controversial Plan to deport or jail nearly forty thousand Asylum Seekers from Africa that are currently living in Israel, this group includes dozens of former Israeli Diplomats that are begging Prime Minister Netanyahu to halt the deportations. After decades, Yemenite family reunited An incredible reunion between long lost sisters has just shed troubling new light on the alleged Yemenite Children Affair with the confirmation of D.N.A testing. 7. Changing the game again Hezkiah Tsoory, CEO of Liberdi speaking at ILTV Studio about the Israeli company that's is trying to reinvent dialysis system to help Renal Disease. Ancient jawbone rewrites prehistoric era The oldest-ever remains of Homo-Sapiens outside of Africa have just been discovered in Northern Israel, which means humans may have left the cradle of life far, far earlier than we ever thought. 9. Israeli collective makes new U2 music vid U-Two, one of the biggest bands of all time, has just commissioned Israel's most legendary street crew, 'Broken Fingaz' for a new, one-of-a-kind music video. Jewish grandpa is unlikely super bowl star Story of 99 year-old ‘Philadelphia Phil' goes viral ahead of Super Bowl Lii. Hebrew word Of The Day: GORAL | גוֹרָל = DESTINY Learn a New Hebrew word every day. Today's word is "Goral" which means "Destiny" See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vice President Pence wraps up 2-day visit U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has returned to Washington, following a two-day trip to Israel. The Vice President concluded his visit by paying his respects to both the Western Wall and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Israel slams U.N.H.R.C. for alleged years of bias Israel has just taken a stand at the United Nations, accusing the Human Rights Council of constant discrimination against the Jewish state, and for alleged bias against Israel in favor of the Palestinians. U.S. Democrats are divided over Israel Prof. Alan Dershowitz, Lawyer, Jurist, & Author speaking at ILTV Studio about the new poll that found that Republicans are reportedly more Pro-Israel than ever. U.S. treads murky waters in fighting terror The U.S. State Department has just placed a top Al-Qaeda leader on the terror list, after he demanded violence against Americans and Jews in Jerusalem. Gov't to vote on controversial ‘Muezzin Bill' The Knesset has just advanced another controversial bill, known as the ‘Muezzin Bill', the Legislation would limit the time and volume of the Muslim call to prayer. New twist in Yemenite children affair One of the biggest scandals in Israeli society is the so-called ‘Yemenite Child Affair' and now for the first time, the courts will allow seventeen graves of Alleged Yemenite children to be opened, so that D.N.A. evidence can be collected. 7. Detecting Breast Cancer as early as possible Adi Zamir, Founder & CEO of Pink of View speaking at ILTV Studio about the Israeli company that lets women their own risk when it comes to detecting Breast Cancer early on with the app that uses cloud-based technology to give initial diagnose. Muslim L'oreal model resigns over tweets Muslim model, Amenha Khan, apologizes for calling Israel “Illegal” & “Sinister” following outrage over her Anti-Israel tweets. 9. Oscar nominations announced The nominations for this year's Academy Awards are in, there were a few Jewish takeaways from the list of nominees, some of our biggest Israeli hopefuls. Israel & U.S. open Anti-Terror contest The U.S. Department of Defense and Israel's Defense Ministry  just announced a worldwide competition between Start-Up companies to see whose innovation can best fight terrorism. 11. Take control of your personnel Eugene Ochakovsky, CTO & Founder of Patrol-It speaking at ILTV Studio about the Israeli company that came up with a platform to help keep successful business with successful employees. 12. Forbes brings ‘30 under 30' to Holy Land First-ever Forbes ‘Under 30 Summit', which counts off the thirty top business leaders under the age of thirty from all over the world, will take place in Israel this May. 13. Hebrew word Of The Day: MOOCHZAV | מְאוּכזָב = DISAPPOINTED Learn a New Hebrew word every day. Today's word is "Moochzav" which means "Disappointed" The Weather Forecast Tonight should be cloudy with rain and thunderstorms in the North and center. The low will be about fifty, or ten degrees Celsius. Tomorrow is expected to clear up a bit but will still be partly cloudy, and with a drop in temperatures to a daily high of roughly fifty-eight, or fourteen degrees Celsius. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jews have been longing for Jerusalem for two thousand years. But in the 19th century only a few were courageous enough, some might say crazy enough, to take everything and leave their homes to the Holy Land. And that's exactly what several poor Yemenite families did. They walked by foot from Sanaa to Jerusalem, only to find out that the Holy city is actually a dump. Gil Hovav's ancestors were one of these families, and when a few generations later, Yemenite jew Moshe Hovav Married the granddaughter of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, reviver of the Hebrew language - Gil Hovav was the result. Gil grew up amidst a clash of cultures, which took place in a city torn apart by wars and religion. His fascinating childhood is the subject of his autobiographical book, Candies From Heaven, which was just now released in English. Gil is one of Israel's greatest experts in food and food culture. Gil has been a regular guest in every Israeli household for over 20 years. He's a pioneer of the televised cooking shows here in Israel. He's a food journalist and author of many cooking books and some novels as well. Gil joins us for the second time to talk about his amazing childhood in Jerusalem.

3 Killed In Terror Attack Near Jerusalem   3 Israelis have been killed and another seriously injured in a shocking terror attack near Jerusalem. 37 year old Palestinian terrorist comes from West Bank village.     How The Har Adar Shooting Affects Us All   Dr. Martin Sherman, Founder & Executive Director of the IISS speaking at ILTV studio to discuss the deadly terrorist attack.     President Trump's Peace Envoy Is Back In Israel   United States peace envoy Jason Greenblatt is in Israel to continue to try to restart peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.     P.A. Prime Minister To Visit Gaza Next Week   The Palestinian Authority has announced a major move to unify Fatah and Hamas. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah will arrive in the Gaza Strip next week in a rare and unifying visit.     Israel Works To Block P.A. Interpol Membership   Israel is actively trying to thwart the Palestinian's latest request to join the Interpol. Vote to induct Palestinian Authority set to take place tomorrow.     P.M. Orders Silence On Kurdish Referendum   Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed his ministers to keep quiet on last night's historic Kurdish referendum. Independent Kurdistan expected to receive the international ‘go-ahead'.     Iranian Ballistic Missile Test Was Faked   U.S. security officials have revealed to Fox News Channel that this weekend's ballistic missile test was faked. Khorramshahr missile video was produced seven months ago.     Israel Welcomes Angela Merkel's Election   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Angela Merkel's victory in Sunday night's German election.     Yemenite Families Block The Streets Of Tel Aviv   The elderly parents and families of allegedly kidnapped Yemenite children took to the streets to rally for recognition of Yemenite kid kidnapping 70 years ago.     Jar Of Headless Toads Found In 4,000 Y.O. Tomb   Archaeologists in Israel have found the remains of several decapitated toads in a jar in a 4 thousand year old tomb.     Ever Wanted To Skinny Dip In The Ocean?   ILTV'S Emanuelle Kadosh talking about the latest project run by Israeli swimming champ Guy Barnea who encourages people to skinny dip.     Hebrew word Of The Day: BEGED-YAM | בגד ים = SWIMSUIT   Learn a new Hebrew word every day. Today's word is "begged-yam" which means "swimsuit"     The Weather Forecast   Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of seventy-three or twenty-three degrees Celsius. Tomorrow you can expect little to no change in temperatures with a high of eighty-three or twenty-eight degrees Celsius. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1. Jared Kushner Meets With Palestinian President Abbas US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner along with Trump's Peace Envoy Jason Greenblatt met with Abbas to 'reaffirm their commitment to advancing president trump's goal of a genuine and lasting peace'. Tensions reportedly rose between U.S. and Palestinians over incitement. #JaredKushner #JasonGreenblatt #Abbas ____________________ 2. Senior Russian Politician: You Should Be Glad We're In Syria The chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Parliament, Konstantin Kosa-Chev, is in Israel and tells Israel that Iran has a right to bilateral relations with Assad. #KonstantinKosaChev #Syria ____________________ 3. Iran Hardliner Named As Saudi Arabian Crown Prince King Salman of Saudi Arabia has named a new heir, the 31 year old Muhammad Bin Salman, whose been known for his hawkish, anti-Iran foreign policy. #SaudiArabia #Prince #MuhammadBinSalman ____________________ 4. What's Permissible For Women At The Western Wall? Rabbi Gilad Kariv- Executive Director of The Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, Lesley Sachs- Executive Director of Women of The Wall, Rabbi David Fendel- Dean of Yeshivat Hesder and Rabbi Seth Farber - Modern Orthodox Rabbi and Historian speaking at ILTV studio to discuss why the Israeli Supreme Court's order to facilitate the construction of the egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall has been put on ice. #WesternWall #EgalitarianPrayer ____________________ 5. Courts: El Al Can't Move Women Because Of Haredi Men The Jerusalem Magistrate's court has ruled that the practice of asking female passengers to move seats on the airplane when ultra-Orthodox men don't want to sit with them as discriminatory against female gender. #ElAl #Haredi #Women ____________________ 6. Thousands Protest In Jerusalem For Truth On Yemenite Children Thousands of people protested in downtown Jerusalem, demanding that the government acknowledge that the Yemenite kids in the 1950's were abducted and were used for medical experimentation. #Protest #Yemenite #Children ____________________ 7. Israel Court Martials Soldiers For Faking Skin Disease 48 IDF soldiers were court-martialed for faking a skin disease in order to get medical leave. #IDF #CourtMartial ____________________ 8. Third International Yoga Day Draws Thousands To Tel Aviv Hundreds of people poured into Tel-Aviv's Rabin Square yesterday for an incredible demonstration of international respect and celebration of the third annual international yoga day. #Yoga #TelAviv ____________________ 9. Israeli Whiskey Goes To Auction After A Few Years Aging Eitan Attir, CEO of the Milk and Honey Distillery speaking at ILTV studio about the brand new distillery in Tel Aviv that has just produced the first ever Israeli whiskey. #EitanAttir #Distillery ____________________ 10. California Bat Mitzvah Girl Raises 50,000 Dollars For Israel A girl in California, Shira Futornick, raised 50,000 dollars from her bar mitzvah and is donating the money to Arava Center for Agriculture in Israel. #ShiraFutornick #AICAT ____________________ 11. Hebrew word Of The Day, TIRGUL | תרגול = A PRACTICE Learn a new Hebrew word every day. Today's word is "tirgul" which means "a practice" #Learnhebrew #Hebrewwordofday #Iltvhebrewwordofday _____________________ 12. The Weather Forecast Tonight the skies will be clear to partly cloudy with a low of sixty-nine or twenty-one degrees Celsius. The weekend is looking to be pretty sunny with a slight rise in temperatures and a high of eighty-four or twenty-nine degrees Celsius. #Israelweather #Israelforecast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1. Netanyahu Condemns Virginia Baseball Shooting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sharing his well wishes for a fast recovery with the victims of yesterday's Virginia shooting attack where Congressman Steve Scalise and four others were shot. #Virginia #SteveScalise ____________________ 2. U.S. Sec. Of State Stands By Claim On P.A. Terror Subsidies US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stands by his claims that the Palestinian Authority is ending its practice of paying compensation to convicted terrorists even despite denials from among high ranking members of the Palestinian Authority. #Tillerson #PA ____________________ 3. NGO'S Demand Israel Turn Gaza's Lights Back On In a statement sent to Israel's Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, the human rights groups are warning of a ‘total collapse' in Gaza, should Israel continue with the plan to reduce power in the strip by roughly 40%. #Mandelblit #NGO #Gaza ____________________ 4. What To Expect From Gaza's Power Crisis Dr. Martin Sherman, Director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies speaking at ILTV studio to discuss the subject of Gaza's energy crisis. #MartinSherman ____________________ 5. Knesset Testimony: Hospitals Sold Children's Organs To U.S. Some disturbing documents were revealed to the Knesset pointing to a covert organ trade between U.S. medical researchers and Israeli hospitals in the 1950's. Most of the organs came from Yemenite children. #Knesset #Organs ____________________ 6. Publishing House Of Former Prime Minister Raided Today The Yediot Achronot publishing house of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is now in prison for corruption, was raided for copies of Olmert's autobiography that may contain classified material. #YediotAchronot #Raid #Olmert ____________________ 7. Plans To Build 14,000 Palestinian Housing Units In Area C Prime Minister Netanyahu is planning to build 14,000 new housing units in the West Bank for the Palestinians living in the Arab-Israeli city of Qalqilya, in area C. #Netanyahu #Housing ____________________ 8. Modern Language Association Passes Anti-Boycott Resolution The Modern Language Association; or MLA has officially ratified a policy saying they will not boycott Israel. #MLA #Boycott ____________________ 9. Revolutionizing Bone-Graft Technology Forever Ohad Schwartz, CO and Co-Founder of CoreBone speaking at ILTV studio about the Israeli start up CoreBone that found a new way to generate bone grafting material using coral. #OhadSchwartz ____________________ 10. P.M. In Greece For Trilateral Summit With Greece And Cyprus Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is in Greece to participate in a trilateral summit between Israel, Greece, and Cyprus. #Netanyahu #Greece ____________________ 11. Israeli Author David Grossman Wins Man-Booker Prize An Israeli author, David Grossman, has just been announced as the winner of the prestigious man booker international prize, making him the first Israeli ever to win the award. #DavidGrossman ____________________ 12. New Pictures Of Grand Mufti And Nazis Up For Auction The Kedem Auction house has published six previously unseen photos of the religious and political leader, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in Nazi Germany. The grand mufti of Jerusalem was known to associate with Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler. #Auction #Mufti #Nazi ____________________ 13. Israeli Researchers Find New Inscriptions In Ancient Pottery Researchers at Tel Aviv University have made a startling new discovery about a pottery shard dating back to the time of Jeremiah. The historical value of the discovery is not just in the documentation of Judean diets and supply lines, it's also linguistic. #Pottery #Inscription ____________________ 14. Hebrew word Of The Day, CHERES | חרס = CERAMIC Learn a new Hebrew word every day. Today's word is "cheres" which means "ceramic" #Learnhebrew #Hebrewwordofday #Iltvhebrewwordofday _____________________ 15. The Weather Forecast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.