The staff at Aroma's new Manhattan branch. (Shahar Samoohaa)

An Israeli brew pours over NYC By Dea Hadar NEW YORK - The tractor with New York City workers crawled onto Houston Street last Monday afternoon. It was only a few hours before the grand opening of the first branch of the Aroma coffee shop chain in Manhattan. But the city workers had not been informed that their plan to jackhammer into the asphalt and turn off the water until the following day was at odds with the Israeli coffee empire's new assault on North America. Franchise holder Hanoch Milawitsky hurried outside to find out what was happening. "I asked them how it could be, and he told me, 'welcome to the neighborhood,'" said Milawitsky. The water incident gave the Israeli Aroma team in New York time to tie up a few loose ends. And there are some loose ends, even if the large and well-designed, red, black and white lay out looked polished and ready (approximately $2 million was invested in the renovation); the hot trays with yeast cakes, cheese and croissants appeared one after another from the oven; the coffee was generously served to passersby and the staff was already wearing white "I Love Aroma New York" emblazoned shirts. One of the loose ends is the "Oriental sandwich." In Israel this is known as an Iraqi sandwich, but its migration to America prompted a change of identity. "We're better off not telling Americans that it is Iraqi," explained Noam Berman, the chain's deputy vice president of marketing. "It gives them unpleasant associations". Somewhere along the way, zucchini and red pepper were also crammed into the sandwich. The spelling mistake in the English name of the sandwich, as it appears on a wall display, did not seem to bother the decision-makers. In the meantime, they have learned that here in America "Oriental" is a synonym for Asian, not Middle Eastern. So they eventually decided to call the sandwich the "Med," short for Mediterranean. Advertisement Lital Douani, an "outstanding employee" at the company's coffee shop in Hadera, and who was brought to New York along with 11 other employees to train the Americans in the Aroma doctrine, hadn't yet been apprised of the change. "What's been decided with the Oriental - with egg or without?" she asked outloud. But Milawitsky corrected her, "Uh, we no longer call it the Oriental." The Iraqi wasn't the only item on the menu making trouble. "There's no cream cheese in the 'Omelet Sandwich.' We don't have any lettuce," complained Berman. "It's too dry. Let's get rid of the cheddar cheese and put cream cheese in instead." "And there's too little basil in the 'Greek,'" noted Douani. "We should put in cilantro instead of 'pirsley,'" said Berman. "It's parsley," corrected Milawitsky. Where everybody knows your name The Aroma branch in Soho is the chain's 74th store, and the first one outside of Israel. The enterprise, which began as a successful espresso and sandwich bar in 1994 on Hillel Street in Jerusalem, has over the past decade grown into a thriving chain, with a presence in seemingly every nook and cranny in Israel. Company executives have now set out to paint the world in red, black and white, and to explain to the great huddled (and non-Jewish) masses exactly what Israeli coffee is. "We have been planning to expand abroad for two years, and now the expansion plan has picked up speed," said Berman. He claims that by the end of August another branch of Aroma will be open in Toronto, and that branches in Florida and California are scheduled to open in the not-too-distant future. The Israeli invasion of New York will soon be joined by the Max Brenner chain, which will be opening two coffee shops of its own. Notwithstanding the profusion of coffee shops in New York, Berman is absolutely certain that the Israeli formula will take the city by storm. "To begin with, we have better coffee. We saw this even from the tests we've been conducting in the past few days, in which we gave away coffee in the street," he says. Berman asserts that Americans will easily adapt to the chain's system by which coffee orders are filled. "People will learn the Aroma system. Over at Jamba Juice they also call out names," he said, referring to the neighboring juice stand. The coffeehouse is situated on a major thoroughfare, and the monthly rent of the 650-square-meter location is a sizeable $29,000. Berman doesn't seem too worried. "I assume that the Israelis who are familiar with the brand will come here en masse. There are 300,000 Israelis in this city, and it is a much better demographic than in Israel - young people and entrepreneurs. Hundreds of people have been coming here in the past few days. Israelis are proud, it's something that is theirs, and everyone has been giving us a very warm welcome. Jews who have visited Israel are also coming in. There was an old married couple here who travelled for two hours and were upset that we hadn't yet opened. Everyone is in a state of hysteria." The menu looks familiar to Israelis, in spite of the slight modifications, such as the fact that meat and milk products will be placed together between two slices of bread (to be baked on the premises), and anyone wanting a borekas will have to get used to asking for a "Bureka Treat." The coffee will be made the same way, but since the water in New York is not as hard as in Israel, softeners will not be added to it, as is in the case of Aroma's other branches. On the subway Douani, 22, from the Aroma Hadera branch, still had a hard time believing early last week that she was here. She and the other employee-trainers have been sharing an apartment, and until the official opening were not working overly hard - something that will undoubtedly change as soon as the branch opens to the public. "It's strange here. Everything is big and different. I've never been to New York," says Douani. She reminisced about how she went to the company offices for an interview, was tested in English, and was selected. "They gave us a two-day course in English, so that we would know how to act with the Americans," she relates. This is also the first time in New York for Aviv Haim, 23, from Herzliya, a bartender from the Aroma branch in the Arena shopping mall. "Simply amazing! America!" is how he sums up his first week here. "It is totally fantastic here. In the beginning, I was in a state of shock. I feel like staying here. Maybe I'll come back sometime." Members of the Aroma delegation landed in New York prepared for combat, relating to the launch of the new espresso bar as if it were a commando operation. Out on the sidewalk, the Aroma women lay like Amazons ready to do battle, smoking L&M lights and memorizing the latest menu changes. They told Noam Berman about the public relations blitz they had carried out, at their own initiative, the previous day, far below the streets of New York. "We wore the I Love Aroma shirts, and hung up Aroma signs in the subway," related a proud Douani. "We hung them up everywhere - on the subway car, on the map, on the exit sign. It was magnificent." The managers were impressed with the initiative. "They didn't come only as instructors - they're also doing public relations," said a thrilled Amnon Dagan, one of the company managers. Americans don't understand coffee On Monday, the coffeehouse was not yet open for business, and a hefty construction ladder was positioned in the middle of the store, although it did not stop several Israelis from making their way inside. The staff received them with coffee and cake, free of charge. "The kids are used to drinking ice coffee, just like in Israel," said Dalia Bindas of Rishon Lezion, who came into the shop with her daughter Yasmin and her friend Yael Halwa who was with her own son Raz, on a Bar and Bat Mitzvah trip with the children. "On the plane, we read that Aroma was opening in New York, and we said that we would go there, of course. Here, we feel like we're home," said Halwa, sucking on the square of chocolate that came with the coffee. She and Bindas concurred that it all tasted "just like in Israel." "Once an Israeli, always an Israeli," said Bindas. Sarah Brill, who was visiting the city with her husband, walked into the coffee shop during a break from shopping. "I told my husband that we really need coffee here. The coffee here is simply atrocious. We were in Canada, in the Rockies, in Vancouver, and we couldn't find any decent coffee. Americans don't understand coffee. They love their Starbucks. In my opinion, it isn't coffee. I don't know what it is - it's brown water. Finally, there is a place where you can drink coffee," she groused, and then downed a gulp. Carol Lee, an American who lives in the neighborhood, dropped in to check on the new neighbor, and was given a free double espresso prepared by Aviv Haim. Without taking off her Prada sunglasses, she downed the caffeine fix imported from the Holy Land, and termed it "fabulous." Discovering that the coffee shop was part of an Israeli chain, she expressed surprise: "I never would have guessed. What is it that makes it Israeli?"

Austrian Hotel: No Jews Allowed

 
by Yehudah Lev Kay

(IsraelNN.com) A hotel in Austria has refused a request by a Jewish family of seven from Vienna to lodge. The hotel owner told the family by email that the room was available, but she did not want to host Jewish guests because of “bad experiences in the past.”

The incident occurred at the Haus Sonnenhof apartment hotel in the village of Serfaus. The surrounding region is popular with Orthodox Jewish tourists. Local hotel owners said the incident would be bad for the tourist industry in the area.

The story was reported by the local daily newspaper Tiroler Tagezeitung on Sunday. Owner of the Alpenruh-Micheluzzi hotel, Petra Micheluzzi, told the paper that the incident would be “bad for the image” of Serfaus. Irmgard Monz, the owner of the Hans Sonnenhof hotel, refused to comment.

Esther Fritsch, president of the local Jewish community said that the rejection was “terrible” but said it was the first incident of its kind.

The Jewish family decided to vacation elsewhere. “I don’t want to spend my vacation in such a racist nest, and I will inform all my friends about what is going on,” the father said.

Amid Jewish revival, Poland gets openly gay rabbi

By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writer – Sun Jun 28, 1:26 am ET

WARSAW, Poland – When Rabbi Aaron Katz walks the streets of Warsaw's former Jewish quarter, scenes of that lost world fill his imagination: Families headed to synagogue, women in their kitchens cooking Sabbath meals, his father as a boy with the sidecurls of an Orthodox Jew.

But Katz's life could hardly be more different from that prewar eastern European culture, at least in one key respect: He is Poland's first openly gay rabbi.

Born in Argentina 53 years ago to parents who fled Poland before the Holocaust, Katz is the latest rabbi to play his part in reviving a once vibrant Jewish community that was all but wiped out by Hitler.

He settled into Warsaw's historic Jewish district in March with Kevin Gleason, a former Hollywood producer on such reality TV shows as "The Bachelor" and "Nanny 911," with whom he entered into a registered domestic partnership in Los Angeles two years ago.

They live only three streets from the birth home of Katz's father in a modern and spacious apartment with their dogs, two gentle brown boxers. Katz says he is moved by the links to his past, but keeps his focus on the future.

"I don't think we will come back to this great Jewish life," he said, referring to prewar Poland, a country where one person in 10 was Jewish and where synagogues, yeshivas and shtetls defined the landscape. "But I hope we will have a normal Jewish life in Poland."

Katz is certainly an anomaly in conservative Poland, where to be either Jewish or gay is challenge enough — at least outside the cities. Of a population of 38 million, about 5,000 are registered as Jews, while thousands more have part-Jewish ancestry, and some have returned to their roots since Poland shed its communist dictatorship.

Katz is the second rabbi to serve Beit Warszawa, a Reform community with 250 members that was founded in the capital 10 years ago by Polish and American Jews who felt little affinity with some Orthodox practices, such as separating men and women during Sabbath services. The Reform movement ordains gay rabbis.

Homosexuals have won acceptance at differing levels throughout post-communist Eastern Europe. The Czech Republic and Slovenia recognize same-sex partnerships, as will Hungary from July 1. Poland hasn't gone that far. It has an active gay rights movement and gay nightclubs in the cities, but the Catholic church and some conservative politicians still publicly describe homosexuality as abnormal and immoral.

Katz, a citizen of Argentina, Israel and Sweden, says so far he has not faced anti-Semitism or homophobia in Poland. But some community members, speaking in private, reveal a degree of discomfort.

One woman at a Sabbath service whispered that she found Katz's open sexuality too "aggressive." A longtime male member counseled against writing about the rabbi, lest anti-Semites use it against the community.

A third member, Piotr Lukasz, said he himself supports gay rights, and marched with an Israeli flag during a recent gay rights parade in Warsaw. But he said he had heard others complain that it would weaken an already small and fragile community.

"They say that Poland is not a ready for a gay rabbi because the outside society is very conservative," said Lukasz, a 23-year-old student of cultural anthropology. "An openly gay rabbi is something very controversial."

Others, though, seem comfortable, as evidenced by a recent string of dinners where Jews and non-Jews joined Katz and his partner at their home, digging into goulash or chicken-and-potato meals around the dining room table and socializing through the evening.

Katz is the chief cook — it's because he likes to be in charge, says Gleason, who instead welcomes guests warmly at the door and keeps their wine glasses filled through the evenings.

"I think the rabbi's home should be open," Katz said. "The moment that you take a position, your family takes the position too. It's a role."

Katz's life as a rabbi has been an evolution from one world to another. In the 1980s and early 1990s he was Sweden's chief Orthodox rabbi, married to a woman with whom he had five children now aged 16 to 31. Later he lived and worked in Berlin and Los Angeles. He had a dark beard, but today is clean-shaven.

The only photograph in their living room shows Katz and Gleason on the day they sealed their partnership — which they refer to as a marriage — surrounded by both their families, including Katz's sons and daughters, who are close to the couple and who showed their acceptance of the union with a gift of a ketubah, a traditional Jewish wedding certificate.

Katz's journey away from Orthodox Judaism was part of his "coming out process," he explains, but also was influenced by the realization that some of his children were not attracted to Orthodox worship. He concluded that Reform Judaism was more attractive to the young.

Still, he insists that as modern as he is, he loves tradition.

He keeps a kosher home and has enthusiastically embraced the Jewish tradition of matchmaker, using his dinners to introduce singles — usually heterosexuals but not exclusively.

Asked how many marriages have resulted, he said "a couple," but Gleason jumped in to correct him: "You're being modest," he said.

Gleason, 50, was born into a Catholic family but converted to Judaism for Katz. He left Hollywood and now does administrative and fundraising work for the synagogue. He attends services, sitting in the back and tapping on his watch when he feels the rabbi's lively sermons are getting to long.

Still, the openness of their relationship can catch people in Warsaw off guard.

"I introduce him as my partner they say, 'Oh he's also a rabbi?'" Katz said. "When I say 'my partner' they think I mean like in business. So I say 'no, no, no, we are living together.'"

Joseph’s Era Coins Found in Egypt

Joseph, Viceroy of Egypt

An Egyptian paper claims that archaeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian coins bearing the name and image of the Biblical Joseph.

The report in Al-Ahram boasts that the find backs up the Koran’s claim that coins were used in Egypt during Joseph’s period. Joseph, son of the Patriarch Jacob, died around 1450 B.C.E., according to Jewish sources.

Excerpts from the Al-Ahram report, as translated by Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI):

"In an unprecedented find, a group of Egyptian researchers and archeologists has discovered a cache of coins from the time of the Pharaohs. Its importance lies in the fact that it provides decisive scientific evidence disproving the claim by some historians that the ancient Egyptians were unfamiliar with coins and conducted their trade through barter.

"The researchers discovered the coins when they sifted through thousands of small archeological artifacts stored in [the vaults of] the Museum of Egypt. [Initially] they took them for charms, but a thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the year in which they were minted and their value, or effigies of the pharaohs [who ruled] at the time of their minting. Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in Egypt, and bear his name and portrait.

"There used to be a misconception that trade [in Ancient Egypt] was conducted through barter, and that Egyptian wheat, for example, was traded for other goods. But surprisingly, Koranic verses indicate clearly that coins were used in Egypt in the time of Joseph...

"Research team head Dr. Sa'id Muhammad Thabet said that during his archeological research on the Prophet Joseph, he had discovered in the vaults of the [Egyptian] Antiquities Authority and of the National Museum many charms from various eras before and after the period of Joseph, including one that bore his effigy as the minister of the treasury in the Egyptian pharaoh's court…

"Studies by Dr. Thabet's team have revealed that what most archeologists took for a kind of charm, and others took for an ornament or adornment, is actually a coin. Several [facts led them to this conclusion]: first, [the fact that] many such coins have been found at various [archeological sites], and also [the fact that] they are round or oval in shape, and have two faces: one with an inscription, called the inscribed face, and one with an image, called the engraved face - just like the coins we use today.

"The archeological finding is also based on the fact that the inscribed face bore the name of Egypt, a date, and a value, while the engraved face bore the name and image of one of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs or gods, or else a symbol connected with these. Another telling fact is that the coins come in different sizes and are made of different materials, including ivory, precious stones, copper, silver, gold, etc."

MEMRI's website says it "explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Persian,Turkish, Urdu-Pashtu media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East." Headquartered in Washington, D.C., MEMRI has branch offices in Jerusalem, London, Tokyo, Rome, Baghdad, and Shanghai.