Shavuot special recipe straight from Jerusalem: Tomato basil tart

Chef Tali Friedman shares her story and a yummy tart recipe, perfect for the holiday of Shavuot. 

In the heart of Mahane Yehuda, a bustling open-air market in Jerusalem, chef Tali Friedman has an atelier (French for studio) from which she runs culinary tours.

A culinary tour with Friedman starts off in Israel’s biggest market, engaging with some of the market’s 450 vendors and tasting the delicious flavors the market has to offer. Once the ingredients have been purchased, she takes you up to her atelier, where everyone -- even the participants -- roll up their sleeves and cook. At the end, they sit down for a lovely meal.

A heartfelt thank you to JNF, from Nepalese students who lost their homes

Following JNF's recent Presidents Mission and JNF's generosity toward the rehabilitation of Nepal, the following letter was written to JNF President Jeffrey Levine on behalf of 160 Nepalese students at Arava International Center for Agricultural Training. At AICAT, students from around the world learn advanced agricultural practices cultivated in the Central Arava desert that they can then take back to their home countries. 

Dear Jeffrey,

Thank you so much for the your generous donation to AICAT and we are really so glad that you are helping us too in this critical situation.

We are here 165 students from Nepal learning in AICAT, and in the end of the program almost we all of the students lose our houses. For a second we thought that our dreams to change the agriculture system in our country had broken into pieces. But you have given us the strength to do it more effectively. Thanks for filling the new hope inside us.

For these new IDF soldiers, it's about ability, not disability

Moor Masood and Tzufit Zandi. 

All new soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces start their first day at the Bakum, the absorption base where all soldiers are processed before being sent out to the various bases or units where they will eventually serve.

For Moor Masood and Tzufit Zandi, the journey to the IDF started six months ago when they came to the JNF-supported Special in Uniform program, which integrates young people with disabilities into the IDF. These women didn’t wanted to give up their dream of serving in the army, so they started a three-month life skills and occupational training program.