Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dine at Or’esh, buzzy new ‘Mediterranean’ restaurant in SoHo

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✈️ Israel proposes Emirates airline fly between Tel Aviv and New York

• The Israeli Transportation Ministry has presented a proposal for Emirates, a Dubai-based airline, to fly between Tel Aviv and New York, according to the Jewish News Syndicate.

• The move comes as the Tel Aviv-New York route has seen protracted service suspensions by U.S. carriers during the wars in Gaza and Iran. The shortage of flights has driven ticket prices up on El Al, often the only reliable option for Israelis traveling to New York. Emirates has not operated flights to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023.

• The recommendation, which Emirates has not said whether it will follow, also comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed a wartime visit to the United Arab Emirates, with which Israel has sought to stoke closer ties.

🍴 Taylor and Travis at Or’esh

• Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce chose Or’esh for their date night on Friday, according to Page Six. The new Mediterranean restaurant in SoHo was founded by Michelin-starred chef Nadav Greenberg, who based the menu on his Moroccan-Israeli heritage.

• Swift’s fans closely watch her activity and comments for any hint of political outlook and discuss them in online forums. “Is she a zionist? Thats an Israeli restaurant,” one wrote on Reddit.

• Swift’s silence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as other celebrities comment vocally in support of the Palestinians has especially endeared her to Israeli fans.

✍️ Manhattan rabbi rebukes his progressive colleagues

• Rabbi David Ingber, the founder of the Upper West Side synagogue Romemu, argues in Tablet that progressive rabbis have singled out Israel for censure while ignoring other international injustices and left-wing antisemitism — leaving the Jewish world with “an anti-Zionism problem.”

🌾 Mamdani hosts Jewish allies for Shavuot

• Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted more than 100 people for blintzes and cheesecake in a Shavuot celebration at Gracie Mansion on Monday night.

• The event in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month featured a crowd of left-wing Jewish activists associated with the cohosts, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, New York Jewish Agenda and Jewish Voice for Peace. They also included representatives from pro-Mamdani Orthodox groups and Jewish city workers.

• Several prominent Jewish groups, including UJA-Federation of New York and Jewish Community Relations Council-New York, said they would skip the party over the mayor’s rhetoric on Israel. Some Jewish leaders also called for boycotting events with Mamdani following a video that he posted on Friday to mark Nakba Day, the commemoration of Palestinian displacement surrounding the establishment of Israel.

• The pre-Shavuot event served as the latest example of Mamdani’s efforts to cultivate alliances with progressive Jewish groups and clergy despite ongoing tensions with much of the city’s Jewish establishment. An invocation was given by Rabbi Irwin Kula, the president emeritus of the Jewish organization CLAL, whose blessing for Mamdani included “the wisdom” to recognize the “inextricability of Jewish identity and Palestinian dignity.”

🎙️ Mamdani to join ‘Ask the Mayor’ with Brian Lehrer

• Have questions for Mamdani? Tune in for his quarterly interviews with Jewish WNYC host Brian Lehrer on “Ask the Mayor,” a segment launching on June 2. The Brian Lehrer Show airs from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

• “Ask the Mayor” is being rebooted from the Bill de Blasio era, when the then-mayor was a weekly guest on the show from 2016 to 2021. Eric Adams, whom Mamdani unseated, did not participate.

🥯 Barney Greengrass makes New York Times ‘best restaurants’ list

• The iconic Upper West Side Jewish deli Barney Greengrass continued its streak on The New York Times 100 best restaurants list this year, landing in 92nd place.