Tatte founder Tzurit Or

From the minute that Tatte, an all-day Israeli café, opened in Washington, D.C.’s West End neighborhood, the line was out the door and down the block. It was the summer of 2020, and customers wearing masks would wait in the long queue — six feet apart — to order a fresh pastry, like a halva brownie or a pistachio croissant, or to try one of the restaurant’s signature Israeli dishes: shakshuka, maybe, or a roasted cauliflower pita. In the two years since the West End opening, six more locations have opened in Washington, Arlington, Va., and Bethesda, Md., with two more set to open over the next few months. “D.C. knows how to enjoy Tatte,” the cafe’s founder, Tzurit Or, told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch over shakshuka at the chain’s Newton, Mass., location, near Or’s home. Ten years ago when Tatte began selling the egg-and-tomato dish, “no one ever heard of shakshuka,” she noted. 

Kinneret to Copley: Before becoming the hottest spot for lunch meetings and afternoon coffees for Washington’s political set, Tatte (“like latte,” coffee cups and branded T-shirts remind customers), started as a farmers market stand in Boston’s Copley Square in 2007. But its true origin story can be found on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, at Kibbutz Kinneret, where Or grew up. 

Baking since birth: “I didn’t learn to bake. It’s the way I was raised,” Or said. Her mother baked all the time, including for the kibbutz dining room, and instilled in Or a deep-seated aversion to ever bringing a store-bought dessert to a party. “I didn’t eat any food out of a box until I got here,” she said of the United States.

Israeli education: Early on, Tatte only served baked goods before beginning to offer a full-service menu. Even now, many Tatte employees, let alone customers, are at first unfamiliar with its Israeli ingredients and some of the Hebrew words, things like “bourekas” or “shakshuka.” Two years ago, Or explained, Tatte added a glossary of those terms. “As a guest, we want it to be more approachable. We don’t want you to be afraid of our food,” she added. For staff, the education is more involved. New employees watch a video explaining “a little bit about the kibbutz,” said Or, “and how humble it is.” Staff also have to learn the intricacies of preparing Israeli food.

Washington welcome: Or fell in love with Washington the first time she visited six years ago, years before she considered opening Tatte there. “For me, I have to get to know the neighborhood, the people, so I spent a lot of time there before I made the decision,” she said. “My first visit, I said, ‘D.C. will understand Tatte.’” She was right: Tatte It doesn’t necessarily have to be translated for them,” she said of Washingtonians. In 2021, the readers of the lifestyle magazine Washingtonian voted Tatte the city’s best bakery.

Read the full story here.

President Joe Biden (L) holds a bilateral meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid at a hotel in Jerusalem on July 14, 2022.

President Joe Biden may not have come away with a breakthrough deal with Saudi Arabia during his trip to the Middle East last month, but he was successful in convincing a growing number of Israelis that the White House would consider Israel’s security needs during ongoing talks with Iran over its nuclear program, according to a new poll obtained by Jewish Insider’s Ruth Marks Eglash. The Israeli Voice Index, prepared monthly by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), found a rise in the proportion of Israelis who trust the current U.S. leadership to take Israel into account when negotiating with Iran – from 15% before last month’s visit to 34% after among Israeli Jews, and from 20.5% to 26% among Israeli Arabs.

Strategic commitment: During his visit to Israel, his first as president, Biden reaffirmed the U.S. strategic commitment to Israel, signing the Jerusalem U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Joint Declaration with Lapid. The agreement featured a U.S. pledge never to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and a commitment to partner with other countries to confront Tehran’s aggression and destabilizing activities in the region. In a press conference in Jerusalem last month, Biden said a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a threat to everyone. “Ensuring Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon is of vital security interest to Israel and the United States and for the rest of the world as well,” he said. “I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome, and we’ll continue to work with Israel to counter other threats from Iran throughout the region.”

Disappointing diplomacy: The IDI poll, however, found Jewish Israelis were disappointed by Biden’s inability to reach a breakthrough agreement with Saudi Arabia, which he visited immediately after Israel, becoming the first person to fly directly from Tel Aviv to Jeddah. Asking the respondents to what extent they believed the president had the capability to bring about a breakthrough in relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a majority of Israeli Jews, 54%, said they were not convinced. Only 37% said they believed Biden had the capacity to bring the largest state in the Middle East into the Abraham Accords.

Read more here.

LOD, ISRAEL – JULY 13: U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli President Isaac Herzog during an arrival ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport on July 13, 2022 in Lod, Israel. Biden will spend two days in Israel, his first visit here as president, before traveling to Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

In the latest installment of “Carnegie Connects,” a podcast series hosted by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior Fellow Aaron David Miller, Israeli President Isaac Herzog reflects on his first year as Israel’s president, the shift from partisan politics to a more neutral role and U.S.-Israel relations. Jewish Insider got an early listen to today’s episode, which will go live at 2 p.m. ET.

On concerns over the politicizing of the U.S.-Israel relationship: “I’m worried about some streaks of thought in the American progressive political left, where they misjudge Israel… meaning the whole notion of boycotting Israel, undermining its right to exist, voices that do not understand the real sources of the conflict with the Palestinians and the way to resolve it. They do not know anything about this country: the incredible variety of voices, the multitude and weight of the free speech in our nation, the fact that we’re the only nation in the world that had the Muslim Brotherhood in its government, is in the Jewish state. People do not understand what is going on here in terms of the beautiful expressions of art, culture, literature, and multitude of opinions. And rather than respecting it and saying, ‘We have a difference of opinion about the solution to the conflict,’ we unfortunately face a lot of hate in certain quarters in American politics, both from the extreme right from white supremacists who hate Jews, or from the extreme left in progressive America, which disturbs me a lot, because the terms of the relationship and the friendship, it goes so deep, with such mutual values of democracy, and freedom and liberties, that it should only be natural that we are allies.”

On regional dynamics in the Middle East: ​​“It’s judged by various quarters in American public life and media, wrongly. This region is changing dramatically. In this region, unfortunately, still, sign language counts, meaning you have to be tough, you have to show strength, you have to understand that your allies are your allies, and they want to be your allies. But they have to feel it. And this region is threatened by an empire of hate, of the worst crime, called Iran. And this is the entire equation. And if you believe in your allies, then you have to step up for them all throughout. This is the real question at the heart.”

On the Israeli view of American politics: “Clearly, at times, we are worried about the situation in the United States and we hope, of course, that the American political system will be able to resolve its conflicts and differences. Today’s modern political systems are very divisive, naturally, with the background of social networks and the ability to express opinions unfiltered and mobilize masses. We see it in many places. Of course, we’re dealing with the Israeli political system, which is unstable, so we know what it’s all about. But I truly hope and believe that our common values and our common goals and the way we see democracy, liberties and stability in the world, will of course, overcome these adverse forces.”

The full episode goes live at 2 p.m. ET today.