Israeli singer Hananel Edri discovered his love for food and his family’s Moroccan traditions in his grandmother’s kitchen, where he found solace after the trauma of a rocket strike on his family home in Kiryat Shmona, near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, at age 10.

Meanwhile, Merav Oren — founder and CEO of Foodish, the culinary department of Tel Aviv’s Anu Museum of the Jewish People — grew up between Atlanta and Israel, rooted in a different culinary tradition: Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. 

This year, the two brought their worlds together to form “Soul and Roll,” a new immersive culinary and musical experience designed by Oren and Edri — a self-proclaimed “foodie” and singer who has performed on some of Israel’s most prestigious stages including Habima National Theatre. “We talk, Hananel sings and at the end people do a hands-on experience making ma’amoul,” a traditional Middle Eastern pastry often served at Mimouna, the Moroccan-Jewish celebration to mark the end of Passover, Oren told Jewish Insider on Sunday at an event to launch Foodish’s international expansion.  

Held at the Washington home of documentary filmmaker Aviva Kempner, some two dozen attendees got a taste of a Soul and Roll show, including Edri’s rendition of “Jerusalem of Gold” and a Moroccan song dedicated to his grandmother, followed by a lesson in making date-filled ma’amoul pastries to bring home. The invitation-only event also featured remarks from Israeli chef and food writer Vered Guttman and Jewish cookbook author Joan Nathan.  

“Anu strengthens the Jewish belonging through history and art. We at Foodish do that through food — we tell the story of the Jewish people through food, through events and festivals,” said Oren.      

Edri and Oren, both of whom reside in Tel Aviv, met during a visit to Warsaw, Poland, working with Jewish communities through food and music, just days before the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. After Hamas’ massacre, the pair reunited to lead food therapy workshops.

“Just after Oct. 7 we went down to the south where evacuees were staying and started doing culinary workshops with them,” Oren recalled on Sunday. One moment that still stands out to her, she said, was when she began doing dishes after the workshop and an evacuee insisted on helping because what she missed most about home was “the basic stuff like washing dishes, baking or cooking.”

Also in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, Foodish ran a pop-up exhibition with 14 of the leading chefs in Israel, including Eyal Shani, pairing each with a famous Israeli artist. Each illustrator designed artwork for a chef coat based on the chef’s personal story, which was then sold in an exhibition. Funds raised went towards expanding the food therapy workshops. 

Foodish has since launched several other programs, including one that invites high school students to taste cultural, and sometimes unpopular foods like chopped liver, “that are kind of disgusting, but through that we tell the story of specific communities,” said Oren. 

Another program designed to alleviate loneliness among the elderly sends volunteers to their homes and to document their history as they cook together. “Then we have an event where they invite their families, go onstage and tell their stories. The food helps them tell their stories, which otherwise probably no one would have asked them about,” said Oren.  

The newest projects, which Oren said are “going global,” include Soul and Roll, as well as one designed for schools that focuses on teenagers and young adults to assist them in documenting their family’s food stories, both online and in print.   

“All of these are examples that explain to us food is not just food, it’s so much more engaging. We deal with Jewish identity through food,” said Oren. “We want to take what we do to Jewish communities all over the world.”

Noting Israel’s war with Iran and the countless hours they have spent in Tel Aviv bomb shelters over the past month, both Oren and Edri said that the launch of Foodish’s latest programs comes amid a challenging period. 

“This is a difficult time for us. Growing up, the rocket situation was my reality,” said Edri. “Today, I live in Tel Aviv and we are facing the same reality. Doing what we do, and to be able to come here and share our stories with you, is even more important [than ever] for me because we are strong only if we stay together. Our existence really depends on each other,” he told the American Jewish audience. 

Although the war forced the cancellation of two of their three scheduled shows in Israel, Edri told JI that Soul and Roll is persevering, adding, “It’s difficult, but we’re getting it out there.” The pair’s trip to the U.S. also included a Mimouna show in New York.

“My background is mainly onstage and I’m a big foodie,” continued Edri, adding that what draws him to the program is the combination of “kitchen, memories, Jewish identity brought all together with music and what Anu does, and people leaving with cookies, music they can sing to and memories.” 

Edri, who runs his own culinary-musical web series called “Cooking with Hananel,” shared the reason each Soul and Roll show begins with the same song, “Jerusalem of Gold,” the iconic Israeli tune written by Naomi Shemer in 1967: “Merav’s family came from Poland, my family came from Morocco,” he said. “Our grandmothers were in very different situations and settings, but they all prayed and longed for the same place, which is Jerusalem.”