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From Hollywood to the Holy Land

Noa Tishby’s Israel

Noa Tishby is considered one of Israel’s best exports. The multihyphenate model-actress-producer has lived in Los Angeles for nearly a decade, bringing Hollywood gems like the HBO series “In Treatment” from Israel to the United States, where her career is on fire. But when we talked to her about Israel, she assured us there’s no place like home. Here are Tishby’s not-to-be-missed Holy Land hot spots.

Israeli hotel chefs create a culinary revolution

Gone are the days when visiting American tourists were satisfied being served a colorless, uninspired boiled chicken in an Israeli hotel dining room. Today, when tourists sit down to breakfast or dinner in a five-star hotel in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Eilat, they are virtually guaranteed colorful kosher culinary experiences comparable to those of the finest restaurants in Los Angeles, New York or Paris. As if to underscore the quantum leap in the Israeli kitchen, Israel’s Channel 10 recently televised a local take of the popular reality TV show “Iron Chef.” In the Israeli version, a top-ranked Parisian chef was flown to the Jewish state to challenge local hotel and restaurant chefs in an array of steamy cook-offs. Much to the Frenchman’s surprise, his Israeli counterparts were more than a match for his culinary expertise.

Showbiz bus brings Israel to Hollywood youth

Over the past decade, Taglit-Birthright Israel has provided Jewish young adults with the opportunity to visit Israel at no cost. For many — more than 230,000 so far — it has been the trip of a lifetime: a chance to visit Israel for 10 days and make connections to their Jewish heritage and their Israeli peers. This past summer, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’ Young Entertainment Division, which sponsors Birthright trips each year, created a special trip — dubbed the Showbiz Bus — designed for young L.A. Jews working in or studying for a career in the entertainment industry to visit Israel on a Birthright tour.

Eat pray love, Israel style

Admit it, ladies. When you read Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir, “Eat Pray Love,” there were moments when you wanted to trade places with Gilbert as she gorged herself on Italian yummies, mined her soul in an Indian ashram and fell in love with a strapping Brazilian in Bali. But if you have a Zionist bent like me, you probably would rather spend your money in the Holy Land. Fortunately, the Jewish state can provide an “Eat Pray Love” experience without the Jewish guilt. Israelis are consumed by wanderlust, importing the best of what they find in the tastiest, most spiritual and most romantic places in the world.

The blue & white rub: trendy Israeli spas energize body and soul

Strike up a conversation about mending body and soul in Israel and the conventional wisdom is to talk up the wonders of the Dead Sea and the hotel spas situated along the banks of its mineral-rich waters. Although there are several high-quality spas in the Dead Sea region, a growing number of upscale inner-city, beachfront and country hotels across Israel are also offering a wide array of soothing spa experiences, which rival almost anything the Dead Sea has to offer. Ran Bibi, manager of Inbal Jerusalem Hotel’s Health Club & Spa (inbalhotel.com), says that over the past decade there have been three shifts — cultural, geographical and spiritual — that helped widen the focus of the spa tourism business in Israel.

Art house bucks multiplex trend in Herzliya

It’s not easy to find the Cinematheque Herzliya. The name is written in simple block Hebrew letters over the awning of an indoor strip mall located on Sokolov Street, the main artery in this central coast town. The obscurity is a sharp contrast from the American-style multiplexes located at the major malls near the entrance to the city, like Cinema City, Israel’s largest, or the Rav Chen. A strip mall isn’t a place where one expects to find a cultural venue. There’s an old-fashioned barbershop, a dry-cleaning store, a mom-and-pop-style household goods store and a nondescript clothing boutique. The Cinematheque was built on the grounds of the building’s old movie theater, once a local hangout until multiplexes decimated Israel’s early theaters. But the location couldn’t be more fitting for the cozy art house: It was founded on the belief that good films aren’t always about bombast, glamour and big names. Rather, they’re down-to-earth, independent and hard to find.

Israel: A Summer Like You’ve Never Experienced Before

From rockin’ with Elton John in trendy metro Tel Aviv to discovering the secrets of Mediterranean olive oil in the Holy City of Jerusalem, Israel is a summertime mecca of culturally scintillating attractions for tourists who are looking for fun, sun and adventure.

Savoring the new wave of Israeli Food

My first introduction to Israeli cuisine was during my day-school years, when the teachers would bring in falafel and hummus for Israel Independence Day. My knowledge of Israeli food deepened during trips to Israel, and my knowledge of fine cuisine in general expanded as I grew up watching the Food Channel. At my bar mitzvah, the guests bought me cookbooks and lessons at private culinary schools, where I was the youngest chef in the kitchen. By the age of 15, I was spending my summers working at some of the top kitchens in town. I learned from industry leaders during my studies at the Cornell University hotel school, and when I got an opportunity to prepare a dinner for 200 hoteliers during my senior year, my friend Mike, a Lebanese American, and I naturally put our spin on Middle Eastern Cuisine. When I graduated, I took my culinary training further, working for Wolfgang Puck, Joël Robuchon and Tom Colicchio.\n

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More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.