NEWS: (NEW YORK, N.Y.) The American Friends of Neve Hanna today announced that “golden opportunity” took on a special meaning when award-winning chef and co-owner of Philadelphia’s Zahav (Gold) restaurant, Michael Solomonov, met the girls and boys of the Neve Hanna Children’s Home in Kiryat Gat, Israel.
On a special night in New York, American Friends of Neve Hanna led by Co-Presidents Janet and Irwin Tobin, came together with Chef Solomonov to celebrate 40 years of service to children and the publication of Solomonov’s new cookbook, “Zahav” (ISBN: 978-0544373280).
Chef Solomonov shared both a signature recipe and the personal culinary journey that led him back to Israel and his meeting with the children at Neve Hanna. Neve Hanna provides youngsters from dysfunctional families with a loving and healthy home – and a future they would not otherwise have.
Solomonov and his family visited the Neve Hanna campus last June and were particularly impressed by the inspiring, resilient young people who overcome serious challenges to succeed and thrive.
Neve Hanna is a unique therapeutic community, supported by the Masorti (Conservative) religious movement, which offers art, drama and animal assisted therapy, remedial academic teaching, University tuition assistance, educational trips and an on-site bakery which teaches vocational and business skills.
The bakery has become so successful that it now provides baked goods to restaurants and corporate dining facilities throughout Israel. Chef Solomonov could relate to the children of Neve Hanna; indeed, it was his time spent working in a bakery in Israel as a teen that proved to be the first step towards finding his calling in food and pursuing a career built around furthering the State of Israel through this lens.
Situated in the southern part of Israel, Neve Hanna not only serves its resident young people (who are referred by the Israeli courts) but also provides daily programming and services to neighboring youngsters from the Bedouin town of Rahat.
Michael Solomonov is now embarking on a new venture – the eagerly anticipated Dizengoff NYC, an Israeli style hummusiya and his first restaurant in New York (Dizengoff Philly opened in Summer of 2014), opening this April in Chelsea Market.
For information about Neve Hanna or to purchase a copy of Zahav, please call or email The American Friends of Neve Hanna at (212) 533-2061 or afnevehanna@gmail.com. Please visit our website at http://www.afnevehanna.org/.
Photo credit: YGSerkin and AFNeveHanna.
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