When the pandemic hit, Edward Ilyasov was in a bit of a pickle. The 29-year-old resident of Queens, NY, had submitted his letter of resignation with plans to travel the world, starting with Israel. His last days at his well-paying job in finance were supposed to be during the latter part of March 2020, and he planned to paint a person a day as he gallivanted. Yet with restrictions on travel due to COVID-19, he realized that he'd have to scrap his artistic dream. His employer allowed him to return, and he began working remotely.

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Despite the fact that he was succeeding in New York – his Bukharian family came from the former Soviet Union in 1991 – the sales trader for interest-rate derivatives said other young Bukharians were getting boxed into the same job fields.

"I noticed a lot of Bukharian people went for the same careers over and over again, and it bothered me," he explained. "If they didn't go to school, they were barbers or jewelers. If they went to school, they did dentistry, pharmacy or nursing – always the same story. Since I chose a career in finance, I thought it would be important for young Bukharians to have a taste of different careers available to them."

He hosted events with Bukharians who were involved in atypical careers, including a magician, a female dermatologist and an architect, he said.

One speaker offered him a piece of advice: "If you have an opportunity to do the opposite of what you normally do, do it," he recalled the person as saying.

He soon got an adjunct professor position at Queens College, based on his master's degree from Columbia University in financial engineering.

"I realized in one math class that I taught, I felt more fulfilled than working on Wall Street for four years prior," he said.

Of course, adjunct professors make scant money. Still, he said there was something missing from his finance job, despite making "well over six figures."

The turning point was a meal that harkened back to his Bukharian roots.

"My aunt cooks well and served me Plov [a Bukharian dish of rice with meat, carrots and oil] with a pickle that was especially delicious," he said. "I tried it and was blown away. I asked where she bought it, and she said she made it. She gave me a vague recipe."

'Follow your passion'

And so, he started making his own kosher pickles, and at first, they were not impressive. Through trial and error, they became better and better – so much so that he made an Instagram video where he bit into a pickle, and people thought the audio of the crunch from the bite was fake. Neighbors tried them and fell in love with them, and told him to sell them.

"I developed a waiting list, and I couldn't keep up," he said, adding that at one point 600 people waiting for his vinegary fare.

He hired a few people and moved from the kitchen to the basement. As a self-described foodie, he said he used to always watch the "Food Network." He has also been to 21 countries.

"At one point, my boss said, 'We'll be coming back to the office, Eddie. You'll have to choose between the pickles or coming back,' " he recalled.

Since he believes he's caught lightning in a bottle – simply from posting people eating pickles on Instagram – he chose to see if he could make a go of the pickle company. He sells a jar of 4.5 pickles for $8 and a jar of habanero pickles for $10. He uses a mashgiach ("supervisor") to make sure the pickles are kosher, especially the dill, under OK supervision, he said. He no longer teaches any math classes.

He said as an Ivy League graduate who used to make a great salary, it wasn't an easy sell to tell his father he'd be selling pickles.

"My mom said, 'follow your passion,' " he said. "My dad said, 'Are you crazy?' There were a lot of arguments and tense moments."

'I wanted to have more meaning'

He admitted that it took a year to perfect the recipe.

"Life is funny," he said. "When I was broke, all I wanted was money. Now that I have money, I wanted to have more meaning. I wanted to do something I loved. When you give someone the best pickle they ever had in their life, it's priceless. When they pick up a jar and smile that they will have it on their Shabbat table, it's a golden feeling."

The name of the company? Uncle Edik's Pickles.

The logo shows a person with a hat with a mustache underneath. He said some have incorrectly thought the logo is Mexican. He explained that he wore a hat when traveling in a sunny climate, where he met someone that was on vacation for a month who had three ice-cream stores. The person seemed happy, and it made him think his pickle idea had a shot.

While it might seem as if people wouldn't have money to afford expensive pickles, he said in his community, people have disposable income and want to spend it on something different.

He noted that one problem he's encountered is inflation and the rising cost of glass jars for the pickles.

"When I started making a lot of them, I was spending a dollar per jar," he said. "Now there's a shortage, and it's hard to get jars. There are fewer workers, and the demand is crazy. I just had to buy 10,000 jars at $1.50 each. It's unheard of. A year ago, they were 80 cents each. I'm taking the hit, but I'm not raising my prices because I'm just starting out in the business, and I don't want to scare people away – and $8 is already a lot for a jar of pickles."

He said he's sold about 10,000 jars of a total of about 45,000 pickles.

He said his philosophy is simple.

"Most people are used to half-sour or sour," he said. "These are fresh, crunchy and have dill in them."

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Ilyasov also plays guitar, and at Jewish singles events, he said, some women did a double-take when he said he makes pickles, though many thought it was cool. He said about 60,000 Bukharian Jews live in New York City – most of them in Queens – and that a good number of them know him. Many in the community enjoy vodka with pickles, he noted.

His store in Fresh Meadows, where he features some of his own paintings and those of other artists, is self-funded; he said he has turned down investors because he wants to see how the business grows.

"A lot of people told me I'm crazy to give up a Wall Street job for pickles, including my boss, who is a great guy," he said. "But I'm young, I have a product that people like, and I think I'd be crazy if I didn't give this a legitimate shot."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post In a pickle over COVID, Wall Street trader seeks challenge he can relish appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

SWAT teams rushing to a synagogue to save people from a shooting? That was something most people thought they'd never see. But that's what happened at the Tree of Life Or L'Simcha Synagogue when Gregory Bowers opened fire on Oct. 27, 2018 in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, killing 11 Jews, most of them seniors, while they sat in Saturday-morning services in what has been the deadliest attack on Jews in American history.

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Making a documentary on such a subject isn't simple for any director, as there are so many questions to consider. To what extent should the shooter be mentioned? Too little, and it's ignoring history. Too much, and it could inspire copycats and give overdue power to an evil coward. What about the political links? Some cast blame on former President Donald Trump for causing an environment where white supremacists felt emboldened and say it's also a problem of weak gun-control laws, while others argue that isn't the case since the alleged shooter was highly critical of Trump, and criminals can obviously get guns illegally so laws don't really stop someone intent on getting them.

In A Tree of Life, set to premiere at DOC NYC at Manhattan's SVA Theater on Nov. 14, director Trish Adlesic mostly does a great job at providing balance in this powerful film, and nearly every choice is the right one.

Adlesic shows people blaming Trump and saying he's not welcome there, though counters that with someone saying he can visit their synagogue. When it comes to gun control, a former Marine and FBI agent laments that as there were no changes after the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Ct., on Dec. 14, 2012, he doubts they will occur after this, either. A gun seller says he would quit his occupation if it would make a difference in saving lives, in the same breath noting that logic dictates that criminals can get guns illegally. According to The New York Times, Bowers got the guns he allegedly used in the shooting legally, although this was not mentioned in the film.

Bowers isn't mentioned until 30 minutes in and gets almost no screen time. Adlesic lets CNN's Brian Stelter do some of the talking using a clip the network aired. In "Emanuel," a documentary about the 2015 shooting and murder of nine African-American church-goers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, we don't see the convicted killer Dylan Roof until 25 minutes in. He is shown shooting at targets in his backyard and chillingly entering the church in footage caught on security video cameras. If similar footage exists of Bowers, it's not pictured here.

The film points out that the shooter likely targeted the synagogue because of its programs for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (it was listed online as one of many synagogues to have a HIAS Shabbat), but should have made more clear that the accused murderer was not a fan of Trump. It is chilling to hear police chatter, especially when an officer reports that the shooter said "all these Jews need to die" just as we then see the Tree of Life Synagogue building is shown.

Adlesic makes great use of survivor Joe Charny, who is the most magnetic figure in the film. Whether the Squirrel Hill resident is talking about how people need to laugh in life, when he checks the score of the Pittsburgh Steelers game, or in his best moment, sings the Hebrew words of the prayer Etz Chayim Hi – "It is a Tree of Life" (… "to all who hold fast to it"), although his siddur is probably a prop since he must know it by heart) as shots of a casket of a victim are depicted being loaded into a hearse that drives away, he is always memorable. Charny somehow seems like he could be everyone's grandfather you want to hug and looks like he could not hurt a fly.

The film, which boasts Mark Cuban and Michael Keaton as executive producers, is emotionally gripping as the survivors tell their story and viewers learn about those whose lives were tragically and brutally taken. A monthly junior congregation service thankfully was not scheduled for that day or young children would have been in harm's way.

'The end of my life coming'

When she heard the commotion, Andrea Wedner was in the back of the synagogue with her mother, Rose Mallinger, and told her to get down. She survived, but it would be too late for her mother, at 97, the oldest of the victims. Survivor Stephen Weiss speaks about seeing shell casings by the doorway. Survivor Dan Leger tells of how he and Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz moved towards the gunfire, thinking that they might be needed to help the wounded, as Leger is a nurse. Both would be shot; Rabinowitz, who was 66, would be killed. (A scene of a memorial instantly brought tears.)

To balance the tension, Adlesic smartly includes heartwarming family stories not directly related to the shooting, as survivor Barry Werber talks about at his family's Passover seder, when children would sample the wine, and how his zayde (grandfather) would skip pages in the Haggadah because he knew the kids needed to go to sleep or his bubbe (grandmother) would alert him that he missed a page. There is a scene of challah-making during which we hear that the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, at 40 percent Jewish, is viewed as the place to get kosher food.

In an ironic twist, Magali Fienberg, the daughter-in-law of 75-year-old Joyce Fienberg, recounts how her mother-in-law would have liked her to move from France to Pittsburgh to get away from antisemitic problems that were taking place there. Joyce Fienberg was killed in the shooting.

Leger is strangely calm when he recalls getting shot and says he figured he would be dead in a few minutes.

"I had no sense of being afraid about the end of my life coming," he says. "I thought about my life, and I thought, 'Gee, I've had a wonderful life … ' "

A few moments later, he heard something.

"This one's alive," a paramedic said.

Werber describes being near to Mel Wax, who pushed a door open. He then heard three gunshots; Wax, who was 88, was killed. Carol Black hid in darkness as she saw the murderer's shadow. Werber knew he had to be quiet as a 911 operator was asking him questions. He could barely breathe.

The survivors praised the first responders. Officers Daniel Mead, Michael Smidga, Anthony Burke and Timothy Matson were wounded during the attack by bullets fired or broken glass.

A horrific tweet by Bowers – "HIAS likes to bring in invaders that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in" – is shown on the screen.

'Executing him is too easy'

As for Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, it was not his first brush with anti-Semitism. In his younger days, he recounts when someone drew swastikas on his driveway and wrote "Jeffrey is a dirty Jew." He could not have known many decades later, an attack would come in the form of a man who would bring death to his house of worship, though but he acknowledged that he felt such an attack was inevitable.

Adlesic includes two little-known facts that offer a positive boost. One is that life-long Pennsylvania resident and community activist Wasi Mohamed of the Pittsburgh Foundation worked with the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh to raise more than $338,000 to pay for the costs of funerals and medical expenses for those murdered or injured. The other is that Chabad of Pittsburgh asked people to do 100 mitzvot, or good deeds, for each person who was killed.

The one questionable decision is the inclusion of an absurd antisemitic video showing footage of the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol in Washington, DC, as a woman's voice sings "Jew lies bloody Jew lies," to the tune of U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. Another line says Jewish actors were the ones who stormed the Capitol and entered illegally. Not even someone on hallucinogenic mushrooms would believe that; the inclusion does not belong in a film of this caliber.

Michele Rosenthal speaks of her brothers, Cecil and David Rosenthal, both who had learning disabilities and both murdered in the attack. A clip shows Cecil holding a Torah on the bimah and David standing nearby. She says her brothers, aged 54 and 59, knew the Shabbat prayer service by heart because they went to synagogue every week.

"I don't know two people who were happier living the life that they had," she says.

Strangely there is little expression of anger for the shooter, though Carol Black, whose brother Richard Gottfried, 65, was murdered in the attack, made her thoughts clear.

"Executing him is too easy, and I don't want him to have it easy," Black says of Bowers, whose name she would not utter because she doesn't want to humanize him.

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Another man supports the death penalty while Leger, who does not believe in it, quizzically says he wants the opportunity to speak to the shooter and ask why he did it.

Sylvan and Bernice Simon, 86 and 84, Daniel Stein, 71, and Irving Younger, 69, were also murdered by the shooter in the attack. Bowers, who pleaded not guilty, is expected to have his trial in 2022.

While we wish a film like this never had to be made, it is a must-see and a fitting tribute to those violently ripped from their families. Stronger music could have been used in the documentary, but it still packs an emotional wallop. This film is worthy of an award, and however painful it may be to watch, burying one's head in the sand, especially as antisemitic incidents rise throughout the country, will not keep one safe.

Ellen Surloff, president of Dor Hadash Congregation, which shared the space along with New Light Congregation and Tree of Life*Or L'Simcha, provides a sad but obvious conclusion: "The days when synagogues just leave their doors open and hope that, you know, no one comes through the door with a gun … I think those days are gone."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Documentary on worst antisemitic attack in US shows courage under fire appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Being an international action star might be enough for some, but not for Lior Raz. Rather than rest on his laurels and three seasons of the groundbreaking Netflix show Fauda, he decided to make a thriller that took him to the streets and side alleys of New York City (Hit & Run), where not everything is as it seems, and great betrayal comes from a host of characters.

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"I wasn't nervous," said the 49-year-old Israeli by phone. "I was curious and excited. It was not in Israel, and it was in English and Hebrew with a new setup, so all of us were very thrilled. At the end of the day, we did our best. People asked me if I had a fear; I said no, you have to let it go and do everything as good as you can."

He said he especially loved to shoot in Brooklyn at night.

"For me, as someone who has been watching movies all my life about Manhattan, it was very exciting to be doing the things that I dreamt about," said the Israeli actor and screenwriter.

With the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and in a field in Pennsylvania, Raz said he will never forget where he was at the time four planes were hijacked and crashed on a picture-perfect September morning.

"I was in Israel in a basement for a theater rehearsal about the 1973 [Yom Kippur] war. I remember I was in the middle of a monologue, and someone came in the basement and told us the horrible story," he recalled. "And we all went to watch it on TV, and it was a few days of shock for everyone and grief. I was waiting to hear what happened. First, we didn't understand if it was a mistake; like everyone, we were first confused – and then angry, of course. It was something you will never forget for the rest of your life."

'For me, it's a miracle'

As for his acting work, when asked if he was ever afraid in the fight scenes (including a rough one in a bathroom in Hit & Run) and that he might hurt another actor, it was actually the opposite.

"I'm so confident in my abilities of fighting, I'm afraid for the other side that they might hit me [too] strong and not protect me," he quipped.

He said during Hit & Run, he broke his rib, hurt his liver one time, twisted an ankle and tore a muscle in his leg. He explained that this is why there are a lot of rehearsals to try to prevent injuries.

Asked if he was aware that with his tough swagger, penetrating eyes and brooding demeanor, for many he is seen as sexy, he was rather humble.

"It's funny," he said with a laugh. "I'm just a bald, ordinary guy. If I'm sexy, then everybody is sexy."

Raz is married to Israeli actress Meital Berdah; they live in Ramat Hasharon with their three children.

Fauda and Hit & Run were created by Raz and longtime journalist Avi Issacharoff, both of who tend to match story themes with the times. In fact, one projected plotline involves Afghanistan and the Taliban, which might be covered in the fourth season.

"We already wrote the fourth season of 'Fauda,' so the Taliban is not there," he revealed. "But definitely, this is something to write about. How in a second, all the people's lives just collapsed."

He said that within the last year, he was in the United Arab Emirates about 15 times, living there for a few months doing the 2019 filming of the Michael Bey-directed movie 6 Underground, where he had an intense conversation on screen with Ryan Reynold's character, and Raz's character ordered a mass execution.

"For me, it's a miracle," he said of the ability to talk freely as an Israeli in the United Arab Emirates. "For any Israeli to meet people from Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Kuwait … and they all talk about Fauda because they see Israel in a different way, and my characters changed the way people are looking at the Israeli. They didn't watch Israeli TV and [suddenly] understood more of who they are from Fauda and Hit & Run. To be No. 1 in Lebanon, and No. 2 in Kuwait or No. 3 in places in the UAE, I feel we've changed some hearts and minds."

"Everywhere in the world, people love me – sometimes, it's more; sometimes, it's less," he said.

'I was kind of a clown'

As for others in the industry, Raz noted that Quentin Tarantino makes films blended with violence and wry humor and that the award-winning director now lives in the Jewish state with his Israeli wife and child. His work seems a perfect fit for Raz.

"If he will call and ask me, I'll meet him for sure," Raz said of Tarantino. "I admire him."

Asked about what it's like to become famous in his 40s, being stopped at multiple corners and supermarkets, he related the story of when he was a 13-year-old in Jerusalem and hugged a soccer player he really admired. He said that if he can offer 30 percent of how he felt when he hugged that sports star to fans, then that would be great.

Q: Where did Raz get his humor from?

"I think, as a child that had Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder [ADHD], you have to succeed at something because I didn't succeed at school. … I was kind of a clown," he said. "But I had an improv group, and we did a lot of comedy. So I [almost] had to succeed at acting."

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He said the shooting of Hit & Run went well in New York, but due to COVID-19, they had to take an eight-month break in Israel.

The emotional basis for Hit & Run, it seems, also draws inspiration from a devastating personal loss in the actor's past, namely the fact that his girlfriend, Iris Azulai, was stabbed to death by a terrorist in October 1990. He dedicated the third episode of Fauda to her, and on Hit & Run, his character's name is Segev Azulai.

"I have a tattoo of the date on my hand," said Raz. "It is always there with me."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Was Netflix's 'Hit & Run' inspired by true events? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Revenge is a dish best served Israeli.

That's especially true if you're a fan of Fauda, starring Lior Raz, created and written by Raz and journalist Avi Issacharoff. The pair proves to be more than a one-hit-wonder with the newly released action thriller Hit & Run, which is likely the best Netflix show you'll see this year.

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Raz stars as Segev Azulai, an Israeli tour guide with a beautiful wife, Danielle (Kaelen Ohm), who says she's excited to head from Israel to New York City to audition for a dance group, even though she doubts she'll be chosen. But when she's brutally hit by a car and dies before she even gets to the airport, Segev flies to New York to investigate if there was foul play, or at least confront the two men who did not stop and help his wife.

Raz can carry any scene with just his green eyes; his brooding, menacing snarl; and his angry resting face, which precedes opening a can of beatdown on his enemies. If the name Azulai rings a bell, it's because in real life, in 1990, Iris Azulai was the girlfriend of a 19-year-old Raz, who was stabbed and killed by a Palestinian terrorist.

Fans of Fauda will love Hit & Run, despite a lesser amount of violence. Don't worry. There is still an explosion, some shootings and a vicious fight scene in a Brooklyn bathroom. Raz has great chemistry with Gal Toren (who you may recognize as the husband of Ayelet Zurer in Apple +'s Losing Alice), the good friend and sidekick named Ron.

They come to rely on each other when things get hairy and have served both in the Israeli army and as mercenaries in Mexico. There is a touching scene when Ron rides the school bus with his 10-year-old son, and Segev gets to show a comedic side when he sings "What Is Love?" along with the radio to make his teenage daughter Ella laugh as they ride in the car together. There's another good aside when Segev tells Ron he's not a good Jew for being unfamiliar with the Brooklyn Museum – museums, in general, really. Because you get to see both characters' vulnerabilities, their power is all the more appreciated.

One of the breakout stars of the show is Sanaa Lathan (she had a lead role in the Showtime series The Affair), who plays Naomi Hicks, a New York Magazine reporter writing about Danielle's death and strange associations between the Mossad and CIA. In the ninth and final episode, a secret about her identity is revealed shortly before a murder that you will not see coming.

The writing is masterful as we keep guessing where allegiances lie, what secrets will be uncovered next and when will something be a red herring, or a character will go splat and die. Shot in Israel – mainly, Tel Aviv and Jaffa – and New York City, the series in English with as well as Hebrew, and at times, of course, with English subtitles.

Moran Rosenblatt makes her mark as Tali, Segev's cousin who is willing to risk her job as a policewoman to break into a computer to try to identify a man who tries to kill Segev. Her love interest is none other than the hunky Aviv Alush, who fans know from the Israeli series "Baker and the Beauty," available on Amazon Prime. He plays Omer, and offers to rub her feet and then does much more than that.

It goes without saying that nobody can be trusted and any situation that seems safe can become treacherous in a heartbeat. In pursuit of the truth, many bad guys are in Segev's way. But it's like his wife's love pushed a calm button on him, and with her death, that button has ceased to exist.

You will be on the edge of your seat and not want to want to eat anything heavy when watching this series made of nine episodes. The only criticism is I would have liked to have seen more dance scenes, a few minutes more of the courtship between Segev and Danielle, and even more humorous lines for Raz, who shows he has great comedic timing.

The show's one crime is it gives just a few minutes of screen time to Michael Aronov, who plays Isaac, a gut-busting funny character Segev owes a debt to. The actor deserves his own series based on the character. It would have also been a special touch to see Raz kill some bad guys in a kosher restaurant in New York (maybe Mendy's) as an homage to The Godfather, when Al Pacino's Michael Corleone shot two enemies to death in a Bronx Italian restaurant.

Igal Naor is fearsome as a Mossad man you would not want to mess with and you can't help, but laugh when he praises lo mein that he says you can't get in Israel. Gregg Henry also is extremely compelling as Martin Wexler, a man who makes Segev an offer he's not sure he can refuse. It's not so easy to get to Disneyland right now, but Hit & Run is a wild ride that provides an adrenaline rush you've likely been craving.

Ohm sparkles on the screen but we don't really get to see the power of her acting until flashbacks in the later episodes.

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As someone who has ridden the New York City subway for 15 years and seeing people pretending to be blind, dancing, rapping, singing, playing every musical instrument known to man, eating a pastrami sandwich while playing the accordion, talking to themselves, playing with an and even eating their own hair, there were missed opportunities where Raz could have interacted with New Yorkers in such a hilarious way that you would have fallen out of your seat. At the very least, they have to write in a scene where Raz tackles the Naked Cowboy or is helped by him in Times Square, or beats someone with a bat at Yankee Stadium.

Some will surely complain about the way the show ends, but I liked it. A gimmick, if used well, is not really a gimmick. Some desire a specific resolution or character evolution, but writers are chiefly tasked to script a show that will entertain.

So kudos to them. Bet the ranch that there will be a second and third season of this show!

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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