In addition to being the Knesset reporter for The Jerusalem Post, Lahav also wrote a weekly Jewish celebrity gossip column, as well as feature articles on pop culture, travel, food and music for The Jerusalem Post and many different publications including Makor Rishon‘s Nashim magazine, Jewcy and more.
Catch up on The Jerusalem Post’s Weekly Schmooze
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s not-so-crazy trip to Israel
Coal miners, politics and tutus make an entertaining mix in Israeli production of ‘Billy Elliot’
Big breakfast at a little cafe: Petit cafe review
It’s so cliche to get excited about Israeli breakfasts, but it’s hard not to Continue Reading
Get down and dirty – and delicious: Wings restaurant review
Wings, the kosher chicken wing restaurant that opened last week in Tel Aviv, understands the real purpose of chicken wings. Continue Reading
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Lady Gaga’s manic sci-fi artRAVE wakes Tel Aviv from its war-induced slumber
If Lady Gaga lives for “Applause,” as she sings, then she got one hell of an injection of life-force from the crowd in Tel Aviv Saturday night – and the pop star certainly reciprocated. Continue Reading
Rihanna, perhaps the real mayor of Tel Aviv, entertains but doesn’t sing
After appearing on stage over an hour late, diva shows off in-your-face dance moves but fails to impress vocally in front of nearly 55,000 fans. Continue Reading
The Blue Sky’s the limit
At the top of the Carlton Hotel, right on Tel Aviv’s shoreline, sits Blue Sky, renowned chef Meir Adoni’s first venture into kosher cuisine. Continue Reading
Alicia Keys in Tel Aviv: This girl is on fire
Alicia Keys set the Tel Aviv on fire Thursday night with her powerful, soulful voice and a message of peace and love, BDS movement be damned. Continue Reading
Pop in to Pappardelle
Pasta is so popular around the world that sometimes it seems like it’s not an Italian food anymore. You can find penne or ravioli in almost any of the chain cafes in any mall in Israel.
Still, if you want something more than the standard varieties and sauces, you have to find the real thing – a restaurant where everything from the menu to the choice of ingredients to the cooking methods is rooted in Italian tradition. Continue Reading
A Northern Getaway
With the Kinneret filling up with water and the north blooming, now is a great time to spend a fun, relaxing weekend near the Sea of Galilee. It may be too cold to take a swim, but there is still plenty to do and see in the area, as well as comfortable places to stay. The winter is a great time to spend a relaxing, enjoyable weekend near the Kinneret, with choices for families or individuals at any religious level. Continue Reading
Network Jews: Tommy Pickles On Nickelodeon’s Classic Cartoon ‘Rugrats’
“A macca-baby’s gotta do what a macca-baby’s gotta do!”
It’s Hanukkah this week, the perfect time to catch up with everyone’s favorite animated baby, Tommy Pickles, who, following that rousing war cry, defeats King Antiochus, once again inserting himself into the stories read to him by his parents and grandparents. Continue reading
Network Jews: Fran Fine, the Nasal-Voiced Star of ‘The Nanny’
There are certain TV theme songs that anyone in their 20s would recognize (and possibly start singing) from the first line: “This is a story all about how/my life got twist-turned upside down” or “Whatever happened to predictability/the milkman, paperboy, evening TV” or “When I wake up in the morning/and the alarm gives out a warning.”*
For me, the top lyrics on that list would be: “She was working in a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens/When her boyfriend kicked her out in one of those crushing scenes.” Continue reading
From HBO to Ramat Beit Shemesh
Making aliya is challenging for anyone – but making aliya while cameras document your every move only intensifies the experience.
Jamie Geller, 34, author of the hit cookbook Quick and Kosher – Recipes from the Bride who Knew Nothing and its follow-up Quick and Kosher: Meals in Minutes, and founder of the Kosher Media Network, which includes a cooking website and Joy of Kosher magazine, was already a demi-celebrity in the kosher-keeping world. In June, Geller expanded her media empire to reality TV, partnering with Nefesh B’Nefesh to produce and star in Joy of Aliyah, an online web series chronicling her move from New York to Ramat Beit Shemesh with her five children, ranging in age from one to seven, and husband, Nachum. Continue reading
Almost the perfect addition
Lehem Basar has a prime piece of beachfront real estate on the Tel Aviv Port’s promenade, on the border between a long row of restaurants and an even longer strip of bars.
Lehem Basar, which opened in July, is not only well located, but the restaurant fills a major need. Finally, there is a place to eat kosher meat at the Tel Aviv Port. Overall, dining at Lehem Basar was a positive experience, but there is room for improvement in some areas. Continue reading
The Red Hot Chili Peppers Rock Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv’s Ganei Yehoshua came alive on Monday night when the Red Hot Chili Peppers rocked Israel for the first time. Depending on whom you ask, the concert either began 10 minutes late – pretty punctual for rock stars – or 11 years late, after a canceled 2001 show. Continue reading
Network Jews: Howard Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory
I’m one of those people who get excited when a character on a TV show I like ends up being Jewish. I relish in the in-jokes and the random Yiddish words—that is, unless the character is a walking, talking stereotype. The Big Bang Theory’s Howard Joel Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) might have started out as a lazily-written caricature, but, over the past five seasons, has developed into a substantial character who would be only slightly annoying to hang out with. Continue reading
Read Lahav’s interview with actress Mayim Bialik in Nashim (Hebrew)
Rare Japanese fare
Due to halachic constraints, it often seems like if you’ve been to one kosher sushi place, you’ve been to them all. The menu is almost always limited to tuna, salmon and vegetable rolls – never anything outside the box.
However, Miyako has raised the game a notch with a variety of fare rarely seen in kosher sushi establishments. The restaurant opened near the Diamond Exchange in Ramat Gan 10 years ago and became kosher at the beginning of this year. Continue reading
Time Out: Old faithful
There are several hotels in Jerusalem that have existed for decades and are well known as reliable choices for tourists and groups, such as the Inbal Hotel. Yet when Conde Nast Traveler ranked the Inbal as its top-rated hotel in Israel and fourth in the Middle East, it was clear that this “old reliable” choice warranted a second look. Continue Reading
Never Say Never: Bieber Fever takes over Tel Aviv
Let’s be honest: The music was the least important thing about Justin Bieber’s concert at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on Thursday. It was all about “OMIGOD IT’S JUSTIN BIEBER IN THE FLESH!”
After enduring traffic jams that put half of Tel Aviv in gridlock, thousands of teenage girls gathered to scream at the top of their lungs, wave signs around, and beg their moms for a poster or a tee shirt featuring the object of their affection. And the moms? They seemed pretty happy to oblige. They probably went through the same thing with David Cassidy or George Michael – only those teen idols never visited Israel. Continue reading
Mea Shearim’s next top model? Not quite…
Forget everything you have heard about Esther Petrack. It’s probably not true.
The Modern-Orthodox 18- year-old, who drew fire after participating in the 15th season of “America’s Next Top Model,” told The Jerusalem Post the truth about her religious observance, that YouTube video and Tyra Banks. Continue reading
Concert Review: 30 Seconds to Mars
Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman, Jared Leto, was already a teen idol 15 years ago when he played the secretly illiterate bad-boy love interest Jordan Catalano in the teen drama My So-Called Life.
Yet, most of the audience at Wednesday night’s 30 Seconds to Mars concert was too young to remember Leto in his original heartthrob incarnation. Continue reading
Lahav Harkov 