Photos from a diverse society

Palestinian-Israeli rapper Saz, performing at Tel Aviv’s Levontin 7, which hosted a fundraiser for Physicians for Human Rights. A diverse group of Israeli (Arab and Jewish) artists performed, attracting a much-larger-than expected audience on a Friday afternoon. The money went to buy medical supplies for hospitals in Gaza.

A poster in the underpass at Jerusalem’s central bus station. The photograph is of the late Lubavitcher rebbe, who left no heir – which is why some of his followers think he will turn out to be the messiah. The caption read, “The messiah warns: a Palestinian state is a danger to the Jews!”

Abu-Dhabi Hummus in Tel Aviv. Note the spelling: Abu Dubi. Photo by DH.

This is the hummus that DH and I ate for lunch. It was a gorgeous, warm afternoon in the middle of a Tel Aviv winter week. We soaked up the sun and enjoyed the break from the war and the elections.

Hummus is very important in Israel. It’s fair to say it’s a national obsession – to the point that my friends in Tel Aviv were shocked to hear from Mohamed that Egyptians don’t actually, um, eat hummus. How can this be?!

I know a documentary film maker whose next project is a documentary about hummus. Because non-Israelis just don’t understand this national obsession, so he wants to explain it.

Jews from Middle Eastern countries (Mizrachim) compose more than half the population of Israel. Sometimes they argue about who makes the best hummus. Once there was an episode of a popular comedy show (Naor’s Friends) that featured a hummus war between the Mizrachi owner of a north Tel Aviv restaurant, and the Arab owner of a well-known place in Jaffa. But the other characters in the show – the hummus eaters who were torn between loyalty to the Mizrachi hummus man and preference for the Arab man’s hummus - were mostly Ashkenazim. Watch the episode here (sorry, no English subtitles).

For more about hummus, please consult this excellent blog by local hummus fanatic Shooky Galili (I think he’s Ashkenazi too).

Israelis pronounce hummus like this: “khoomoose.”

If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds

Post meta

This entry was written by Lisa Goldman and posted on February 19, 2009 at 12:11 am and filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Share with others

Post Photos from a diverse society to digg.

Post Photos from a diverse society to Reddit

11 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Hmmm. Getting hungry here. Hummus with olive oil…
This post reminds me of when I started reading your blog – when you were probably my primary source of info about Israel.

1. Mo-ha-med
on February 19th, 2009 at 4:44 am
Now I’m totally craving “khoomoose”, thanks to you. Once, I actually cried in a restaurant because they were out of humus-ful, after we sat down precisely because they’d said they had it. To be fair, I was pregnant, hormonal, and had been craving humus-ful for several days at that point…

2. Liza R
on February 19th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
there was a review of “West Bank Story” on AlJazeera last year, the audience was composed of both Palestinian and Jewish Israelis, the review degenerated into an arguement between the two sides about whether the correct pronunciation was “khoomoos” or “humm’us” !

3. ben
on February 19th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
The best humus I ever ate was without doubt from a little stand in Tul Karm. Heavenly! The worst was without doubt in every restaurant in New York that serves…I’d say “it” but I don’t know how they dare call what they serve “humus.” People would take me out to kosher restaurants and then say “Oh goody, we can have humus,” as if that might be a treat for me.

And don’t forget the myriad uses of humus depicted in You Don’t Mess With The Zohan!

4. Sara
on February 19th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I make the best Hummus in Canada…

5. jonas@quastel.com
on February 20th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Garlic with roasted or Sun-dried tomato. Yummmmmmm…..

6. Semper Gumby
on February 24th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
for those who dont know hebrew dubi = teddy bear

7. lirun
on March 2nd, 2009 at 10:00 am
The video was hillarious.

In the meantime Eretz Nehederet pulled many of its own for copyright issues (

8. Anna M.
on March 3rd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
This is very cool Lisa, I swear the picture of the Hummus just got out from my laptop screen, looks so yummy!

9. Ali
on March 4th, 2009 at 9:54 am
I am TOTALLY craving hummus now! Darn you, Lisa!!! Darn you straight to heck!!! (my apologies to Alex the Lion from Madagascar!) It is NOT part of my healthy eating plan!!!

NRG: Nutritionists say that homemade hummus eaten without pita is a legitimately health-conscious and not excessively fattening meal. But where are you going to get homemade hummus up in the north pole? Lisa

10. nrg
on March 13th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I never undestood how big the love affair of Israeli’s is with humus. Till I met up with some Israel friends in Paris, who toured around 6 weeks in Europe with their band. When they arrived to the wonderful club in Paris, the biggest excitement for them was finding out someone had provided them with some humus in the backstage. Hey- they didn’t have any humus for 6 weeks!

11. Nathalie
on November 27th, 2009 at 3:47 pm