Invitation: Hear the Israeli ambassador while enjoying bacon and prawns


Like most of our readers, we never heard of the Zanuba restaurant. It doesn't seem to appear on the lists of supervised eateries of Adass, KA or Kosher veYosher.

Helpfully their advertisement in the AJN included their website which we checked out.
“Open 7 days a week”. Not a good start.


Then we had a look at their extensive menu and we reproduce some of the options that guests may request while listening to Yuval Rotem view's on “a range of issues”.

Egg and bacon sandwich on turkish bread
BLT bacon, lettuce, tomato w/mayo on turkish
BLAT bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato w/mayo on turkish bread
Ham, tasty cheese & fresh tomato
Grilled tomato spinach, 2 slices on bacon, leg ham,
Steak open sandwich w/mustard mayo, lettuce, tomato, caramelised onion, on pane toscana w/chips (extra bacon, cheese)
Creamy garlic prawns cooked in dry white wine, fresh garlic & cream
Caesar salad w/bacon, poached egg, cos lettuce & anchovy dressing
Seafood linguini w/ prawns, salmon, calamari and scampi cooked in white wine
Linguini carbonara w/bacon, onion, white wine, grana padana,
Burger w/egg, bacon, lettuce, tomato, caramalised onion & corn relish
Chicken fillet burger w/bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion & corn relish

(One thing we can say about Zanuba; the do not make any claims to being “Kosher-aware”, "Kosher-friendly" or “Kosher-style”.)

We seemed to recall that Israeli diplomats were ordered to stick to Kosher – at least in public. Here's a  Reuters report we found from 2007:

So what’s going on here? Do Rotem’s bosses in Jerusalem know about this? Someone should notify them as he deserves to be severely censured by the Foreign Ministry. So too should there be a strong protest by the rabbinical and lay leaders of Australia’s orthodox Jewish community. As ambassador of Israel he is setting a very bad example in flagrantly and openly flaunting Jewish law and tradition (not to mention his own department's regulations).

Here's a link to another article about Israeli government regulations.