UAE’s first kosher restaurant opens in world’s tallest building — on the ground floor
The UAE’s first kosher restaurant is on the ground floor of the Burj Khalif. Image by Getty Images
By David Ian Klein September 24, 2020
Armani/Kaf, a 40-seat kosher meat restaurant, will open this month in the Burj Khalifa under the supervision of Rabbi Levi Duchman, who lives in Dubai.
The restaurant will be on the ground floor of the world’s tallest building where the Armani hotel has other dining options, and will also offer room service in the Armani hotel and delivery throughout Dubai.
The announcement of the new kosher restaurant came shortly after a directive from the United Arab Emirates’ tourism board urged Emirati hotels to begin offering kosher options in response to the opening of diplomatic relations with Israel.
Image by Rabbi Mendy Chitrik
Earlier this week, Duchman and his brother Mendel organized the kosher slaughter of 2,500 chickens to keep Armani/Kaf and the rest of the Emirate’s Jewish community stocked.
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, a Turkey-based Chabad rabbi who oversees kosher operations there, supervised the slaughter. Chitrik is also the founder and president of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, which connects rabbis who live in Muslim-majority countries. So far the group has members in Albania, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Turkey, the UAE, Tunisia, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Nigeria and North Cyprus.
Inspecting the Kosher Shchita in the UAE in preparation of the High Holidays, Rabbi Levi Duchman – Rabbi of the Jewish community of the UAE, Rabbi Mendel Duchman and Rabbi Mendy Chitrik President of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States (ARIS)@mchitrik pic.twitter.com/hK83JWIfA1
— ARIS (@RabbisAlliance) September 22, 2020
“The best example of tolerance and peace we can offer is active Jewish life in Islamic countries,” Chitrik said. “Jews have been living in Islamic countries for thousands of years.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
