L ifestyle /C ulture
Philly Faces: Daniel Israel
P H I LLY FACES
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
IN 2015, DANIEL Israel was
working odd jobs and looking
for a direction. He knew just
one thing for certain: He
wanted to marry his girlfriend,
Amanda Ross.

But to get Ross’ father’s
approval, Israel needed to find
a path. And, one day, Israel’s
girlfriend asked him what he
wanted to do.

“Cook,” he said.

Six years later, Israel, now
32, is the owner of Deluxe
Catering, a kosher catering
company in Philadelphia. And
Amanda Ross is now Amanda
Israel. Going into another Rosh
Hashanah, Israel is booked
solid with orders, and recently,
several people in a local
Facebook group recommended
him to someone looking for a
High Holiday caterer.

How big are the High Holidays
for you at this point?
Secondary. I do it for the
community. Our business is
targeted toward weddings,
galas and fundraisers.

20 SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
But we do small events,
too. We do every size event.

Anything from one person to
10,000 people.

Which types of food does
your business specialize in?
I have a wide array of food
I make. Different ethnicities.

Japanese, Chinese, Mexican,
Italian, Thai. I’m just starting
to get into Ethiopian food. I
love learning new dishes.

Sometimes, people will
see something they like on
Pinterest or go to an event
where they had something
yummy, and that’s something
they really want to have at
their event. It’s important to
be flexible.

I just did a wedding last
Sunday, and they wanted an
Daniel Israel 
Indian station. We haven’t done
that for three years. But when
somebody has a certain taste, restaurant, Deux Cheminees.

we pull it from our repertoire. My father connected me to his
friend, Chef Fritz Blank.

What made you want to
I worked for him from age
become a chef?
15 to 18. He taught me 90% of
My father (Naftali Israel). what I know.

He was a chef in his younger
years. Then he got into How did your cooking career
contracting. But he has friends go from there?
who are chefs in the city.

My father got me into it, but
I learned at an upscale French was trying to get me out of it.

He said it’s not good pay. It’s
hard on your feet, knees and
back. It’s impossible to have a
family life.

I listened to him and kept
going to school.

I went to Temple (University)
and studied kinesiology. I didn’t
know what I wanted to do. I got
more curious about my roots,
took a trip to Israel and thought
maybe I should stay.

I came back home and my
mom connected me to her
friend who sold life insurance.

I worked at New York Life and
sold insurance for 5-6 years.

Then I met my wife.

hadn’t been in the industry in
seven years.

I wanted to be a kosher
supervisor. Someone who
supervises shipments of food
to the kitchen.

Ofelia (Cohen) with A
La Karte Catering (in Bala
Cynwyd) pointed me in the
direction of a rabbi who could
certify me. I started working
with her and Six Points Kosher
Catering (in King of Prussia).

From there I got a job
at Temple as head chef and
supervisor at Hillel. I was
running the only kosher deli
in Philadelphia. It’s called Cafe
613 now.

During the winter break, I
wanted to earn extra money.

So I worked at this sushi place,
Sushi Talk.

When I came back on
summer break, things were
slowing down. I made a deal
with the owner.

I said, “You don’t have to
pay me. I know you’re hurting.

In exchange, if somebody
Once you decided to follow needs me to do a catering job, I
your passion, how did you have permission to do it out of
build yourself up?
your kitchen.” He loved it.

I had to start from scratch. I
In the first month, I made
JEWISH EXPONENT
Michelle Camperson Photography
over $15,000. He had four years
left of his lease. I bailed him out
and have been there ever since:
7588 Haverford Ave.

I did everything myself
the first two years. Cooking,
cleaning, menu planning,
sales. I woke up at 6 (a.m.) and
got home at 11 (p.m.).

But when you do one event,
everybody at that event tastes
your food, and it changes
everything. Where is the business going
now? On Sunday, I did a wedding
in Barnesville. I never knew
that place existed before. I’m
getting jobs in Scranton and
the Poconos. It’s really grown.

Now, my main focus is
scaling the business without
reducing the quality of the food.

I’ll have to train other
people. I have a rule with
my chefs: When they make
something on their own, they
have to make it twice perfectly
before they can cook it without
me taste-testing it. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



T orah P ortion
How Do You Stand Before God?
BY RABBI SIGAL BRIER
Parshat Nitzavim
IN BOTH THIS week’s Torah
portion, Nitzavim, and the
High Holidays, we stand before
God. In both, all the people
are to stand, not just their
representatives or leaders. No
one is exempt from the duty,
and no one is deprived of the
birthright of having a personal
relationship with the mystery,
the spiritual realm, God.

How do you stand before
God? How does it feel to
stand before God? What is
the dominant feeling? Do you
stand trembling, waiting to be
judged? Do you stand humbly,
to admit your wrongs and ask
to be forgiven? Do you bow
your head with gratefulness?
Or do you stand confidently,
basking in God’s love? Or
maybe you are too tired and
dejected to stand.

We are nearing the end of
5781 and another reading cycle
of the Torah. In a few days,
5782 will begin. Nitzavim,
which means “all of you are
standing,” is a short portion
Inside Continued from Page 11
that’s far away from the commu-
nity in which the event happens
... you are completely cut off from
the world in which that crime
was allowed to be committed,”
said Rabbi Elyse Wechterman,
a volunteer chaplain at
SCI-Phoenix and the executive
director of the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical Association.

Though teshuvah is inher-
ently a communal activity,
the process of repentance is
individualized. “It’s a very personal process
for everybody that would be
made easier if we were meeting
regularly in community,”
Bauer said.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM CAN DL E L IGHTIN G
Sept. 3
Sept. 10
near the end of Deuteronomy,
the fifth and last book in the
Torah. All the people are
called to stand and listen to
a summary of the long Torah
journey, and to hear about the
promises of the past and the
covenant that will continue.

How do you stand before
God? The prevalent view is
that we stand before God to
be judged, especially during
the High Holy Days. It’s
common to tremble and fear
God’s judgment during the
Days of Awe. We feel small and
separated from God, a power
greater than us. The image of
a God who sits on the throne
of judgment is conjured up in
our imagination as we read
the liturgy. That God is threat-
ening and fierce.

Even though there are other
elements and aspects to God,
the emphasis on judgment
is exaggerated in our minds.

Understandably so, because
we have a negativity bias in
the brain. This bias helps us
focus on what is wrong and we
survive by scanning the world
for danger and threats.

But our tendencies to
emphasize judgment and be
afraid obscure other important
aspects of life, and of God.

During the Days of Awe, the
important aspects of rahamim
(mercy) and ahavah (love) are
sometimes hidden or forgotten.

During the Days of Awe and
throughout the year we stand
before God not just to listen
and be judged, but to also ask
for help. We ask for mercy,
compassion and kindness
because we know we are loved.

The high drama of the holidays
may distract us and scare
us, but let’s read the verses
of Nitzavim to remind us of
God’s love and strengthen our
connection to a God who loves
and helps us through it all. We
will see that at the center of our
relationship with God is and
always will be love and mercy.

In Deuteronomy 30:4, it
says: “Even if your outcasts are
at the end of the world, from
there God will gather you,
from there God will fetch you.”
God’s love is unconditional,
and God’s role is to help and
support us when we are lost.

The mystery, the nurturing
merciful power we cannot
comprehend, comes to meet us
when we are lost. We stand in
awe and amazement, and feel
relieved when we are gathered
and guided back to life.

And internally, within our
hearts, we learn that God
seeks to help us as well. In
Deuteronomy 30:6 it says: “God
will open up your heart and the
hearts of your offspring to love
God with all of your being, that
you may live well.”
God intimately dwells
within us. The relationship
we have with God is intimate
and personal. It’s not beyond
reach, not in the heavens,
neither is it beyond the sea. In
Deuteronomy 30:13-14 it says:
“Neither beyond the sea that
you should say ‘who among us
can cross to the other side of
the sea and get it for us and tell
it to us, so we can engage with
it?’ No, the thing is very close
to you, in your mouth and in
your heart, to live it.”
I am reminded of the
popular song “Lean on Me,”
in which the late singer-song-
writer Bill Withers wrote,
“Lean on me when you’re not
strong, and I’ll be your friend,
Others may support an
individual who is repenting,
yet everyone is on their own
path. Wechterman believes
this is the same for everyone,
incarcerated or not.

According to Matt Engler,
who was in prison for 21 years
“Quit torturing yourself,”
Engler said. “You have to find a
way to forgive yourself.”
Engler was put off by a lot
of conversations around repen-
tance. He dislikes the connotation
the word has around redemption.

“It didn’t serve me,” Engler
classes at The Twisted Monkey
in Rockledge.

Meditating helped Engler see
his life more clearly and move
forward. In prison he meditated
for at least an hour and a half
every day. He said he wouldn’t be
the person he is now had he not
7:10 p.m.

6:59 p.m.

I’ll help you carry on.” I hope
you hear this line as a reminder
to lean a little more.

In this new Jewish year, may
we stand together and lean into
the mystery; may we lean on
God, lean on spiritual practice,
lean on tradition, lean on each
other and lean into commu-
nity. May we strengthen our
relationship with the mystery
and each other.

L’shanah Tova. I wish you a
good new year with abundant
health and joy. l
Rabbi Sigal Brier is the rabbi at
Temple Judea of Bucks County
in Doylestown and the creator
of Mendful – Live Connected,
which mends the world with
conversation, meditation, mendful
zones and art. The Board of Rabbis
of Greater Philadelphia is proud to
provide diverse perspectives on
Torah commentary for the Jewish
Exponent. The opinions expressed
in this column are the author’s own
and do not reflect the view of the
Board of Rabbis.

“redemption” to his story, he
said he’s different after his time
on the inside, and often has
moments when he looks at his
life now and is at peace.

“I have these moments all
the time when I’m like, ‘I did
it,’” Engler said. And he said
he’s still moving forward and a
better man than he was before.

We can never undo the past; the past is the past. What we have to
“We can never undo the
past; the past is the past,”
do is integrate it and live with it and grow beyond it.”
Wechterman said. “What we
RABBI ELYSE WECHTERMAN
have to do is integrate it and
live with it and grow beyond it.

And I do believe that growing
on home invasion charges, men said. “It’s just kind of dwelling picked up the practice.

beyond it is redemption.”
on the inside talked about repen- ‘what was’.”
“That steadiness gives you
This is part one of a two-part
tance all the time, though it
While in prison, Engler this foundational rock,” Engler article. l
wasn’t an exclusively Jewish topic began meditating and started said.

of conversation. Oftentimes, it a yoga practice; on the outside,
Though he doesn’t assign srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
didn’t feel productive.

he teaches yoga and meditation the words of “repentance” and 215-832-0741
JEWISH EXPONENT
SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
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