Taboonia, a new Israeli Druze restaurant in NYC, is run by a Nova music festival survivor

(New York Jewish Week) - Opening a kosher restaurant in New York City wasn't always in the cards for Raif Rashed, a Druze from the village of Usfiya in northern Israel.

But as Rashed, the owner of Taboonia - a new Druze restaurant in the Garment District that's currently seeking kosher certification - will be the first to tell you, sometimes life can take an unexpected turn, especially after a tragedy.

An engineer by trade, Rashed, 40, moved to Hackensack, New Jersey, in 2019 to take a job at an Israeli manufacturing company. In October 2023, he was visiting family in Israel when he extended h...