soul

Celebrity Chef, Food Critic
Anthony Bourdain Found Dead At 61

of blessed memory

continued from page 63

Times of Israel

HARRIET WEITZ, 95,
of Bloomfield Hills,
died June 8, 2018.
She is survived
by her sons and
daughters-in-law,
Jeffrey and Deborah
Weitz, Marty and
Weitz
Linda Weitz; daughter,
Norma Zager; grand-
children, David Weitz, Daniel Weitz,
Jamie (Marshall) Eskowitz, Andrew
(Alexandra) Weitz, Bradley Zager, Laurie
(Adam) Herz; great-grandchildren, Sam,
Ben and Wyatt; many other loving fam-
ily members and friends.
Mrs. Weitz was the beloved wife of the
late Mark Weitz.
Interment was held at Adat Shalom
Memorial Park Cemetery in Livonia.
Contributions may be made to Jewish
Senior Life or to a charity of one’s
choice. Arrangements by Dorfman
Chapel. •

64

June 14 • 2018

jn

C

elebrity chef Anthony Bourdain
took his own life June 8, 2018. He
was 61. Bourdain took viewers
around the world for the CNN
Parts Unknown series.
CNN said Bourdain was in
Strasbourg filming an upcom-
ing segment in the series.
The celebrity foodie and
chef Anthony Bourdain’s food
tourism show took viewers to
Jerusalem, Gaza and the West
Bourdain
Bank in its 2013 season.
Focusing on what he called
“the most contentious piece
of real estate in the world,”
Bourdain used the episode to reveal his
own Jewish heritage: “I’ve never been in
a synagogue. I don’t believe in a higher
power,” he told viewers. “But that doesn’t
make me any less Jewish, I don’t think.”
During the show, Bourdain puts on
tefillin by the Western Wall, takes a
walking tour of the Old City with famed
international chef Yotam Ottolenghi,
eats a meal with an American-born set-
tler, chats with members of the first all-
Palestinian race car team in Ramallah,
and eats fire-roasted watermelon and
other Palestinian foods in Gaza.

Bourdain noted at the episode’s onset
that he “doesn’t know what to think” of
Israel. “It is incredibly beautiful here,”
Bourdain observes at one point. “I don’t
know why I didn’t expect that.”
Although Bourdain had never
been to Israel prior to making
this episode, he was no stranger
to the Middle East or to politi-
cally rocky terrain. When he
went to Lebanon in July 2006 to
film an episode of his previous
show, the Travel Channel’s No
Reservations, he found himself
in the middle of a regional con-
flict — the Second Lebanon War
— as the Jewish state retaliated
against a Hezbollah attack in
northern Israel.
Bourdain watched from his hotel
balcony as Israel destroyed the Beirut
airport — in part to prevent the delivery
of arms — which left him stranded in a
war zone.
In the Jerusalem episode, he preemp-
tively listed accusations he anticipated
would be lobbed at him in the show’s
aftermath, including “terrorist sympa-
thizer,” “Zionist tool” and “self-hating
Jew.”
Bourdain had not previously identi-
fied as a Jew, but he disclosed that he

had one Catholic parent and one Jewish
parent (Gladys Sacksman Bourdain),
though he was raised without religion.
In Jerusalem, Bourdain was taken
through the Old City via the Damascus
Gate by Chef Ottolenghi, who discusses
“food appropriation” over freshly cooked
balls of falafel next to the Via Dolorosa.
Ottolenghi rejoined Bourdain later in
the episode to take him to the restau-
rant Majda in Ein Rafa, an Israeli Arab
village west of Jerusalem.
Bourdain also visited Gaza, where he
noted that Hamas, “considered a ter-
rorist organization by both the U.S. and
Israel,” was elected to lead Gaza in 2006.
His host was Laila El-Haddad, author of
The Gaza Kitchen.
The show closed with Bourdain talk-
ing to Natan Galkowicz, proprietor of
Mides Brazilian Restaurant in the Negev
kibbutz Bror Hayil near the Gaza bor-
der, whose daughter Dana was killed in
2005 outside her home, three months
before her wedding, by a mortar fired by
Hamas.
“I know that my daughter was killed
for no reason, and I know that people
on the other side have been killed for
no reason,” Galkowicz told Bourdain.
“Bottom line is, let’s stop with the
suffering.” •