Israeli embassy hosts virtual Diwali celebration through mellifluous music & delish food

Israel Embassy in India along with its consulates in Mumbai and Bangalore celebrated Diwali with a virtual concert featuring Israeli-Indian Singer Liora Itzhak as well as Indian singer Lucky Ali. Taking to Twitter, the embassy shared the details of the concert and also made it available on Facebook for those who missed the live event. The virtual concert was held live on November 12 at 5 pm (Indian time) on the Facebook page of the embassy. The Ambassador of Israel to India, Ron Malka also shared warm greeting with the people of the country on the auspicious occasion of Diwali. 

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Liora Itzhak visits 'Tandoori'

During the virtual event, Singer Liora Itzhak gave a virtual tour of fruits and vegetable market highlighting the variety of fruits and vegetables available in India and the ones that are found in Israel. She also visited grocery stores, food joints and a synagogue of Indian immigrants in India. Itzhak went on to meet Reena Pushkarna, a renowned Ambassador of Indian food in Israel and owner of an Indian food restaurant based in Tel Aviv called 'Tandoori'. 

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Speaking about the 40 year old traditional Indian restaurant, Pushkarma said, "I do not believe in the fusion of flavours, I always try to bring out the authentic Indian flavours out. Though my restaurants serve both North Indian and South Indian food items, Israelis are more inclined towards the North-Indian food. Half of my menu is tandoori which is grilled food. When you go towards any other cuisine there aren't many options for vegetarian food other than salads but with Indian cuisine, there are a lot of options to try out. A lot of Israelis are liking the traditional Indian Thalis because they are like a complete meal with dessert and rice, naans, and vegetables."

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On the other hand, Indian singer Lucky Ali spoke about his love for Israel along with her friendship with renowned Israeli singer Eliezer Butzer. Speaking about his collaboration with Butzer for an entire album he informed that it started from a plan to do one song and went on to become an entire album. Ali and Butzer's song 'On My Way' was played during the virtual event along with Itzhak's popular Israeli song 'Mala Mala'. 

"In 2017 I had the good pleasure of meeting with a very prominent musician from your country, Eliezer Butzer. We planned to do one song together and then that one song became a second song, then the third song and then we completed an album together. We released the first song in November 2019. With Eli Azhar and the whole of musicians that came down to India, it was amazing. Then I went to Israel and we recorded a song there, we worked with local musicians out there. It was very beautiful and very enriching to work in an environment that was away from Bollywood. The whole album is very special. Eli is a very talented, very sensitive artist. It was very special to work with him and we got along pretty well," said Lucky Ali. 

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Rony Yedidia Clein wishes everyone on Diwali

The event was attended by the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the Embassy of Israel in India, Rony Yedidia Clein. During the event, Clein spoke of the similarities between Diwali and Israeli festival of Hanukkah which begins from December 10, 2020. She also shared a beautiful video message for Diwali wearing Indian clothes along with her husband. 

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(With ANI inputs)