COMMUNITY MAGAZINE April 2021

40 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE As the lone kosher food provider in the United Arab Emirates, Elli Kriel used to deliver about a dozen or so meals a month to businessmen and travelers passing through. Two major events happened that changed her small upstart boutique catering business into a giant one, now globally recognized. For one, the UAE government proclaimed 2019 “The Year of Tolerance,” a breakthrough for interfaith and religious relations. It meant that the 1,500 or so Jews believed to be living in the UAE were recognized as an “official” part of the country’s cultural fabric. Towards the second half of 2020, the UAE was the first country to sign the Abraham Accords, the deal that normalized ties with Israel. This spurred some 130,000 Israelis to visit UAE. And as it happened, many sought homemade kosher meals, which Elli provided. Today, Elli’s business flourishes. Demand for her kosher delicacies has skyrocketed, to the tune of 15,000meals produced in the past 12 months. Elli’s UAE-based kosher food has attracted global attention, including articles by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times , among others, who marveled at Elli’s trailblazing kosher business in a formerly quite unlikely place. IN THE BEGINNING Ross and Elli Kriel and their three childrenmoved fromSouth Africa to Dubai in August 2013. A major hurdle was figuring out how to create a Jewish life for the family in a place where there was almost none before. They managed to cobble together a regular minyan in their living room, and while they never hid their Judaism, they did not flaunt it either.  “We never really spoke about our Jewish identity publicly. We were very quiet about it. So, if people would ask us about our religion, we would tell them. And if people wanted to know why we couldn’t go out on a Friday night, or why my children couldn’t come to a birthday party on Saturday morning, we would say why, and we never experienced any negativity. We always experienced, ‘Oh, you’re Jewish. My friends back in New York, or my friends back in Toronto, or my friends back in Montreal, or my neighbor was Jewish.’” Today there are two synagogue buildings and two kosher restaurants in UAE, but when they arrived, the Kriels were the only kosher family they knew of in the city. As word got out there was a family who kept kosher living in Dubai, Elli began to receive requests from travelers to provide kosher meals. “Theyobviously bring crackers and tuna, andmaybe some vacuum- packed meats and whatever else. But you know, people needed food. So, they would contact us, and ask us to help them with food, and my husband would say, ‘Don’t worry, my wife will help you,’ and of course, I would send some food.” Originally a sociologist and an academic, Elli became a de facto caterer virtually overnight. “And that just grew over time.” By November 2019, Elli’s business had blossomed to the point where she was able to attend the New Jersey- based Kosherfest – the world’s largest kosher industry convention – to showcase her catering company, Elli’s Kosher Kitchen. THE CATERING BUSINESS TAKES OFF Elli’s first official foray into large scale catering was for a conference in Abu Dhabi, where a group of rabbis were gathering. Some hotels made inquiries, too. “Requests were getting bigger and bigger, and this turned into something that was enough to be a business,” she recalled. “I was working with two people at home. We were constantly on our feet, sending packages and packages of food around the city daily.” The Abraham Accords caused an influx of diplomatic missions, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, and Israeli leaders, on their visits to the UAE. Elli’s food was in high demand during the normalization deal. “It was amazing. But not only that, also just an honor, really, being this homegrown business, in the UAE. I was representing the government of the UAE in welcoming Israelis,” Elli recalls. “Everyonewas shocked at howsudden thiswas. That automatically put a massive focus on my business.” Hotels, Israeli tour groups, and government offices in UAE contacted Elli, having realized a need to provide kosher food. December began the wave of 130,000 Israeli visitors. “My business just sort of skyrocketed.” Her deliveries “went crazy” and to keep up with demand Elli had to close the delivery section down for two weeks. To fill the slack, KOSHER CUISINE IN UAE ABRAHAM ACCORDS BOOST DEMAND FOR DAVE GORDON