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The search for the better Matzo Ball leads to a tour of
Manhattan debauch
By Jacob Berkman and Ben Harris
December 26, 2006
The Havalight party. Arrival time: 11:25
p.m.
We’re going to coin a phrase here: Jewro-Trash.
It’s a term of endearment for this members-only social group
for well-heeled European Jews. They were haughty, but they made us
smile.
And the Jewro-club’s Jewro-party at the posh Room Service club was
certainly a notch above the others in terms of
accessories: Raffle gifts included a three night stay in a Miami villa,
and a Gucci bag.
“This is not a Matzo Ball,” organizer Georges Benoliel warned in a thick
French accent. “Wear a jacket. And nice shoes,”
he implored before the event.
Havalight’s dandily-dressed revelers danced to European club music as a
live percussionist played
along on timbale drums.
“We want to attract the good people,” said Benoliel, wearing a dapper
pinstripe suit at the party, as he pulled a
European Marlboro light from its box.
“It helps if you are not from New Jersey or Brooklyn,” he told us,
unaware that the two of us do indeed have roots
in New Jersey and Brooklyn.
We’ll forgive his snobbiness, though: Benoliel doled out 12 bottles of
top-shelf vodka and 18 bottles of champaign
to those guests he considered VIPs.
Benoliel tries to attract a diverse crowd made up equally of European,
American and other Jews — because, he said,
“If it was just French, it would not be so good, and if it was just
Israeli it would not be so good,
and if it was just Persian, it would suck.”
Yet Havalight also doesn’t veer far from the original Matzo Ball theme —
making Jewish couples.
“Here, if you go home with someone, at least you know you are going home
with a Jew,” Benoliel said,
smiling as he took a drag from his cigarette. “So you wake up in bed
with a nice Jewish boy,
and he will make you breakfast.”
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