Dinner with the Sabans

The front door to the Saban home opens right onto their kitchen. There’s no hallway or reception room, just a straight line into the heart of the house. And on a Friday night, when the family gathers for Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath dinner), their home may be filled with an ever-changing contingent of in-laws, friends or fellow Israelis but always present are Tal and her family, Nirit, brothers Ori and Ben and their parents, Hava and Herzl.

Hava’s creamy complexion and ash blonde curls are in stark contrast to Herzl’s deeply olive skin and well-defined brows. Both were born in Israel; she has Romanian ancestry, his heritage is Libyan. In 1948 Herzl’s family moved from Libya’s capital, Tripoli, to Israel where he spent his youth in tented transit camps before building the family house in which his mother, Toni Saban, still lives today.