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Instagram of the Week: ‘Hot Dudes and Hummus’ in Israel

A group of Israeli college students are using social media to bolster Israel’s image, to make it, er, yummier

by
Raquel Wildes
April 28, 2016
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A group of university students in Israel got together to create an apolitical branding campaign and came up with the Hot Dudes and Hummus Instagram account. The goal? To engage non-Jewish and non-Israeli audiences with humorous and attractive content to create a positive association with Israel.

Orly Geduld, Betty Ilovici, Ayala Lesser and Israel Zari began this account as part of a school project at IDC Herzliya. In just over one month they amassed more than 1,800 followers, with an international audience (because hot-dude-and-hummus-lovers don’t discriminate across borders).

It may sound like a bad joke, but Israelis are very serious about both their male specimens and their pureed chickpeas. While politics and peace negotiations might be their aim, there’s no hiding from the fact that they are simply posting pictures of Israeli beefsteaks with vegan dip. And who can blame them?

Ever since Adam Sandler gave hummus sex appeal in Don’t Mess with the Zohan, I’ve had a thing for ex-Israeli soldiers and this Middle Eastern spread. Obviously, I’m not the only one, and I’m not complaining. After all, as both a hot-dude and hummus-loving gal, I’m one of their target consumers. I even submitted a picture of my boyfriend, who isn’t so different from the Zohan except that as a future dental professional, he would never brush his teeth with hummus. And anything I can do to bolster Israel’s image because, hey, why not.

A photo posted by Hot Dudes And Hummus -Official (@hotdudesandhummus) on Apr 11, 2016 at 2:21pm PDT

Raquel Wildes, a graduate student at Columbia Journalism School, is an Audio Consultant at Tablet.