Jewish cuisine influences, as this part of Europe (up to the borders of present-day Austria and Poland) was for a time part of the Ottoman Empire. Since the rise of Ashkenazi Jewish migration to 19th-Century Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel, increased contact between Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jews has led to a rising importance of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine amongst Jews of all ethnicities. While Ashkenazi cuisine as it is known today is largely based within the context of American-Jewish and Ashkenazi-Israeli food, much of the culinary tradition of Ashkenazi Jews springs from Central and Eastern Europe.
Haredim and Zionism Sephardi or Mizrahi rabbis is far lower than among Ashkenazi rabbis, and these constitute a small minority of the Sephardi Haredi leadership. The Sephardi Haredi political party in the Knesset is Shas, which represents the vast majority of Sephardi Haredim, and is headed by Aryeh Deri. In 2010, Shas joined the World Zionist Organization, and officially became the first Zionist Haredi party. The party's long-time spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, opposed saying Hallel in the Yom HaAtzmaut prayer service, but writes that, "One may say Hallel after the completion of the prayers, without the blessing..." While in the past, when