Iraqi Immigrant Sabih Halabi Creates Israel’s Beloved Sabich Street Food

In 1961, Sabih Halabi, an Iraqi immigrant who settled in Ramat Gan, Israel, opened a small kiosk near Uziel Street that would become the world’s first stand selling sabich, a popular Israeli street food. Halabi combined traditional Iraqi Jewish breakfast ingredients, boiled eggs, fried eggplant, potatoes, hummus, amba, chopped salad, and fresh herbs, into a pita sandwich, creating a convenient meal for tired bus drivers near his kiosk. This innovation turned into a local sensation, with long lines forming as word spread.

The dish’s name, "sabich," originated organically from customers asking for "a Sabih’s meal," not from any Arabic or acronymic roots as some theories suggest. Halabi and his family never capitalized financially on the name, though they registered it as a trademark in the 1980s. Despite this, sabich has become an internationally recognized dish, found in cities worldwide including New York and Budapest.

Halabi’s kiosk eventually moved in 1982 to a nearby location at the corner of Harei Yehuda and Negba streets, where it still operates today under the management of his descendants and those of his business partner, Yaakov Sasson. The two families alternate running the stand every two weeks. Sabih Halabi passed away in 2012 after battling ALS, and Sasson died six years later. Their legacy is honored by the Ramat Gan municipality, which named a square near the kiosk "Sabich Square" in tribute to Halabi’s contribution to Israeli cuisine.

Halabi’s family laments that many do not believe the true origin story of sabich and that they lost the opportunity to profit from the name. Nonetheless, the dish remains a beloved staple of Israeli street food and a symbol of Iraqi Jewish culinary heritage.