Weekend Plans is our exclusive lifestyle feature where we highlight the real off-duty routines of the most exciting people in culture.  *** This weekend, current Miss Israel and 2025 Miss Universe contestant Melanie Shiraz sits down with The Daily Wire to dish on her viral run-in with Zohran Mamdani’s wife, where she really gets her “chutzpah,” and why this data scientist and self-described metal head is just trying to bake a decent loaf of challah and change the world.  *** We settle in for our chat as Melanie Shiraz pulls her long dark hair into a slick pony. She recently returned to her digs on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, where she serves “off duty” in an oversized Humble Club tee from the Tel Aviv gym launched by former IDF combat instructors and wears a bold silver pendant boasting the Hebrew “chai” symbol for “life.” I give up trying to adjust my laptop for a semi-flattering selfie angle. Melanie’s one of those people who could totally rely on her looks. But after going viral for bumping into socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, at a Brooklyn café in May, she has clearly found her voice. “What are the odds that a very vocal representative of Israel and a very vocal representative of the other side, even though she’s not Palestinian, would be sitting right next to one another?” Melanie wonders.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Melanie Shiraz Asor / מלאני שירז עשור (@melanieshiraz) Rama, who had previously liked social media posts supporting the October 7 terror attacks, had no idea what she was in for when she sat down next to Melanie, who was just grabbing a coffee.  “Haters want to say that I came all the way to New York to stalk her, but I was actually in New York for 24 hours because I was hosting the State of Israel,” she recalls. “It’s not on brand for me to be harassing anyone in public, no matter what their views are. So I didn’t just open my camera … I said, ‘Hi, I’m Melanie. I’d love to take a picture with you.’” Once Melanie identified herself as Miss Israel, Rama’s amicable demeanor changed. Melanie switched off the camera, hoping to engage in a conversation. “I told her, ‘As an Israeli, I was quite disappointed by seeing the rhetoric that you are promoting online … Have you heard from a lot of Israelis?’” Melanie says Rama brushed her off with, “‘Yeah, I know a lot of Israelis,’” and left. “She communicated exactly where she stands and who she is,” Melanie says. I ask Melanie where she gets her fearless spirit. “It’s the Israeli chutzpah that I’ve been endowed with generationally,” she says with a smile. “Israeli women are known to be very fierce, very strong, and very strong-minded. They can be engineers or combat soldiers and be Miss Israel. It’s just such a normal thing.” Melanie was born in Israel, and she spent most of her childhood in the U.S. before returning to Tel Aviv. The outspoken pageant champ and data scientist who launched her own fintech company assures me, “I have always been a critical thinker.”  Here’s what she’s up to when she’s not fighting for the truth.  Off-the-clock reigning queen “Nobody ever asks me about my personal life,” Melanie laughs. “Being Miss Israel is like an alter ego for me. Before, I never had anything colorful in my closet, I didn’t have any fancy dresses, I didn’t have heels, jewelry — literally none of that.”  Claiming she had to learn to walk in sky-high heels and accessorize with glimmering jewelry, she describes her true personality as more rock ‘n’ roll. “I like rock music. I have a motorcycle, which is my favorite means of transportation.” “I’m an adrenaline junkie kind of person,” she shares, noting her love of scuba diving. “Nowadays, I wouldn’t say that those things contradict being a beauty queen. I think a woman can be anything, and beautiful, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” Melanie Shiraz A rejuvenating daily routine We already know Melanie likes her coffee. But as for her favorite way to start the day, she says, “I just like to get moving. When I’m in Israel, it’s really easy because it’s so beautiful outside that I’ll just go out for a walk and see where the day takes me.” “Something that I used to do pretty regularly is singing, painting, and drawing,” she adds. When she’s hoping to refresh her spirit, she jumps on her motorcycle, or gets back on the horse. Literally. “I’m not a horseback rider of any caliber, but I do really like to be outside with animals … just in nature in general.” “There’s just not enough time in a day to do all of the things that I like to do,” she admits. “But I’m trying to carve out more time for my own mental health.” Invoking the smell of fresh-baked bread “I can cook,” Melanie tells me. “I wouldn’t say I have time to cook most days.” That checks out since she’s battling jet lag as we speak. “I started baking challah every Friday, believe it or not,” she shares. “It’s like the only thing I do every week.” With its sweet, chewy braids, challah is God’s greatest gift to bread lovers, Jewish or not. “It’s like a ritual that allows me to decompress and focus on something else for a few hours every Shabbat.” I ask for her recipe, but she laughs and says, “It’s still a work in progress … it didn’t come out bad the last couple of times.” (I guess I’m sticking with Claire Saffitz’s version for now.) A safe space to be herself While a packed schedule is par for the course, Melanie snags any chance to chill with the right people. “It’s really nice to just sit down and speak candidly with friends and hear about things that are not related to the conflict all the time,” she says. “I think it’s become somewhat of a luxury for me lately.” Grateful for a close circle of longtime pals, she adds, “If it’s up to me, we’ll go out in Tel Aviv, go to the beach, or listen to live music.”  She also looks forward to downtime with her family. “I feel like Shabbat is the one day a week that I actually force myself to rest,” she explains. “I don’t turn off my electronics, but it’s nice to just not work.”  I ask how she feels about a one-day weekend, having lived in the U.S. and Israel. “I think that’s something Americans can learn from Israelis,” she confirms. “No one in Israel will ever assign you work on Shabbat. It’s unheard of. You could laugh at them if they do that. Our weekend is shorter by a whole day, yet I find it so much more rejuvenating.” Turning it up to an eleven “Do I want to come out as a metal head right now?” Melanie jokes, attempting to nail down her varied musical tastes to a specific genre. “I’m listening to Bring Me the Horizon and Spiritbox.” (If you get a chance to see either the British rock band or Canadian metal band in concert, wear eyeliner.)  Offering what she calls a more “normative” response, Melanie reveals another track she’s playing on repeat. “The song stuck in my head right now is definitely Israel’s Eurovision song ‘Michelle.’” The emotional ballad by Israeli singer-songwriter Noam Bettan that ultimately earned second place in the contest is decidedly not metal. And partly in French. “I don’t know French, so it’s just me saying the word ‘Michelle’ and singing the rest of the melody for the last three weeks.” When she’s not listening to music, she’s reading — or thinking about it. “I’ve been really, really wanting to pick up a book,” she says. She’s got Yuval Noah Harari’s “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” on her list next. A meditation on the moment After the October 7 attacks, Melanie realized her greatest impact would be in advocating for Israel rather than working in fintech. But the decision still weighs heavily on her heart. “I had a six-figure job before this. I had a company that raised money when I was 23. I was really doing everything right,” she says. “I think a lot of people struggle to understand why I would give that all up for something that’s uncertain. When I look back, even with all the challenges I have faced for doing this, it has also been priceless to me.” “We all have to work as a collective to better the world, both as Jews, as Israelis, as people standing for women, as people standing for justice in the Middle East and beyond,” she adds. “I think that we all have to amplify one another and support one another, rather than comparing what we have that others don’t, or what others have that we don’t.” Describing a clarity and hopefulness about the future, she says, “I am where I need to be. I’m serving and advocating for my people. It has been the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done in my life.”