(JTA) – Anthony Bourdain, a celebrity chef and writer who hosted popular food and travel shows on CNN, who committed suicide on June 7 at the age of 61, travelled to Israel in 2013 for an episode of his hit TV show “Parts Unknown.” There, he explored the culinary traditions of Jews and Arabs and reflected on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the show he said his father was Catholic and his mother was Jewish, but that he was raised without religion. “I’ve never been in a synagogue. I don’t believe in a higher power,” he told viewers. “But that doesn’t make me any less Jewish, I don’t think.”

In July 2006, while filming an episode of “No Reservations” in Lebanon, the Second Lebanon War broke out after a Hezbollah attack in northern Israel. He and his crew were evacuated by boat with the help of the U.S. Marines.

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report saying suicide rates rose in all but one state between 1999 and 2016, with increases seen across age, gender, race and ethnicity. Studies have shown that the risk of suicide declines sharply when people call the national suicide hotline: (800) 273-TALK.