Vacation tips for the Passover holiday – Part 1

March 31, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Israeliness, Travel 

It’s vacation time in Israel – the week of hol ha mod Pesach (the days in-between the Seder and the the seventh day of the chag) is a time when schools and many businesses close down and half the country seemingly takes to the parks and general great outdoors.

Our family traditionally heads north to the Galilee and Golan Heights regions. Here are some tips for trips that we’ve done in the past:

Ein Tina. Off of Highway 918 in the Golan, this hike comprises a 15-minute walk through water up to your belly in spots, then a short climb to what is known as a “waterfall” but actually consists of several draining pipes spewing water. Nevertheless, it’s a great place to cool off if the weather is forecast to be hot (which it is this coming weekend).

Kayaking. Along Highway 99, there are a number of kibbutzim offering kayaking; all of the go down the Hatzbani river. The starting point at Kibbutz HaGoshrim has the longest route, lasting about an hour and a half. We had bought discount tickets at the field school we were staying at, which brought down the per person fee from NIS 75 to NIS 60 ($17.50).

There are two types of kayaks, neither of which are actually kayaks in the traditional sense. Both are made of inflated rubber and can hold from two to six people. The rafting can be leisurely but during hol ha moed it’s more like bumper cars with kayaks constantly crashing into each other. There is a “challenge” route and a “family” one – we chose the latter which included a few mild rapids. It was enormous fun with enough splashing to keep us cool.

Dag al ha Dan. It’s always fun to eat at this iconic outdoor restaurant that is situated next to the Dan stream. Order the house specialty – Forel (a type of trout) – in different combinations – fried, grilled, filleted. Appetizers included smoked whitefish, pickled herring and creamy cucumber salad. The bill for 4, including soft drinks and dessert, came to just over NIS 300 ($87).

Apples in the Golan. At kibbutz Marom HaGolan is the Breshit apple packing factory. The establishment (which is mostly indoors, shaded from the hot sun) demonstrates how the apples make their way via conveyor belts through a sudsy cleansing bath, are sorted by size and eventually are placed into the boxes and palettes that end up in the local grocery store. The price for the tour is very reasonable – NIS 20 ($6) an adult, NIS 15 ($4) for kids.

Sky coffee. From apple packing, you can ascend to one of the highest (and coolest) points in the Golan –the Ben Tal mountain where there’s room to picnic and explore the Israeli bunkers that were used to repel the Syrian attack on the Heights in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Ben Tal also sports a restaurant with the amusing name of Kofee Anan which means “coffee house in the clouds” in Hebrew but is also a play on words referring to the former head of the U.N.

We’ll have part two of this list on the Israelity blog tomorrow.

Contact info:

HaGoshrim Kayaking
http://www.zimmer.co.il/galil_lang.asp?Site_ID=338&lang=4&addstat=0
+972-4=681-6034

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Snorkeling in Sinai

March 31, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Holidays, Life, Travel 

We didn’t know what to expect heading into Sinai for the first time in 12 years. Everyone we had told that we were going to vacation there along the Red Sea in Nueweiba about 50 miles south of the Taba border crossing had asked ‘isn’t it dangerous?’ and ‘aren’t you afraid?’

Maybe we were too stupid to be afraid, or maybe it was the incredibly inexpensive resort we had booked that had blinded us to the al Qaida terrorists that were going to be hiding behind every other palm tree – or just maybe, the Sinai is an overlooked paradise, right next door to Israel and easily accessible, but quiet, pristine, gorgeous and full of friendly, eager-to-please Egyptians and Beduin whose only concerns seem to be making the visits of tourists – including Israeli tourists – as pleasant as possible.

Surprisingly, at our elegant beachside resort – the Swiss-Care, and along the half-dozen or so other resorts that dotted the Nueweiba landscape, no other Israelis were to be found. Most of the tourists seemed to be from European countries, but according to our hotel’s proprietor Alvin, the Israelis were due in the week of Pessah and beyond.

Most, however, prefer to remain in the northern enclave of Taba, close to the border and more ‘Western.’ At our digs, a splending combination of European standards and Bedouin hospitality, there was no loud pool music, no lifeguards, no aerobics in the pool, and no “Arctic’ ice pop hawkers along the beach.

Instead, there were plenty of folks using camels as modes of transportation, Beduin jewelry salesmen setting up make-shift shops on blankets in the sand, amazing snorkeling along magnifcent coral reef, and a mellow time out of centure sense of relaxation.

The Beduin staff at the resort seemed genuinely interested in hearing about Israel – and why we spoke English – and expressed the hopes of being able to visit someday if Egypt ever begins allowing Egyptians to enter Israel. If they hate us, they keep it well hidden.

For us, Sinai is no longer some shadowy, mysterious entity with bad guys hiding in waiting. It’s the regional vacation spot of choice, and representative of the possibilities of tranquility that could await us all if there was ever real peace here.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Pre-state Passover

March 28, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Nostalgia Sunday, Travel 

Rishon Le-Zion is a fast-growing metropolis and Israel’s fourth-largest city. As home to a newly-opened IKEA — the largest in the Middle East – as well as a dizzying array of malls, mega-markets and movie multiplexes, we sometimes forget the important role Rishon Le-Zion plays in our country’s history as the second Jewish farming settlement.

Fortunately, the municipality of Rishon Le-Zion does remember. It has restored and preserved some of the scenery of its past in a unique open-air museum. Located in some of the oldest buildings of the settlement (the moshava), the exhibits retell the story of the city’s pioneer past and the beginnings of modern Zionism

One permanent exhibit, “Jewish Holidays in the Moshava” is a lovely presentation of domestic life in pre-State Eretz Israel. Many of the first families came from Eastern Europe with fine porcelain place-ware and tea sets. These were not used every day, but were reserved for special occasions and holidays, and handed down from generation to generation.

“Despite difficult living and economic conditions, most [settlers] did not abandon the household customs considered acceptable in their countries of origin,” writes curator Yona Shapira.

Afternoon tea was one such custom. Michael Pohachevsky, who arrived to Rishon in 1886, described being hosted at the home of Berta and Yosef Feinberg (the family is pictured left): “The tea was set in European style, in every detail and feature, and for a moment, it was possible to forget that you were in a young colony just being established in an ancient land.”

In 1890, Haim Hissin described a holiday meal at the Drubin household: “[the table] was set not at all in country style and was set with separate plates, forks and spoons, napkins, wine-glasses, pitchers of water and wine. The courses were, naturally, simple and few but prepared well and served in good taste.”

The exhibit also includes three monogrammed pieces from a set belonging to the Baron Edmond de Rothschild, patron of Rishon Le-Zion and other early settlements.

By the way, the connection between the Passover holiday and Rishon Le-Zion is long-standing as it was for over a century the home of Matzot Rishon Le-Zion. In 2008, in a grand upset for the bread-of-our-affliction sector, the veteran company was purchased by Matzot Yerushalayim.

Although one major industry might have been lost, the city can take heart in the fact that it still headquarters Carmel Wineries, long-time producer of crap sweet wine (what we in Israel call yayin patishim or “hammer wine” because of its effect both on the palate and the brain). And Carmel can take heart in the fact that in the past few years it has shaped up and begun producing some very decent fine wines.

Rishon Le-Zion itself continues to be forward thinking. Take, for example, this video clip produced by the College of Management R&D Institute for Intelligent Robotic Systems, where even the machinery celebrate in style. Here’s wishing a chag sameach to them — and have a happy and kosher one yourselves!

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You’re in the army now

March 28, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, War 

If you want the real low down on what it’s like to be in the IDF without ever having to sleep in a leaky tent, smell the body odor of fellow soldiers you’re stuck with for 24 hours inside a tank, or attempt to stand in rows of three, then just sit in the confines of your comfortable couch and laugh away with Joel Chasnoff’s hilarious new book The 188th Crybaby Brigade.

Subtitled ‘A skinny Jewish kid from Chicago fights Hezbollah,’ the memoir is full of the warts-and-all, embarrassing details of what happens when 18-year-old Israelis are thrown off the deep end of military service. But they’re told lovingly through the eyes and experiences of the then-24-year-old Chasnoff, who arrived in Israel from the US to volunteer in the IDF for a year.

Let’s just say some fish out of water comedy ensues, amid some astute observations about the Israeli psyche, the Zionist dream, and not-so-hidden flaws of Israeli society. But because Chasnoff tells it from the inside and with an obvious love and knowledge of his subject, it doesn’t come off as mean-spirited, but as gentle chiding.

Except when it’s sideplitting. Like when Chasnoff teaches his young comrades the words to the ’80s song “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and futilely attempting to explain the meaning of the song to the eager but unsophisticated soldiers.

But beware, if you’re one of those Zionists who see everything through rose-tinted glasses, this isn’t for you. However, like Chasnoff, if you can embrace the paradoxes that make up modern-day Israel – in which one of the most commonly used descriptive term is an Arab curse that involves the private parts of mothers, and where soldiers goose each other on an educational visit to Yad Vashem – then Crybaby will provide page after page of insightful, thigh-slapping adventures that contain a suprisingly deep and bittersweet undertone.

Chasnoff’s memoir brims not only with wry observations, but with poignancy and heart that only can surface from someone who has been in love with something from afar for so long, only to discover up close that it wasn’t what he expected.

It sounds like a lot of our aliya stories – some of us can cope with the realization that Israel is a work in progress, and others end up disillusioned and bitter.

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Foto Friday – The Face of Passover

March 26, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Picture of the Week, Pop Culture, Religion 

Passover is almost here! The supermarkets are bustling and there isn’t a cart to be had as people load them to the brim with Kosher for Pesach foodstuffs to replace the leavened ones, new cleaning products in closed containers to replace the open ones and perhaps a new electric kettle or microwave, just because appliances are cheaper than food nowadays.

Most people think that Passover in Israel looks like this…

Or this…

And they’re right. But Passover in Israel also looks like this…

And this…

And this…

And this…

If you’re not one of the 240,000 Israelis traveling abroad during the Passover holiday, there are dozens of activities to enjoy at home. (We’ll be buying the top half of our summer wardrobe at the T-Market in Tel Aviv next weekend). For ideas, in addition to the usual sources, check out the listings on The Big Falafel and Green Prophet.

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