David Gal-Or falls in love with Israel…again

January 7, 2011 - 10:39 AM by Brian Blum

David Gal-Or and son

As our family has begun more extensive tiyuling in Israel this year, one of our prized possessions is a book by David Gal-Or, “Falling in Love With Israel Again.” There are three volumes in the series, which lovingly detail some 120 different hikes around the country, complete with extensive trekking directions, pictures and travel tips. We received the book covering the central region, including the Jerusalem and Dead Sea areas, as an early bar mitzvah gift for our son Aviv.

The story of David Gal-Or is more than just a man who loves to tiyul. As The Jerusalem Post reported in last weekend’s magazine section, Gal-Or is a former hi-tech marketing exec at the Israeli food conglomerate Osem who – after doctors discovered (and removed) a melanoma from his chest – gave up a hefty annual salary which supported three cars, a Jerusalem villa, a wife and two teenage children, all to pursue his passion. Gal-Or asked himself “am I doing what’s really meaningful with my life” and decided that marketing Bamba wasn’t his true calling.

He cajoled his then 22-year-old son, Eran, into joining him in an 8-month sojourn from the Golan Heights to Eilat. The two cooked their own food as they camped out every night. After the trip, Eran forsook the typical post-army trip to India or South America to help his father write the books for which they would gain the praise of countless Israeli backpackers.

The Gal-Or’s publishing empire has expanded, including separate books for families with small children as well as their first urban travel guide: 20 walking tours around Tel Aviv. They also have a book dedicated to hikes in and around bodies of water.

What is so touching about Gal-Or’s story is how he has done what so many of us at middle age dream of – changing careers to do something you love. For the forty and fiftysomethings trapped in jobs they suffer through because of mortgages and endless bills to pay, a figure like Gal-Or is an inspiration.

That’s not to say he’s a great success story…yet. In the Post article, he points out that he still hasn’t taken a salary (good thing he had that nice Osem paycheck and severance to sustain his venture). But he is happier, more relaxed and, as his book titles suggest, in love anew. Gal-Or puts it best in a quote from the Post article:

“Living here is like a marriage. You fall in love and discover so many difficulties – political, economic, weather, traffic, war, cars honking, people screaming. You ask yourself how to keep the love alive. But when you travel the land, you smell, see, feel with your legs. It is like working on a marriage. It renews the love.”

Gal-Or’s book series has a website called Maslulim that provides some of the tiyul information in the books as well as opportunities to purchase online (it’s all in Hebrew).

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