Farm land

February 22, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Business, Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

Kfar Vitkin in the 'old days'

I did recently mention my brother-in-law, Michael is his name (pronounced Meecha-el in Hebrew by my family, but called Mike by his Israeli brother and friends), in my last post, but he’s popping again in this one.

At the entrance...

It’s because of him that my sister and I — not the one he’s married to — recently ended up in Kfar Vitkin, a moshav near Netanya that is essentially adjacent to the small seaside village in which he grew up, Hofit, which I’ve also written about before. Michael spent his childhood in this very bucolic, charming place, running across the sand dunes of what is now the Coastal Highway to the beach, and working on the farms of Kfar Vitkin, taking care of what he calls ‘his cows.’

We were in the area checking out some sites for future articles — to come later — and stopped in at a farmstand that we’d read about in Kfar Vitkin called Emek Hefer Mushrooms, named for the region in which Kfar Vitkin is located. By the way, Kfar Vitkin, or Vitkin Village, was the first Jewish settlement in the Emek Hefer Valley. It was founded in 1930 by a group of 20 people who lived communally in one stone house, and was named after Yosef Vitkin, an educator and leader of the Labor Movement.

Anyway, Kfar Vitkin, Hofit and Beit Herut, another village, all blend into one another, and have this wonderful old-fashioned feeling, if you can ignore some of the mansions that have been built in the area. We called the mushroom farm to get directions, and they gave us fairly vague ones that took us to the town’s cemetery which is right next to the local pool. And there is the farm.

We, city slickers that we appeared to be, called a couple of times to ask where exactly the farmstand was located, and I think I used the term farmer’s market, which must have seemed somewhat grand to the person answering the phone, because she laughed and said, “Sure, you can call us a farmer’s market. We’re farmers.”

My tree slice

Once we realized that the farm really was located right next to the pool, we wandered in, perhaps expecting a wooden cart, the kind that you see on country lanes in the Berkshires, loaded with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and apples. We got all that, but housed in a funny kind of warehouse whose walls are lined with shelves filled with old paintings; dusty and worthless, but quirky. But the bounty was real; all kinds of mushrooms, citrus fruits — pomelos, clementines and grapefruits from their trees, tiny peppers for snacking, all kinds of herbs and lettuces, dried fruit made from their fruit trees and a great display of tree slabs that can be used as trays, trivets, what have you.

We loaded up on the goods – I was thinking ahead to it being pizza night and using oyster mushrooms and fresh arugula (known as ‘rocket’ in Israel), on the some of the ‘zas I’d be making.

The market is open Thursday through the weekend, and the village is worth a visit, as there’s lots to do in the area, including anemone- and strawberry-picking in season, a local winery, the pool and beach in the summer, and the turtles of the Alexander River just down the road.

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Chilean miners to get heroes’ welcome in Israel

February 22, 2011 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, News, Religion, Social Justice, Travel 

Israel will be getting some important visitors this week when 31 of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped for 68 days underground last year are due to arrive for a week-long tour as guests of the Tourism Ministry.

The miners and their families will be given the red carpet treatment, with an emphasis on Christian holy sites and national institutions.
After an official welcome by Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, the entourage will have a packed itinerary, including visits to the Old City where they’ll see a number of churches and the Kotel, and visits to the Knesset and Yad Vashem. On Saturday they plan to tour Bethlehem, and next week head to Masada and the Dead Sea, Nazareth, Megiddo, the Golan Heights, Tiberias, and the Kinneret.

The visit took a while to get on the books because the miners reportedly insisted that their spouses also get their ticket and expenses paid for by their Israeli hosts. And seeing the tourism and PR advantage, the government finally coughed up the budget for the whole group, numbering 68.

Tourism pros in Israel have been targeting South American tourists more aggressively in recent years, even as South American countries line up to recognize a Palestinian state. According to the Forward’s Nathan Burstein, for several years, GoIsrael.com, the country’s official tourism website, has been available in Spanish and Portuguese, and last month the Tourism Ministry announced the creation of a new pilgrimage itinerary catering to Catholic tourists focusing on the life of the Virgin Mary.

Whether the miners’ visit will open up the floodgates of tourists from Chile and neighboring countries or not, their visit will likely be a heartfelt and unforgettable experience for those who suffered such a huge trauma not so long ago. So if you see them on the street, give them a hug.

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First Bnei Menashe to become IDF officer

February 21, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Life, Religion 

Shalem Gin and family

David recently wrote about the graduation ceremony for his daughter in the army. At the same time, there was another ceremony taking place in Mitzpe Ramon, this one for new officers. Among the graduates was Shalem Gin, the first officer from the Bnei Menashe.

The Bnei Menashe are one of the most far flung Jewish communities, concentrated in the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur. Tradition has it that the Bnei Menashe are descendents of one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel who were sent into exile by the Assyrian Empire more than 27 centuries ago. The Bnei Menashe wandered through modern day Afghanistan and China before settling in northeastern India near the Burmese border.

Approximately 1,700 Bnei Menashe have immigrated to Israel with the help of Shavei Israel, a non-profit organization that has helped support and educate the community both in India and Israel. Another 7,232 are still in India, awaiting a government decision that will allow them to make aliyah as well.

Gin, 20, moved to Israel with his family in 1995 when he was just an infant. He joined the IDF in 2009 and enlisted in the Engineering Corps. After attending officers’ training school, he will now return to his unit as a platoon commander.

Gin told Yediot Ahronot that his new standing as an officer “brings great joy and pride to me and my family,” and added that he hopes more Bnei Menashe will follow suit.

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Dating an Environmentalist in Israel (A 5 Tip Survival Guide)

February 21, 2011 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Environment 


In Israel and around the planet – our big global village – it’s a tough dating world out there, as the most recent Valentine’s Day may have reminded us. Whether we’re lucky enough to meet someone through a chance encounter on a beach in Tel Aviv, or through directories that list free dating sites, or even through some good old fashioned Jewish matchmaking – meeting someone is only half the battle. The other half? Making it work. This can be especially tough sometimes when your love interest has strong ideals about something that you are… ahem… less passionate about. For those of you that are just starting to date an environmentalist in Israel (or dating an environmentalist in the Middle East at large), watch out for these five potential deal breakers: Read more

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Chickens (and Eggs) in Jaffa

February 21, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Environment, Food 

karin kloosterman girl holding egg imageFrom a long line of egg farmers, Karin’s dad finally builds her a chicken coop

Imagine getting fresh, free-range organic eggs every day? When my parents came to visit me in Jaffa a few months ago, Dad found himself bored. Back in Holland, my family the Van Der Meers were one of the biggest egg producers in the country before the Depression. So you could say, eggs are in our genes. With Dad nothing to do for a few weeks, I brought up the idea of having him build me a chicken coop. That got him kind of excited. He foraged for wood in my backyard and came up with a coop that resembles a bus stop. Read more

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