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Kfar Blum’s Pastoral Pastures

I’ve always had a thing for the kibbutz, that is, the kibbutz lifestyle, where you live in a tight-knit community of people whom you hopefully like, can avail yourself of the kibbutz pool and have the opportunity to eat freshly fried schnitzel at almost any given time. I mean, hey, that’s living, right?

So you can imagine how pleased I was to be spending part of our Sukkot vacation at Kibbutz Kfar Blum’s hotel, now known as Pastoral Kfar Blum. What was once just a run-of-the-mill kibbutz hotel has become a higher-end version of this Israeli standard, with lush grounds, a truly stupendous breakfast and dinner spread and great access to all the local attractions.

As a New York Times article quoted back in 1990,

“When I asked the manager of Mitzpeh Rachel, whom everybody calls Juhah, to explain the difference between his hostelry and ordinary hotels, he answered: ”At the kibbutzim the staff owns the hotels, so everybody cares. It isn’t just a job. And where else will you see a guest and a waiter – a kibbutz member – sitting after dinner and chatting over a cup of coffee?” A guest there put it this way: ”A hotel is a place where you sleep. Here, I am at home.”

19 years later, much of what Nitza Rosovsky wrote in her review of Israel’s best kibbutz guesthouses still rings true, and many of the kibbutzim have taken it a step beyond, with renovated guestrooms, sumptuous spreads, spas — yes, spas — and a very casual, easy atmosphere that makes it comfortable for all sorts. There’s even a Kibbutz Hotels Chain, with a website, although it seems to be closed until October 19, strange.

In any case, as the website points out, kibbutz hotels are everywhere — well, anywhere where there are kibbutzim — from Eilat’s Red Sea to the snowy slopes of Mount Hermon.

Kfar Blum, which is an easy ride to Mount Hermon and other northern destinations, was founded in November 1943 by the Labor Zionist Habonim (now Habonim Dror) youth movement, according to Wikipedia. The founding members of the kibbutz were primarily from the United Kingdom, South Africa, the United States and the Baltic countries, and the kibbutz was named in honor of Léon Blum, the Jewish socialist former Prime Minister of France who was the focus of a widely-publicized, and ultimately unsuccessful, show trial in 1942 mounted by the collaborationist Vichy regime.

Besides working with agriculture, light industry and tourism — including the hotel and the kibbutz kayaking/rafting company, the kibbutz was once home to Hapoel Galil Elyon, a top division basketball team, which in 1993 became the only club from outside Tel Aviv to win the championship. I’ve also heard that its Olympic size pool was once the only one around for miles, and was used for Olympian trainees, but couldn’t confirm that particular fact.

Prices are not cheap, particularly during the high season of the holidays. But if you’re looking for an easy getaway, and for a guestroom that doesn’t have a Jacuzzi next to your bed — a common feature in many Israeli tzimmers — I’m voting for Kfar Blum.

Foto Friday – Sukkot in Jerusalem

The awe-ful part of the Days of Awe are behind us and now it’s time to party! Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is the holiday when Jerusalem gets itself all decked out…

© RomKri

…and small wooden sukkot, or tabernacles, spring up overnight…

© monti_clif

…dotting the urban landscape.

© Pes & Lev

The Municipality of Jerusalem gets into the act too, with a large public sukka – the perfect opener to this month’s Autumn Nights Festival…

© RomKri

…as well as the annual Jerusalem March, attended by walkers from all over the country…

© monti_clif

…and from all over the world!

© monti_clif

Another event taking place at this time: the International Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles festival, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary. The festivities begin today with a worship concert at Ein Gedi, continue with a week of prayer and Bible teachings, and conclude with the Jerusalem March on October 6th.

Below is a montage of photos from last year’s Feast of Tabernacles. The photos above are courtesy of the wonderful Jerusalem Shots website – always worth a visit. And here’s wishing a Chag Sameach (happy holiday) to us all!

Feast of Tabernacles 2008 Photo Montage from ICEJ on Vimeo.

You Day

The anticipation and excitement began already last week, even while we were celebrating Sukkot – an exciting enough event on its own, if you ask me. But when that letter came, we just started counting down the days – and then the hours – to Sunday.

Why all the excitement? You Day!                 

So what’s You Day, you ask? Only the best day of the year to go shopping! You Day is the reward for us loyal customers who frequent a local “big box” supermarket all year, buying groceries with their You Card branded Diner’s Club debit card. The previous two times the store ran You Day, there were great bargains to be had – so much so that by the time me and my Significant Other arrived, they were out of half the sale items!

Well, this time we weren’t going to lose out – so bright and early on Sunday morning, we shlepped down to the store to take advantage of the bargains. And what bargains they were! Would you believe half-price – on a whole bunch of stuff we actually use! And unlike the usual requirement to get deals at this store, there was no minimum purchase of non-sale items required. Just free and easy shopping for a whole bunch of half price items! The only limitation – you could purchase just two of each item. Fair enough – and for us, not a problem, since my SO had her own You Card. So we were able to get four of each item!

Now, I’m no fool; I know how sales work (in Israel, the U.S., or anywhere). Loyalty program or not, nobody is giving away anything for half price. So you expect a little pre-sale price inflation, where the store raises the price on items and puts them back “on sale” – so you end up saving less than you expect. And You Day prices were no different, although I have to say some of them were genuine bargains (except for the instant coffee, where they basically doubled the price, so you would end up paying the “normal” price in the deal).

And so we shopped. And shopped some more. And when it was all over, we took our purchases up to the cash register, and watched with great satisfaction as the printout listed an item, a price – and a 50% discount!

There’s a theory about grocery shopping that says how sales and bargains, no matter how good they are, are basically a consumerist ripoff. Just walking into the big supermarket with the bargains means you’re going to end up spending more than you planned; far better to do your shopping at the not so cheap and much more limited neighborhood makolet (grocery store). The bigger the bargains, the more you end up spending, buying stuff you don’t really need.

But does that theory really apply when almost all the items in your shopping cart are half price? Did we buy items we didn’t need? I’ll admit it; we bought four of almost all the sale items, including things we didn’t buy on a usual basis (because they’re usually too expensive!). So, in one sense, it was a good day for bargains – but on the other hand, the makolet would have helped keep spending down. I guess the strategy works – even with all the bargains, we still spent nearly 1,000 shekels between the two of us, the second highest amount we have ever spent in any “walk down the aisle” at a supermarket!

There’s no more ‘after the holiday’

The sounds of people taking down their succot is in the air, the month-long holiday season is over, and there’s no more excuses.

It’s virtually impossible to get anything done here in the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashana through the end of Succot. ‘Aharei Hachagim’ (after the holidays) has become a catchphrase that’s both made fun of and used constantly – by the same people. There’s no way to avoid saying it, even as you realize what a cliché it is.

Whether being fooled by the unpredictable – or basically non-existent – schedules for opening hours of banks, post offices, and government offices, trying to contact subjects for interviews, setting up parent-teacher meetings, or even worse, if you’re trying to do something life important, like buying or selling a house, the past month has been one cruel joke on anyone with an ounce of efficiency in their blood.

The country basically runs on auto pilot. I’m sure even in the IDF, there are signs posted on the doors outside senior military briefings about Iran saying ‘Convening after the holidays’. The only people who actually seemed to be doing anything were the rioters in Acre, and they probably weren’t upset at that Arab Yom Kippur driver, but because the Lotto lottery stands were closed so much.

But now, everything’s changed, and all the chips are being cashed. For all of the plumbers, lawyers, gardeners (alright, they’ve been saying ‘after shmita’ instead for a whole year), and a whole slew of other deadbeats who have pulled that line on me this past month, I expect you here at noon time today. We have work to do.

Nostalgia Sunday – Simchat Torah flags

It’s Jewish flag day! Well, not really. Tomorrow is the last night of Sukkot when we finish up reading the Torah for this year, and the people are readying to dance in the streets.

The tradition of children dancing with flag aloft, says Tel Aviv University historian Dr. Chaim Grossman, dates back to 17th century Ashkenaz, Eastern Europe’s pale of Jewish settlement. Unfortunately, he adds, no flags exist from that time, as these were made of delicate paper, then put in the hands of small children, and so were destroyed within hours (and not by Cossacks).

In Israel, Simchat Torah is still one of those holidays were secular Jews turn up at the local neighborhood shul if only to gawk at the dancing revelers. This is particularly true of secular Jews with children who’ve made a flag in school, or purchased one at the dollar store. This one actually sells online for NIS 2.5, and even features an 3-D pop-open window, just like the old-fashioned ones

At times, Israel’s military might has been honored in flags:

And here’s a particularly lovely one from the Seventies:

Like its New Year’s counterpart the Shana Tova card, the Simchat Torah flag is one of those holiday items that isn’t written in any place – and likely were adopted from another culture – yet has become part of tradition.

In the US, at least in New England where I’m from, the Simchat Torah flag tradition has been conflated with the other autumn holidays and children top their flagpoles with candied apples. In Israel, flags often come with a small horn, though there is some question as to whether or not the kids are permitted to tootle on a holiday.

Links to previous posts:

Nostalgia Sunday – Heaters
Nostalgia Sunday – Yom Kippur
Nostalgia Sunday – Rosh HaShana
Nostalgia Sunday – Old Coins
Nostalgia Sunday – Historic Homepages
Nostalgia Sunday – Tango
Nostalgia Sunday – Tel Aviv Night Run
Nostalgia Sunday – Missing Dad
Nostalgia Sunday – Clique HaClick
Nostalgia Sunday – Tel Aviv 100
Nostalgia Sunday – Eurovision
Nostalgia Sunday – Old Israeliana
Nostalgia Sunday – Classic Movie: The Blaumilch Canal
Nostalgia Sunday – Plaid Bedroom Slippers
Nostalgia Sunday – Historic Photo Shop Shuts Its Doors
Nostalgia Sunday – New Israeliana
Nostalgia Sunday – High Windows

Jewish soul music

A work assignment brought me last night to the city of Beit Shemesh and the Beit Shemesh Festival, an annual music bash featuring some of the top names in the ‘Jewish soul’ field. Among this year’s performers were Meir Banai, The Moshav Band and Yood.

The central amphitheater in Beit Shemesh, a flowing natural park, boasted a white, cloth mehitza (divider), running up the middle, to separate the male and female attendees. The audience consisted mainly of religiously observant teens, many belonging to youth groups. There were some families and assorted adults there among the thousand or so people, a few not even wearing kippot, but by and large it was a religious crowd. And it looked like they were having a fine time, dancing on shoulders, enjoying a fireworks display, and checking out the other side the mehitza.

Despite some sound problems resulting from a likely blown speaker, the acts I saw performed admirably, and the band I came to see – Yood – put on a smoking set of spiritual blues rock.

There have been tons of events and activities to do during the intermediate days of Sukkot, but those folks who attended the Beit Shemesh Festival certainly got way more than their money’s worth – oh yeah, the festival was free.

Maybe next year, some of the secular crowd will come to see what all the noise was about.

Focusing in on Haifa

Funny what a difference two years makes. In the throes of the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, the northern Israeli city of Haifa is thriving once again. And the proof in the pudding is the 24th Haifa International Film Festival, which is running during the Succot holiday from October 14-21 at the Haifa Cinematheque.

In addition to featuring over 150 films from all over the world, the festival is hosting guests like Jeanne Moreau, star of Truffaut’s Jules et Jim, director Paul Schrader, British actress Kelly Harrison, and Joseph Fiennes, best known for starring in Shakespeare in Love. Fiennes’ latest movie, Spring 41, was directed by Israeli Uri Barbash and is being screened at the festival. Moreau appears in Amos Gitai’s Plus Tard Tu Comprendras (One Day You’ll Understand), a movie about a woman who has kept her past as a Holocaust survivor a secret from her children, and she’ll receive an award at the festival.

The festival opened on Tuesday with the Israeli premier of Woody Allen’s latest offering Vicky Cristina Barcelona, starring Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, and Javier Bardem. Original reported stated that the Woodman would be attending the opening, but alas, it was not to be.

Homegrown talent Ayelet Zurer, known internationally for her role in Steven Spielberg’s Munich, will attend screenings of her new movie, Fugitive Pieces, about a child whose family is killed in Nazi-occupied Poland and grows up longing for his lost sister.

And among the seven Israeli feature films being screened is Castles in the Air, Broken Wings’ director Nir Bergman’s look at a family gathering for their parents’ 35th wedding anniversary. Two films focus on the host city of Haifa and the effects the war had on it – Oren Gvili’s Secured Space looks at how that conflict affects a couple trying to hold its wedding, and Tamar Glezerman’s The Other War follows three women during that conflict.

So while it may rain on in most of the country during ‘hol hamoed’, dampening hikes and camping trips, the screening rooms at the Haifa Cinemateque will be dry, warm and full of provocative films. Thanks to The Jerusalem Post’s Hannah Brown for providing the information on the films.

I heart Sukkot.

Sukkot is by far my favorite holiday. Within an hour of Yom Kippur ending the incessant sounds of banging envelop my neighborhood as nearly everyone, secular and religious erect their sukkot in their backyards and all too often quite precariously on their porches. There are sukkot as far as the eye can see. I bought a small pre-fab sukkah a few years ago that goes up in about 15 minutes with minimal effort – though I haven’t put it up yet – I’m a last minute type of guy.

I cherish this part of the year. We usually get our first rain during Sukkot (though we were trumped by Rosh Hashana this year) and then winter quickly comes rather quickly though there is always a random hot day in November. It’s the closest we have to a spring-like season though it only lasts for a couple of weeks. I took full advantage over the weekend and did a lot of much needed gardening for the first time since June. My lemongrass and lemon tree is out of control so I harvested much of it and gave generously to friends. On Friday night I stuffed about a dozen stalks in the tuchus of a chicken. I highly recommend this in in lieu of using lemon. You get the delicious lemon flavor without the acidity. My lemons are better suited for lemonade.

I am far from a religious man but I for some reason I can’t explain I feel very connected to this holiday. Perhaps it is my love of the land married with the cultural observance of this holiday. Perhaps it is the vision of unity. The Israeli people (or should I say Jewish) experience unity in both tragedy and celebrations and unfortunately not too not much in between. But that’s ok, because on Sukkot it all comes together – at least for me.

Foto Friday

ArtFocus 5 opened on September 24 in Jerusalem, bringing the annual encounter between contemporary art in Israel and abroad, as seen by 66 artists from around the world, 18 of whom are Israeli.

It’s happening until October 23, and is being held at the Pavilion Conference and Events center in the Talpiot Industrial Zone, on Hauman Street. Open from 5 pm – 10 pm, Sunday through Thursday; Friday 10 am – 2pm; Saturday, 9 pm – 11 pm and open on Hol Hamoed Sukkot, 5 pm – 10 pm.

The selection is wide and varied, and here are a few that I liked:

Shana tova u’metuka

There’s no question that Rosh Hashana cheer is in the air, whether it’s signing off of every conversation with a Shana Tova salutation, wishing a Shana Tova to each clerk, salesperson or person that one meets, and the number of Shana Tova emails — not to mention the round challahs and apples and honey gifts on Facebook — that are arriving in the email inbox.

The streets are crowded with people, shopping all the time, for food, gifts, last-minute outfits, and the planners who are already picking up decorations for their sukkah.

What I always like about Rosh Hashana in Israel, as well as Yom Kippur and Sukkot (and all the rest of the calendar year, for that matter), is that they are holidays for everyone, secular or religious. Sure, some of us spend a lot of time in synagogues during this month-long holiday period, thinking about personal repentance and ancient piyutim, and that’s our choice. Many don’t. But nearly everyone in Israel is celebrating in some way, sharing special meals with family and friends, buying “shay l’chag“, holiday gifts for one’s hairdresser, accountant, travel agent or clients, cleaning up the house and yard before the onslaught of guests, and thinking of creative ways to use honey or new fruits.

I suppose that for me, it comes down to the fact that no matter how many years I’ve been living here, I still derive a little thrill at how different it feels to celebrate one’s new year in September rather than January. It feels different to say Shana Tova U’Metuka, rather than Happy New Year. It feels different to toss around pomegranate seeds, rather than glitter at midnight.

So here’s to a happy new year for all Israelity readers and bloggers, and finding your kind of celebration. Sweetness and happiness in 5768.

 

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