Nostalgic return to Kibbutz Merom Golan with a stop first at Beit Lehem HaGalili

From Thursday, Dec. 28 through Sunday, Dec. 31, Nava, Havazelet and I spent a delightful time returning to kibbutz Merom Golan where I lived from 1972--1974.  I rented a small  cute Opel from Sixt Shlomo and we headed north. (Click on the underlined purple words for more detail on the subject.)

 The roads are fantastic.  We started on the toll road, Kvish (highway) 6 and then headed on some of the newer East-West roads, including road 77 which is already being widened!.

Our mid-trip stop was at Beit Lechem HaGlilit (Bethlehem of the Galilee).  Click on the link to the left, and you can learn more about this moshav.  To distinguish it from the Bethlehem near Jerusalem, it was originally called Bethlehem of Zebulun while the other was called Bethlehem of Judah.  Due to its closeness to Nazareth, some historians believe this town was the Bethlehem of the New Testament.  In ancient times it was a prosperous town and until the late 1800s the ruins of a synagogue could be found there.  In the 19th century, it was inhabited by Muslims.  In 1906, German Christian Templers from Haifa established a colony in this town and many of their buildings still exist today.  They were exiled from Palestine because of their Nazi sympathies.

The town now is a place where Israelis visit with their families and is quite active on weekends.
We first had our picnic lunch outside.  We asked directions from several very friendly residents.

One man tells the history of the Templers. We tried to join him but he told us quite brusquely that we needed to make a reservation in advance.

We did use his outdoor bathroom.  :)

There are lots of activities for city families, including a tour of a dairy and learning how to milk cows by hand, a olive oil press business (Beit Bahd) and several places that sell olive oil, several art galleries, bike rentals, and much more including a fabulous and huge spice shop and the entrance to town.  But the signs were mostly in Hebrew so I guess they don't get many international visitors.

We saw lots of pretty flowers along the main road.
A rather rare rose:

 Pretty but don't know the name:

 One of my favorite winter flowers in Israel--it actually is a brighter orange.

 Some kind of berries:

And bougainvillea--very common here in winter.

And we saw many original Templer buildings with their distinctive style:

The main center of town:

 The town Beit Lechem in the Zevulun region is mentioned in the Bible in Joshua chapter 19 verse 16.  When Israel became a modern country, in order to distinguish between in the area of Judah, this place also became known as Beit Lechem Zevulun.   Archaeological finds from the second temple times have been discovered here.  In 1906, young people from the Christian German Templer movement in Haifa established a settlement in this spot.   (they were later expelled because of their Nazi connections.)   On April 17, 1948,  Israeli youth from the moshav movement settled here.

The water tower:

Cattle on a farm:

We stopped at Beit Bahd Galili, Galili Olive Oil and Eran (?) Galili showed us a short video on how he grows and produces olive oil.  The first oil of the season usually comes out green.  Eran has the only Olive pres/mill  in town and only produces oil from his trees.  There are five other olive growers in town though but they have their olives pressed elsewhere.

Eran said that the Olive harvest is usually in October and November.  It is best to have the olives processed within six hours of haresting and that the olive paste have an acidity under .8.  There are 30 types of olives in Israel and 300 kinds in the world, I believe.

He has 6500 olive trees.  Each tree can produce about 35 kilos of olives, and from that six to seven bottles of olive oil are produced.   Traditionally people take/shake the olives off of the trees.  Three people can take a tone of olives off the tree (in a day).  One mechanized shaker can take off nine tons of olives.  Eran uses both human and machine power.  He produced about 25,000 bottles of olive oil a year.  He predicted that olive production around the Mediterrian will go down a lot from a lack of water.

Olive Mash

First batch of olive oil is often green

The jovial owner of the Beit Bahd

Eran Galili grew up among his father's olive trees. As an adult, he moved away to work in the big city but after a while decided to return to his roots, plant a lot of olive trees and create his olive press.  He product is now considered in the top 5% of Israeli produced olive oils.

We sampled three of his oils. It definitely tasted different than what we were used to.   He said that olive oil should be fresh tasting and fruity.    He said that the best way to tell if the cold pressed olive oil is of good quality is if it has the Californian olive oil sign on the bottle.

And finally the huge spice farm store:
The Spice Way Herb and Spice  Farm has Been in business for over 50 years combining herbs and spices in distinctive ways and drying them in a special way to preserve their freshness.  The Visitor's Center (and store) opened in 2003.  They have lectures and workshops, and the areas and individual items are well labeled.  It was so big that it was overwhelming!   We stayed so long that we ended up arriving at Merom Golan well after dark.   The store is open every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. except for Friday when it closes at 3.   There was a section just of spices etc. to add to rice, others for health, teas, and many more.

Merom Golan was established in 1967, soon after the Golan was captured from Syria in the 1967 six day war.  It was then the largest kibbutz on the Golan and still is today and is also the most successful.  It has over 700 residents, the regional K-8 public school, the regional library, a very successful lodge with cabins of a variety of prices and a hotel in the plans, horse back riding, and a cafe on top of Har Ben-Tal with an amazing 360 degree view of the area.  It also grows many crops including some of the best apples in Israel including pink lady, broccoli, kili, watermelon, cabbage, lichee, avocado, and a chicken run.  They also still raise cattle and have the tuff quarry where my ex-husband once worked.  There are also lots of small private businesses on the kibbutz.  The couple that lead the kibbutz politically in many ways, Yehuda and Tzippy HarEl still live on the kibbutz as do four of their five children and many grandchildren.

Our hostess, Inbar, fed us a lovely dinner and also surprised me with an old acquaintance from 40+ years ago, Moshe Davidi.  Inbar and her family have lived on the kibbutz for 12 years.  The kibbutz began to offer plots of lands to "residents," a status different from members, around them, and many have become very active in the kibbutz activities.  Inbar, for instance, was on the steering committee planning the 50th year celebration activities.

Moshe Davidi and I

Then Inbar escorted us to the apartment where we would spend the next three nights, the extra apartment of Ziona and Moshe Yishurun.  When the kibbutz went to semi-privatization, each family got an extra apartment and part of what had been a central gathering area in each building.  Some people combined the two apartments into one larger one, but Ziona and Moshe decided to keep the upstairs one for visitors.  When I walked into the apartment, I was sent back  40 years as it looked identical to the one that Paul and I had had when we were members of the kibbutz except they had added some wood paneling to one wall.

The next morning, after breakfast Inbar took us on the Path of the Fallen שביל הנופלים that members of the kibbutz created for the 50th anniversary of the kibbutz.  It is 5 kilometers (3 miles) long, as a remembrance for the 8 kibbutz members who have fallen during military service.  I knew six of them, so walking down the path and seeing the memorial to each was very emotional for me.

In the top row, I knew Micha, Cobi (#3)--whose son was in the same baby group of Timna, and Avremeleh (#4) who was Paul's boss. .  , In the bottom row, Sharon, who was killed by friendly fire,  was in a children's house for two year olds where I had worked.  Smiling Menchi was so full of life.  and I also knew the last man, Menachem.

Regional fruit packing house in the background with cow grazing in the foreground

Yes, there has been much needed rain here, but more is needed!

Sharon Tamir, age 21 when he was killed in an army exercise

Micha Fichman

Micha saved my life and that of my unborn daughter Timna in November, 1972.  I was in the general laundry area, working with clean laundry when Micha biked to our place and said to get to a shelter as the border was heating up.  Five minutes after I left the place, it got a direct hit.  For many years later, I had blue sheets that had shrapnel holes in them.   Micha then biked over the the vehicle repair shop to tell others to get into the closest shelter.  Then had to run a good 50 meters and waited for a cannon barrage to stop, thinking that all were shot at ones.  Unfortunately, they were wrong and as they were running, one shell exploded about two meters above them, sending shrapnel in all directions.  Micha was critically wounded and died in the arms of a friend as the ambulance was taking him to the hospital.  His daughter was born 7 months later--and he had not known that his wife was pregnant.

Menchi is remembered above, overlooking the landscape he loved.

While walking, we met an unusual man named Eitan Rilov who was jogging on the path.  He was 82 and in great shape.  It turns out that he has had a company that traced terrorists through money.

Along our way, cows and their baby calves grazed in the fields.

After the walk through the past, we headed out to Masadeh, a Druze village on the Golan, to go to their weekly market and have lunch. The Druze, an ethnic, religous, linguistic, cultural and political minority, are neither Muslim, Jew, nor Christian.  An 11th century offshoot of Ismailism, their secret beliefs are known only to select elders. About 26,000 Druze live on the Golan concentrated in 4 villages, Majdal Shams, Masadeh, Buqata, and Ein Qiniyyeh, and over 100,000 total in Israel.  It turned out that the market was not open as the villagers had just celebrated a major festival the night before.  But we enjoyed a great lunch at Nidal's restaurant.

 We had a bunch of delicious "salads" and also got amazing stuffed grape leaves...more leaves that stuffing, and very tasty falafel.

 The labaneh and grape leaves were my favorite!

And after lunch, we stopped at the bakery down the block.  The desserts were super-sweet, filled with honey.

 And sampled several...The one below has shredded pistachios on it.

A favorite of Inbar's family

That night, we went to the kibbutz dining room for Shabbat dinner.  It opened in 1972 or 1973 and was going to be closed for remodeling the next week.  At dinner a woman approached and remembered me from when I lived there 40+ years ago.  I remembered the name of her husband, Elisha, but not her.  She looked great!

Below the dining room is a kibbutz store for food as well as an art store, displaying and selling the work of many creative people living on the kibbutz.

A creative plant holder

A whimsical Hanukkiya

Fleece for the cold weather in all sizes

One of many metal artists did these.  

The most famous metal artist on the kibbutz, known internationally is Joop de Jong.

A lot is sprinkled around the kibbutz.  .

Our last morning at the kibbutz I walked outside and spotted a group of pet peacocks, wandering around.

Before leaving the Golan on Sunday, we stopped at Coffee Anan/Kofi Annan, a cafe and souvenir shop on Har Ben-Tal next to the kibbutz with a marvelous view of the surrounding area.  We drove up a winding road to get to the top.

Some of Joop's art is also here.

My Favorite!

  It was created when Kofi Annan was the head of the UN so it a play on words.  Anan in Hebrew means "cloud" the place where you can have coffee in the clouds.  It is also the highest restaurant in Israel.
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3,822 feet above sea level

Crossroads to the world

An old style shelter built in the hill

 Near the entrance, A Druze from a nearby town was selling homemade delicacies: Carob syrup, fruit jams, and tehina with different fruits added.  I bought the Carob syrup as I love fresh carob but it was too sweet for me.  The tehina, however, was delicious!  The man selling the items was a high school math teacher and several of his children have graduated from Israeli universities and work in the area.  He was very proud of them.

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