AM HAYAM IN ISRAEL (or, On the Bus with Erez) by Diana Landau Cast of characters: UNTIL A FEW WEEKS AGO, most of us probably took for granted that Erez Pinhas (Abbago Travel) (funds permitting) we can fly all over the world to explore the past and present of alluring, far-off places. I can’t think of anywhere in the world Steve Berrick & Cindy Fox we could have had a richer travel experience than on our recent Israel Jane Dorval trip — so many thanks to Erez and the Am HaYam leaders (especially Yvonne Gunzburger Renate) who made it happen. And I hope I never again take for granted Judy Keller the privilege of being free to travel. Rebecca King Diana Landau (your reporter) Sunday afternoon, February 23. When Greg steered our car into Jane Dorval’s Eastham driveway—filled with luggage, travelers, and loved Lauren McCloud (Renate’s daughter) ones—it got real. Through a convoluted web of circumstances and more Kathy Shorr than one mitzvah, I was on my way to the Land of Israel with a lively, Carolyn & Len Solomon voluble, lovable group of Cape Codders from Am HaYam. Plus a huge Renate Wasserman bonus, girlpal Kathy Shorr as roommate. Paul Nimans (GalilEat) At the end of a smooth ride to Logan with Jane, daughter Becky, and Driver Dan, we found a clutch of other AH’ers at the El Al bag drop, where we were grilled mercilessly by cute, apparently teenage security “I was amazed by the changes since I personnel. Judy Keller, bless her, shepherded eight of us into the Air went to Israel in 1990. The country may France lounge, and that’s really all I want to remember until we landed have dramatically changed but the spirit in Tel Aviv many hours later. Erez had dispatched a van, and we perked and warmth I remembered are still there. up when we saw the pretty, comfortable Melody Hotel, just a hop from My commitment to my Jewish heritage the beach. We had one night there to start, two more when we circled was renewed, revitalized, and reinforced back to TA near the trip’s end. (All three hotels in the Atlas boutique by the trip. Perhaps the most special part chain featured inviting beds, nice staff, and over-the-top breakfasts.) was being a part of a group of friends who all experienced what makes Israel a After a scant hour to rest or stretch our legs on the beach, Erez appeared such special place.” to bundle us off in several taxis to old Jaffa, five minutes away. “Meet in —Judy front of Abouleàfia,” was the order, so we gazed hungrily at the baklava and other treats on display at this venerable bakery while the cabs pulled “We had "the best" hummus in Tel Aviv, up. Inside a dim Turkish restaurant then for the first of countless "the best" hummus in Jerusalem, "the yummy meals, virtually all (we would find) built around the heart of best" hummus in Akko, etc. One day we hummus and pita. But so not like we knew these foods from the actually had 2 lunches so we wouldn't supermarket; we were hummus gourmands before long. (See Erez’s miss the hummus.” recipe below.) —Yvonne Day 2: We board our magic carpet for the tour, a plush Mercedes 14- “Kfar Masarek is the kibbutz that sticks seater van. Our pilot, the fearless Kobi Abbergil, is a military pensioner with me, maybe because it felt like of awesome skill, threading Van through the narrowest alleys. Off up the remnants of the old life there remain. coast to Caesarea, where Herod the Great curried favor with his Roman You could feel the living history of the masters by building them a deepwater Mediterranean port with all the place. Benny grew up there, and so amenities. (A trip theme: how did Herod have time for all that building? knows the life of earlier times, like the Masada, the Second Temple, on and on.) Then an engrossing afternoon shoemaking building full of wooden at a foundational (1934) kibbutz, Kfar Masaryk in western Galilee. lasts, and rows of old shoes and tools: Resident guide Benyamin Barak (Benny) took us around the campus and 1 though he didn’t work there, he had his narrated the community’s evolution, lived by him firsthand since the shoes made there for decades. He knew mid-1950s. Day’s end brought us to hotel #2, the picturesque Bay Club, what things mean, or meant. There was midway up Haifa’s steep slopes. (Haifa’s once-lovely harbor, littered in him a feel of a worn-out body after with petrochemical plants, was less picturesque!) Thence to the delicious decades of hard work, but a soul that was Rola Levantine Kitchen. deep.” —Kathy A jam-packed Day 3 took us up and down the Galilee: to the Sindyanna women’s project in Kfar Kana (the biblical Cana), which trains Arab women to work outside the home and helps local farmers; we assembled “I loved our lunch spread at the Alta our own batches of za’atar to bring home. Detouring to Tiberias, a resort Dairy, especially the alfredo sauce on the town on the Sea of Galilee, we were welcomed to the Ron Hotel by broad noodles with mushrooms. You proprietor Mulah Amsalem, who was known to Renate. In a sign of think, I’ll just eat a little of this and a bit things to come, the place was empty, a big group of South Koreans of that. But I ate a lot of that pasta. I was having just cancelled. On to lunch, winding up into the brilliant green so surprised because I’d assumed goat Golan hills to the down-home Pelter Winery, where a bounteous lunch cheese was not going to be good. That and tastings were waiting. Onward and ever upward, catching glimpses was also where we saw the flock of noisy of Mt. Hermon on the Lebanon border, to the windswept overlook on rose-ringed parakeets in the trees, an Mt. Bental, a dormant volcano and onetime military outpost. From the invasive species but beautiful.” “observatory” (a series of paths leading to the viewpoint and the “Coffee —Steve Annan” café, hoho), we gazed out on a vast panorama: the various 1974 ceasefire lines, Syria, Lebanon, even south to Jordan. A high point indeed! “Zarafat’s house is always abuzz with the comings and goings of the family. A Day 4: Zigzagging around Galilee, first to the winding, hilly streets of the seamstress by profession, She now Druze village Peki’in—home of “the holy coffeepot” (see photo), fresh- spends every day cooking and believes squeezed pomegranate juice, and a tiny ancient synagogue, created and that every dish that she produces should maintained for generations by the village’s one Jewish family. We got in be made from the raw ingredients grown just before a Bar Mitzvah started. Back toward the coast for lunch and a in her garden.” sermon on the virtues of goat milk at Alta Dairy, a high-end cheese- —Paul Nimans making operation at Kibbutz Shomrat. On to Yirka (or Yarka): first to Erez’s favorite spice merchant so we could sniff and stock up. Then to the family home of a traditional Druze woman, where we all (even Yvonne!) cooked dinner under Zarafat’s coaching. The fascinating Druze “I remember our drive to Jerusalem for people seem to encapsulate all that is amazing and confusing and Shabbat and singing Jewish songs on contradictory about Israel today. the bus. It warmed my heart and made me feel connected to our group and the Friday signaled a shift: first back in time to Roman Palestine, the Jewish people.” gloriously restored port town of Akko (Acre) with its Crusader tunnels —Lauren and relics. But soon we left the north and drove to Jerusalem, on Shabbat eve, excitement building as we caught our first glimpses of the old city walls. Barely taking time to drop bags at the Harmony Hotel, we “The tour not only taught me Israeli headed out to catch sunset at the Western Wall. Despite the jostling history and culture but also strengthened crowds, it’s an overwhelming and rather private experience. I’ll leave it my sense of Jewishness. Over the ten at that: you’ve either been or most likely will go. Somehow, the perfect days I began to recognize that I didn't next thing was dinner at the south Jerusalem apartment of Dorraine have to worry about how I appeared to Weiss from Brooklyn, who made aliyah in 2008 and now hosts Airbnb strangers. Maybe it’s the difference guests (“Lovely Rooms in Jerusalem”), family, neighbors, and groups of between feeling Jewish-American rather travelers like us at her Shabbat table. Dorraine’s adorable grandson than American-Jewish. Being Jewish 2 becomes more important than American Jonathan and his two IDF buddies waited table, tales were told, small in my self-image. It makes me feel worlds discovered, cups raised, prayers said and sung. What more could braver, prouder being Jewish.” you want on a first night in Jerusalem? —Len On the Sabbath some rested, others explored in smaller cohorts, with “As soon as we crossed Sultan Suleiman group dining suspended for a few nights. Erez did make sure we visited Street at the Damascus Gate, it was clear another sweeping overlook (he loves overlooks!) and highlights of the we were entering an Arab old city: the Roman cardo, Mount Zion (by tradition the site of the Last neighborhood.