Milk and Cookies (Without the Milk)

I took the bus early in the morning to Ashkalon which is located in the southwest corner of Israel, 13 kilometers (8.1 miles) from Gaza’s northern border.  Dovrat Horn picked me up at the Central Bus Station and we drove off to start a three day adventure as part of the TIPS Partnership (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix, Seattle) of the Jewish Federation.

Since 1995, the three American communities have been matched with two Israeli communities: the development city of Kiryat Malachi and the regional council of Hof Ashkelon TIPS is part of a program that brings volunteer representatives from these five Jewish communities together with professionals and entrepreneurs to develop leadership, communities and interpersonal connections. The partnership is a reciprocal relationship in which the American Jewish communities support programs that empower and build leadership in the Israeli communities. The Israeli communities enhance the connection between Israel and the American communities through people-to-people relationships by sending delegations to America and offering their communities to visiting Americans.

TIPS is the Jewish Agency’s Western Region program as part of a global platform called Partnership2Gether (previously known as Partnership 2000) which connects over 550 communities around the world in 45 different partnerships.

Dovrat lives in Nitzan, a community in Hof Ashkelon; she has lived there since her 14 year old triplets were 8 months old. As we approached Nitzan, Dovrat pointed out the area where many of the Jews had been resettled when they were forced to leave Gush Katif (Gaza) in 2005 as part of the 1994  “Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area” between Israel and the Palestinians.  This agreement transferred civil authority from Israel to the Palestinian Authority and resuted in the relocation of over 7500 Jews from Gaza.  Many of the families are still living in their “relocation homes”, and many have built new homes in the Nitzan area.

Dovrat was part of a contingent of eight women from Hof Ashkelon and Kiryat Malachi who came to Tucson, Phoenix and Seattle in 2010; another group, all of whom were from Kiryat Malachi, came in 2009.  Among the women, cultures represented were Yeminite, Tunisian, Cuchin, Iranian, Kuridsh and Israeli.  The purpose of these trips were to grow the connection between the American cities and the Israeli cities by exposing the Americans to some of the cultures that exist in Israel.

In the evening, Dovrat and her husband, Adi, took me to a very beautiful area in the village of Nitzan, called Kibbutz Nitzanim. In the background of this picture you can see fields and fields of sunflowers that have finished blooming.  Just imagine how beautiful this is every year when the sunflowers are in bloom. 

The Kibbutz fell to the Egyptians in 1948 during the War of Independence, but has been revitalized as a youth home. The residents of the kibbutz could not bear to return to their original homes – there were too many bad memories, so they relocated the kibbutz several miles away.

A young woman, Mira Ben Ari, became a hero during the Egyptians attack on Kibbutz Nitzanim.  She served as a wireless operator from her home in the kibbutz and when it became clear that the Egyptians were about to attack, she sent a distress signal to the battalion commander who was located away from the kibbutz.  Later the commander of the Jewish forces in this area decided to surrender at which time both he and Mira were killed by the Egyptians.  One of the children that was sent away was Mira’s son Danny, who still lives in Israel today and has been active in keeping his mother’s memory alive.

On the grounds there is a beautiful sculpture called Yad LaEsha HaLochemet – Remember

the Women Fighters.  It commemorates the women that fought in the War of Independence, and helps us remember the bravery of Mira Ben Ari.  The grounds have been turned into a nature reserve, with the concept that it should contain trees of all seven species from the Bible.  We walked through pomegranates, dates, figs, grapes and olives; wheat and barley grow nearby. As we walked we picked and we ate.  It’s hard to describe the feeling of walking through this historic place, picking ripened grapes and passion fruit, and eating them.  I felt like I was in the midst of the history itself.

I spent the night with Nava Gal in her home in beautiful Kibbutz Yad Mordechai.  Nava proudly took me on a tour of the kibbutz.  She and I had wonderful conversations about the status of women in the different cultures in Israel.  We shared dinner with several members of her community who graciously accepted me into their chevra for the evening. 

Many of the original members of this community had come from Poland, and they decided to name the kibbutz after Mordechai Anilewicz, the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters. In addition to its own history, Kibbutz Yad Mordechai is also the home of the largest honey producing facility in Israel.  

Dovrat and I made three different kinds of cookies – Iraqi date rolls, Israeli tehina cookies, and Arak cookies (with Arak liquor, not from the country Iraq). Dovrat and her professional partner, Liat, were caterers and Dovrat was willing to share some of her pastry expertise with me.

Israeli Tahina Cookies - Israeli

1C tahini (raw)

¾ C sugar

200 gm butter, softened and at room temperature

3 C flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

20 gm vanilla sugar

pistachio nuts (optional)

powdered sugar (optional)

Combine everything together with your hands until the dough sticks together like a big ball.  Make little balls about the size of a large marble, about ¾ inch in diameter; set them on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart.

Optional:  press a single pistachio nut into each ball

Bake at 150 C (300 F)  for 15-20 minutes.  The tops should not be brown but a little bit cracked; the bottoms should just be starting to turn brown.  Cool

Optional:  sprinkle powdered sugar over the cookies after they are cooled.

Iraqi Date Rolls

100 gm hazelnuts

100 gm walnuts

100 gm pistachio nuts

50 gm pine nuts

½ C honey
20 gm baking powder

500 gm dates without pits mushed together  (can buy packaged)

1 tsp cinnamon

finely grated coconut and/or sesame seeds

*You can use more or less of each kind of nut, but adding to the same total amount.

Combine the nuts and dry them in a skillet on medium, stirring frequently until you start to smell the aroma of the nuts..   Set them aside to cool.

Combine the honey and dates in a medium pot and cook on medium until the dates are very soft.   Take off the heat, add the cinnamon, baking powder and the cooled nuts and stir until the mixture is combined well.  Once the pot is cooled off,  place it in the refrigerator for about an hour. 

Layout a long piece of plastic wrap and work on that.  Divide the date mixture in half and prepare one half at a time.  Roll and form the mixture into a long log until it is about 1-1 ½ inches in diameter.   

Cut it in half and continue with one piece at a time.   Spread either the sesame seeds or the coconut along side the length of the date log, enough that will ultimately cover the log.  Roll the log through the sesame seeds or coconut covers the outside.  Divide the plastic wrap in half and wrap each roll in the plastic.  Repeat with remaining date mixture.  Place in refrigerator until logs are  firm. 

Remove the plastic covering and slice each roll into pieces about ¼-¹/₃” wide.  Layout on a nice platter to serve.

Arak Cookies  (the liquor, not the country)

1 kg flour

1 2/3 C sugar

360 gm butter

1 generous shot Irak 

2/3 C canola oil

2 pkts vanilla sugar

2/3 C coconut

Combine all ingredients together in a mixer or by hand.  When fully combined make small oblong shapes, gently flatten and lay on a baking sheet.  Using a fork, make a design by gently pressing the fork into the top of each cookie.

Bake on 200 C (350 F) for about 15 minutes until the cookies just begin to turn brown.  Cool.