KFAR SABA, Israel — Israel recently commemorated its 74th year of independence, preceded by the memorial day for military and terrorist casualties. To celebrate Israel’s birthday, which follows Passover by two weeks, we visited a number of places around our small country. All of these jaunts were a half-day or more, with none needing an overnight stay.
Just north of our home in Kfar Saba is the Ilanot Botanical Garden. For years we passed by the sign leading to it on our way to Netanya. It’s a unique woodland which initially, in the 1950s, was built as a testing ground for the acclimation of foreign trees, maintained by staff from the Ministry of Agriculture’s forest research division. They planted about seven hundred different varieties of trees from all over the world, to test their degree of suitability to Israel’s climate conditions. The aim was to find trees to plant in local forests that would flourish here.
The testing was completed by the mid-‘80s and the site was abandoned. This was a mistake. It was remedied by the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) which preserved the site as a unique arboretum. Today, there are nearly two miles of well-surfaced trails that lead visitors among three hundred different varieties of trees! For those with the time and the interest, there are QR sites detailing information for all the plantings via your mobile phone. Now the site is accessible to people with physical disabilities, for which Ilanot won an award in 2015.
After our leisurely walk accompanied by a friend from America and a couple from Netanya, we went to the nearby village of Kfar Haroeh to the lovely Haroeh BaCafe. Our friend Gloria Deutsch wrote a lovely review about it last spring in the Jerusalem Post: “[excerpt] The restaurant at Kfar Haroeh ticks all the boxes. The bucolic surroundings of the luxuriant gardens of the moshav provide the setting; the young and enthusiastic waitstaff plus a hands-on manager ensure the service is good; and, as to the food, it proved to be a gourmet meal with original dishes, perfectly prepared and presented.“ We weren’t disappointed!
A few days later we took a more ambitious day trip up north near the Lebanese border, to the very popular Tel Dan Nature Reserve. There the Dan stream emerges in abundance (at least some years, like this one) from a spring on its course to merge with the Jordan River. When the Romans ruled this area about 2,000 years ago, there were very popular baths, etc. here and a Temple to the god Pan. When the Arabs arrived hundreds of years later, the name Dan was substituted for Pan, due to the lack of a P-sound in Arabic.
We began our hike along the Dan Stream, which has its source in the Dan Spring. The beginning of the trail has a fairly long paved route suitable for wheelchairs. Further along, we carefully walked among medium sized river rocks, necessitating close attention. It wasn’t particularly crowded, so we were free to enjoy the sounds and sights of ‘Paradise Springs … calmly babbling brooks creating channels along which the well-developed riverside forest offers charming and shady corners.” We passed many large trees, including a large, hollow tree, a great attraction for children.
There were different trails, none too taxing, which climaxed in the very popular, natural wading pool of cool water alongside the hiking trail. This was the most popular part of the trail, strategically located near the parking. Many kids and their parents happily splashed in the relatively shallow water or just waded in to cool off.
This time we didn’t go to the namesake Tel Dan, one of Israel’s largest ancient tells, which are hills resulting from settlements consecutively built on the ruins of preceding ones. This tell has been excavated down to the remains of a 5,000 year old city, which prospered during the Canaanite and Israelite periods: 3,000-600 BCE.
Just two days later, we joined a small group with our guide Alan at Jerusalem’s Tolerance Monument. Built in the heady days following the 1993 Oslo Accords, “…Sculptors Czeslaw Dzwigaj and Michal Kubiak designed the Tolerance Monument. Striving heavenward on a serene hilltop between the Jewish Armon Hanatziv neighborhood and Arab Jabal Mukaber, on the ruins of an ancient pagan temple, the sculpture is composed of the two halves [symbolizing Jews and Arabs] of a split column and a golden olive tree growing in between, shading both segments [and] artistically linking all .… The hilltop and the Monument constitute a small park near the Goldman Promenade, which is already a must-stop due to the amazing panoramic view of the Old City and the Kidron Valley that it affords.”
On the way out of Jerusalem we made a brief stop at the Byzantine-era, unreconstructed Kathisma church. It is owned by a Christian denomination (who often do not develop the ancient sites, says Alan). Only the octagonal outline of the church is visible, with a colorful mosaic floor left open to the elements. At the center of the octagon (which is a ubiquitous element of church design in that era) is the limestone rock on which the pregnant Mary is believed to have rested on the way with Joseph to Bethlehem.
We soon arrived at the fortress Herodium, which Herod the Great built in the 1st century BCE. We trekked up the winding trail to the top of the hill, with a vista towards Jerusalem and the Judean Desert. Well known for his architectural masterpieces (Caesarea, Masada, Second Temple renovation and more) and his cruelty, Herod constructed this fortress on top of a large hill that he had made into a mountain to catch the winds off the desert and to be visible from Jerusalem. It was divided into two sections: Upper Herodium, which contained a palace set within a circular fortress with magnificent views, and Lower Herodium, at the base of the mountain, which had numerous annexes for the use of the king’s family and friends. The system of water storage was very sophisticated, with huge cisterns to supply the needs of the palace, including a large pool in Lower Herodium suitable for boating.
Alan explained that in his later years, King Herod, the ultimate narcissist, wanted his tomb to be visible to all his subjects in Jerusalem. The fortress was the place he chose for that very reason. After a few false starts, his architects built his tomb in the proper location and subsequently Herod was buried there after suffering a horrible but well-deserved death.
Herodium was later abandoned after being sacked by the Romans following the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, but in 132 CE it was occupied by Bar Kochba, the great Jewish general. Bar Kochba, whom Rabbi Akiva believed was a messiah, utilized the cisterns there for his guerrilla attacks on the Roman army.
After ascending the path to palace ruins and exploring a bit, we made a far cooler descent through the same cistern, via tunnels inside the mountain built to enable Bar Kochba’s bands to make surprise attacks against the Romans. Tactics like this resulted in Bar Kochba’s incredibly successful, but short-lived, victory over the Romans.
Our last stop was the nearby community of Tekoa, built beyond the Green Line (1949 Armistice Line) in Judea. With a population of about 6,000, Tekoa is a thriving town with a mostly younger, religious population. The majority of the working population commute to work in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. We enjoyed a great lunch at a cafe there and were able to visit some of the studios in the town’s Artists Quarter before leaving for home.
Our last trip was on Independence Day itself. We left early for Shuni Fortress, a Roman archaeological site, excavated and renovated by the JNF – Jewish National Fund. The site is mentioned in the Talmud as belonging to the tribe of Menashe and is identified with the biblical village of Shumi. Located on a spur of the Carmel Mountains, the fortress used to be a pleasant recreational center, “a country club” for retired Roman soldiers and Roman dignitaries from the nearby seat of government, Caesarea. At Shuni there is a large amphitheater in which entertainment was presented. Recently it has been discovered that it was a full, round structure, not a half-round amphitheater.
Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (“HaNadiv”, lit. “the generous one”), who established Zichron Yaakov, purchased Shuni from a high ranking Arab and founded an agricultural school for Jewish farmers there. The nearby agricultural settlements of Binyamina and Giva’at Ada, home to prime vineyards today, were also established by the Baron. Thanks to the Baron, wineries have become an important part of the regional economy and produce prize-winning vintages. His life spanned the period 1845 to 1934.
There is more to Shuni than just the archaeology. The fortress is located in the Jabotinsky Park and Forest, named for Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Betar, a paramilitary youth movement. Jabotinsky was one of the founders of the Haganah, the pre-state militia. Rejecting the somewhat passive reaction of the Haganah to the British closure of Palestine to Jewish immigration, some members of the Haganah split off to form the more aggressive Irgun (the Etzel underground). The Irgun used Shuni as its military headquarters against the British and launched many of its operations from the site. Located within the fortress is a small but interesting Etzel Museum, with several films bringing the history of the movement to life.