Yerucham -- Digging Deeper

 By Gail F. Nalven

Yeruham (Hebrew: יְרוּחָם‎‎, יְרוֹחַם, Yeroham) is a town (local council) in the Southern District of Israel, in the Negev desert. It covers 38,584 dunams (~38.6 km²) and had a population of 9,400 in 2006. It is named after the Biblical Jeroham. Modern Yeruham was founded on January 9, 1951 as Kfar Yeruham (Hebrew: כְּפַר יְרֻחָם‎‎). It was one of Israel's first development towns, created to settle frontier areas in the early days of the state. It was located near the Large Makhtesh, an area thought at the time to be rich with natural resources.

For many years, Yeruham was economically depressed and suffered from image problems, but major efforts to improve the quality of life are under way.

--- Wikipedia

Yerucham is a story that goes much deeper than its Wikipedia description.
It was our second day in Israel with the Leadership Institute.  We arrived after sundown and spent the first night at Kibbutz Mashabei Sadeh. http://www.m-sadeh.org.il/ewelcome.htm  under and almost full moon.

Reuven Sthal

Still tired from our journey, we entered Yerucham, a town deep in the Negev.  There we met Debbie Goldman HaGolan who introduced us to this growing town and  Atid Bamidbar -- the Future is the Desert, an organization that organizes Jewish study programs and community projects.  Yerucham is a town where religious and non-religious live and they all come to the Youth Center where we met Reuven Sthal.  Reuven is helping to expose kids to math, engineering, and science through robotics.  This is about "giving kids a way to dream, widen their horizons...the sky's the limit."   There are robotics teams for all ages and one team is currently involved in a national

Debbie HaGolan

The Robot

competition. frc3211.com

We then met Rachel, from a religious school for girls.  This school is providing high level education for 130 students from different communities.  The curriculum includes religious studies and modern studies.  Students go from Talmud to the sciences, physics, and biology.  They use the shared laboratories for the high schools in town and engage in art, drama and the study of Israel.  There is even family

Rachel at school, with her daught

education in this school.  Funded by the Ministry of Education, almost all of the students pass the Bagrut, the standardized test for all students in Israel.

What we didn't know was that the highlight of our day was still to come.  We were invited into homes in the community for lunch. Atid Bamidbar established this program as a way for these women to earn some extra cash and to share their stories.  One group went to the home of Mazel and Jojo. http://leadershipinstitutetheblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/culinary-queens-of-yerucham-put-sallah.html.  My group went to the home of Leah who insisted that we eat before we talk.  After a wonderful meal of many courses, she told us of herTunisian father and her Libyan mother.  They met in a camp for new olim -- immigrants to Israel and helped to establish a moshav and lived on Kibbutz Tirat Ziv, a religiously kibbutz. Leah spoke lovingly of her parents who were nurturing and encouraged her and her siblings to grow. She was one of a family of 9 sisters and 4 brothers, all of whom became "academics." Leah said that she was a teacher.

She told us of her husband was mental illness.  And knowing that she had to leave the marriage, she called her husband's brother, a doctor in America.  Afterwards, we discussed how we were all speculating on what she would ask for. I thought she would asked her brother-in-law to take him to America.  Others thought she would ask for money for a divorce. What Leah did ask for was money to go to therapy, because she knew that with therapy, she could gain the strength to leave her husband and move on with her life.  Her son and then daughter were there to hear the story and even a grandchild appeared. She has 4 children.

At the conclusion, Leah asked for questions.  I asked for recipes.  And she was thrilled to share.



Red Cabbage Salad
Sauce   
Balsamic Vinegar, Soy Sauce, Olive Oil, Sugar  
Make the sauce two days in advance
Cut cabbage and cover with sugar in fridge for two hours.
Rinse off the sugar, and mix with the sauce.  Add sesame seeds and nuts.
"Whatever you have in the house."

Tirsme  (I think this is what it was called.)                                                                                    
This was a tasty orange dip.
Cook and mash (I think you could process)
1 pumpkin -- I think she meant butternut squash                                                                    
white potatoes, 1 kilo
Mix with 2 sweet peppers (red, orange, yellow), a little hot pepper, kimmel, garlic, and oil.
Add lemon to taste

Orange Peel
Rachel added the most wonderful orange peel to her cookies.  She put the orange peel in the over to dry.  When it was completely dry, she ground it into a powder.  She sent me off with a wonderful sample of the powder.

The Culinary Queens of Yerucham put Sallah Shabbati to bed!

Topol as Sallah Shabbati

Many of us of a certain age (50ish and older) were shown the Israeli movie Sallah Shbbati - in youth group, or in religious school, or - as in my case - on a rainy day at camp, cooped up in a M*A*S*H style tent we called the Beit Am. It was a black and white, and was made in 1964. It was for a long time the most successful film in Israeli history. It starred two actors who were then unknown outside of Israel, Gila Almagor and Topol - before he starred as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof or as Hans Zarkov in Flash Gordon.
Danny Yarhi, writing in iMDB describes the film:

A Yemenite Jewish family that was flown to Israel during "Operation Magic Carpet" - a clandestine operation that flew 49,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel the year after the state was formed - is forced to move to a government settlement camp. The patriarch of the family tries to make money and get better housing, in a country that can barely provide for its own and is in the midst absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Humor, sensitivity, politics and music highlight this capsule of history.

It was an hysterically funny comedy. Seeing it years later with a much deeper knowledge of Israeli history, that comedy turns out to be an incredibly biting dark satire and social commentary on Israeli society in the 50's. It brings out the best and worst of Israel - the wondrous rescue of nearly forgotten Jews and the far less than ideal treatment of non-Ashkenazi Jews by the European born or descended elites of Israel.

I recall one scene where Sallah is given a job planting trees by the Jewish National Fund. An official plants a sign next to the saplings with the name of a couple from the Diaspora. As a driver brings them up to the forest, the official tells them that thanks to their generosity, this was "their" forest. As soon as they left, the official took down the sign and replaced it with one with another name, just as another official drove up with another donor from abroad. Sallah accuses the official of dishonesty. When the next donors come to see "their" forest, Sallah starts plucking the new trees out of the ground!

As a member of the Leadership Institute, I had the pleasure for the second time to visit with one of the Culinary Queens of Yerucham. It was created by Atid Bamidbar (The Future is in the Desert) to "create opportunities for local women with no or low incomes, from diverse ethnic groups in town, to host visiting groups from Israel and abroad in their homes for an enriching multicultural culinary and human experience. The encounter gives visitors a great meal, warm hospitality, and insight into the lives of local residents and Jewish ethnic traditions; it provides the hostesses with added income, a boost to self-esteem and a widening of horizons."

It was all of that and more.

Mazal and her husband Jojo were wonderful and 20 of us had a wonderful meal. And the best part was Jojo's storytelling. He was animated, expressive and funny. He told of coming from Tunisia at the age of five with his parents. They wanted to go to Jerusalem. They were loaded on a truck at the port and driven through the night. They were told they were in Jerusalem and dumped in the desert. He has been in Yerucham ever since. He also told the story of their courtship. Rather than explain it, here are three videos!

Enjoy.

Part I 

Mazal and the other Queens have taken the dark satire of Sallah Shabbati and set it aside. They are part of several projects from Atid Bamidbar and other agencies like Nativ that are changing the face of Yerucham and other development towns in the Negev. Sallah seemed to have little hope. Not so any more.

And think about how the culinary queens are one of many projects that is helping this community that has spent so long in the economic trough climb out. And make it a point to visit them for lunch! It is worth it!

Part II 

  Part III

Crossposted to Welcome to the Next Level