Beit Aaronsohn – Nili Museum

Back in the summer of 2019, when I visited the town of Zichron Ya'akov with a friend, I briefly mentioned the Aaronsohn House in a blog post. Last year I went back to visit the museum, which was established at the house of the Aaronsohn family in 1956 and and was one of Israel's first museums. It was renovated in the summer of 1998 and tells the story of the Aaronsohn family, one of the leading families and founders of Zichron Ya'akov, one of the first Jewish Zionist settlements in Palestine. During the First World War the house was the headquarters of the NILI espionage group, a secret organization which supported the British against the Ottoman Turks. Today it is a museum, presenting the Aaronsohn family's unique history and the legacy of the NILI group.

The NILI espionage group was founded in 1915 by siblings Aaron and Sarah Aaronson. Aaron was a well-known botanist and agronomist and was the discoverer of the triticum dicocoides, the origin of domesticated wheat. He was also the first car-owner in Palestine and one of the first to own a bicycle, which he brought back from France.

The NILI group also included Aaron and Sarah's brother Alexander, their sister Rivka, her fiancé Avshalom Feinberg of Hadera, and their friends, the brothers Naaman and Eitan Belkind of Rishon Letzion and Yosef Lishansky of Metula. The name NILI , or Netzach Yisrael Lo Yishaker, is an acronym for "The Eternity of Israel will not Lie" (Book of Samuel I, chapter 15, verse 29). 

During the First World War pre-state Israel was part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Turks were an oppressive ruling power who had joined sides with the Germans, and threatened the existence of the Jewish settlements. From 1915 until 1917, the NILI group supported the British in Egypt in their fight against the Ottomans by providing them with news and intelligence on the Turkish army. The members of NILI went against the majority view of their fellow Jews from the Yishuv (Jewish settlement), who feared persecution, but the courage and heroism of the group ultimately helped the British to conquer the region, and end the rule of the Ottoman regime. On 2nd November 1917 the British issued a declaration in support of a national home for the Jewish people in what would become the state of Israel.

In September of 1917 the NILI group's activities were exposed after the discovery of a British gold coin in the Arab market in Ramle (the British would give gold coins to support the Jewish effort and in return would get detailed plans of Turkish movements). In addition, a postal carrier pigeon accidentally landed in the courtyard of the governor of Caesarea, and Naaman Belkind, one of the first NILI members, was arrested by the Turks. Following those three incidents, the Turks began a campaign of threats and terror against the Jewish community, in order to capture members of the NILI group. Many members were captured and brutally tortured. Sarah Aharonson was arrested and tortured and ultimately committed suicide in the family's house. Naaman Belkind and Yosef Lishansky were executed by hanging, in Damascus. On 15th May 1919, under unclear circumstances, Aaron Aaronsohn was killed in an airplane crash over the English Channel while on his way to France. After his death, the director of British Military Intelligence confirmed that General Sir Edmund Allenby's victory over the Turks would not have been possible without the information supplied by the NILI group. General Sir Edmund Allenby was the British imperial governor and one of Britain's most successful commanders during the First World War.

The Aaronsohn home, Beit Aaronsohn, once the location of the NILI group's headquarters, has been preserved as a museum and memorial to the NILI group. Located adjacent to Zichron Ya'akov's historic Hameyasdim Street, the museum tells the story of the Aharonson family and the underground espionage network they led. 

A visit to the museum includes an audiovisual presentation, an exhibition of photos, letters and original historical documents that led to the creation of NILI, and a tour of the family's home.

The residence of the Aaronsohn family dates from the late 19th century and has been preserved in its original state, with its upscale furniture and luxurious household goods. Visitors get to see the bathroom where Sarah ended her life, the slick where the NILI group hid their weapons, and the opening of the secret escape tunnel used by members of the group. The site also houses a library and an archive for study and research of the NILI group and the Aaronsohn family.

The Aaronsohn House is a must-see in Zichron Ya'akov. In addition to the work of the NILI group, which eventually helped to allow for the formation of a Jewish state, it also shows one family's resilience, strength and courage to stand up and do what was right.
West of Zichron Ya'akov is a moshav called Givat Nili. The town of Nili in the western Binyamin region is also named for Nili, and many streets throughout Israel bear the Nili name.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) and My Corner of the World.

ANU – Museum of the Jewish People

Anu – Museum of the Jewish People is located in Tel Aviv, at the centre of the Tel Aviv University campus in Ramat Aviv. The Hebrew word Anu, or אנו, means 'we, us'. The museum, the largest Jewish museum in the world, was formerly known as Beit Hatfutsot (Museum of the Jewish Diaspora) and was the brainchild of Dr. Nahum Goldmann, founder and first president of the World Jewish Congress. Plans for a complete overhaul of Beit Hatfutsot began in 2007 and the museum underwent a decade-long, $100 million expansion. It reopened to the public as Anu in March 2021. Mister Handmade in Israel and I visited in April of this year.

Anu tells the ongoing story of the Jewish people, celebrating and exploring the experiences, accomplishments and spirit of the Jewish community from biblical times to the present day. The museum offers three floors of new exhibition galleries, a children's gallery and a rotating schedule of temporary exhibitions. 

The museum has some amazing displays, some of which are interactive. Our visit began on the third floor, which is named "A Mosaic - Modern Jewish Identity and Culture" and is devoted to exploring Jewish contributions to contemporary culture. Artifacts include a 1982 model of E.T. in the hall dedicated to Jewish contributions to Hollywood, the guitar Leonard Cohen played at his final concert in Israel in 2009, and a lace collar worn by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Digital interactive touch screens invite visitors to prepare the ingredients for Yemenite Jachnun and the Ethiopian flatbread Injera, among others recipes. The only thing missing was the smell of food cooking!

On the floor below, titled "The Journey - The Jewish Story Through Time", we learnt the story of the Jewish people from antiquity to the present day. This story recounts periods of growth, prosperity and flourishing cultural dialogue, but also times of pogroms and persecution. I found the poem above, in the section about the Holocaust, particularly moving.

The first floor, titled "Foundations - a Common Core, a Universal Message" presents the foundations of Judaism, including Jewish practice, beliefs and traditions, and the Bible and its influence on world culture. In May 2023 the Codex Sassoon 1053 was purchased on behalf of the American Friends of Anu for $38.1 million, making it one of the most expensive manuscripts ever sold. It is the oldest most complete Bible, containing all 24 books of the Tanakh, and is now displayed permanently on the "Foundations" floor of the museum. It is not every day that we get to see a book that is over 1,100 years old!

The world-renowned collection of Anu's synagogue models is displayed in the Synagogue Hall. The exhibition showcases 21 scale models of synagogues past and present from around the world, while a set of films invites visitors into different communities' Shabbat worship.

Another exhibition promotes Jewish humour. Mister Handmade in Israel spent, ahem, quite some time watching episodes of Seinfeld in the replica of Jerry's living room!

We ended our visit to the museum at the temporary exhibition "October Seventh". The exhibition curates works by 25 artists whose creative activity reflects the atrocious times Israeli society is facing since 7th October. Some of them are living artists, some deceased - either murdered on 7th October or fallen during the ongoing war. Others are residents (or former residents) of the southern areas, who suffered the loss of their loved ones, their homes, or whose families were affected by the horrors of the massacre.

In the days following the Hamas attacks of 7th October, Anu reacted immediately, inviting evacuees from the north and south into its Tel Aviv location, offering workshops and a space to just hang out. Then, when Orit Shaham-Gover, the museum's chief curator, was contacted by a relative of then-hostage Raz Ben Ami about her artwork (Ben Ami was released at the end of November while her husband, Ohad, remains a captive), she took a drive to get Ben Ami's works. Along with art by Inbar Heiman, known in the international graffiti artist community as Pink, who was murdered in Hamas captivity, and several others, she created an installation in the museum's lobby.

Anyone who walked through the doors of the museum saw those artists' works but Shaham-Gover felt it wasn't enough, and the exhibit, "October Seventh", was born. It will remain in place at Anu until at least 7th October this year.

The exhibition includes pieces by artists who experienced the 7th October attacks from both near and far, before and after 7th October. There is a work by Haim Maor about Kibbutz Be'eri resident and curator Sophie Berzon Mackie, as she sent out frantic messages about the terrorists in the kibbutz, which he later gathered into a kind of collage that focuses on her stress.

Leeor Shtainer mourns her two nieces killed at the Nova music festival, while directly across is the diary of Keren Shpilsher, who drew daily what she was watching on the screens and has filled six diaries so far.
There are drawings by Jonathan Chazor, a young soldier killed in Gaza. Perhaps the most painful is a lifelike picture of a dog that he drew on a school blackboard while fighting in Gaza. On another wall is the red-stained works by Ziva Jelin, Be'eri resident and artist, whose works were torn up by shrapnel during the Hamas onslaught.

There is also the vivid, striking video work of photographer Roee Idan, below, killed in one of the horrifying terrorist attacks of that morning near his home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. His images were among some of the first that captured the attacks on that morning, as he photographed Hamas attackers flying through the air on motorized paragliders before being killed.

A playlist of songs to accompany the exhibit could be heard in the background, with works by Matti Caspi, Eviatar Banai, Idan Amedi, Shlomo Artzi and many others. Their tunes offer a different meaning and form of consolation after the attacks of 7th October.

Finally, a reel of photos played silently, showing soldiers fighting in the kibbutzim, the many funerals and burials, the rallies for the hostages and the faces of their family members.
"October Seventh" is a snapshot of how artists are responding to 7th October. It was a meaningful way to end our visit to Anu – Museum of the Jewish People.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Tuesday Turn About Link Party and My Corner of the World.

International Birding and Research Centre Eilat

This post was written a year last December, when we took a short break in Eilat, Israel's southernmost city. With everything going on here in Israel at the moment, we currently have no plans to travel anywhere, but hope that one day soon we will be able to go out and discover new and interesting places in our beautiful country.

Israel's Arava region, the desert valley that extends from the Dead Sea to Eilat, is an important bird migration route between Europe and Africa. Millions of birds pass through the region during the migration seasons. En route many of them stop over in Eilat. In the autumn, on their way to Africa, the birds pause to rest and regain their strength before crossing the foodless and hostile Saharan desert that lies before them; and in spring, on their journey to Europe, they stop to recuperate after their desert adventures. The International Birding and Research Centre Eilat (IBRCE), located at the northern entrance to the city, is the perfect place to observe all these birds.

The IBRCE lies on what was once a salt marsh, before it was turned into an industrial waste site. The area around Eilat was once home to extensive salt marshes where plants provided flowers and fruits to feed the migrating birds. But as the resort city expanded, the salt marshes were replaced by urban sprawl. During the 1970s and '80s developers built shopping malls, hotels, housing and restaurants that used the salt marshes of Eilat as a landfill for all their rubbish. Residents strolling through the city streets would find hundreds of dead birds at their feet. The poor creatures had searched in vain for their natural habitat, trying to find the indigenous plants and the salt marshes that had fed them so wonderfully in the past.

Something had to be done.
In 1993 the ground was leveled, the rubbish dumps were covered up, pools were created and trees that could provide the birds with food were planted. The park is now run by the KKL-JNF (Jewish National Fund), together with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, the Nature and Parks Authority, Eilat Municipality and Ben Gurion University, all of whom oversaw the transformation of the rubbish dump into an environmentally friendly venue and bird watching park.

Now the migratory birds can enjoy resting in a tranquil spot that extends over about one tenth of the original area of the salt marsh and which is well provided with food. Israel's national water company Mekorot has also become involved in the project and it supplies water for the lake in the park, which has become a wonderful habitat for a variety of aquatic species. 

The park includes a number of paths flanked by hides that enable visitors to observe the birds without disturbing them. Ponds offer different water conditions and quantities of light and shade. A salt marsh has been recreated to serve warblers, rare species of sparrows and shrikes, while a freshwater lake thickly lined with foliage attracts waterfowl, herons, kingfishers and waders. Salt pans are populated by flamingos and gulls, and reed beds by crakes and reed warblers. The Asian Green Bee-eater is a common visitor. All in all, more than 480 species of birds have been recorded in the Eilat area. Foxes, shrews, hyenas and snakes are all regular visitors too, but you have to go there really late at night or way before dawn to see them.

The IBRCE is also involved in nature conservation work and campaigns throughout the Southern Arava region, making sure the desert skies are clear from hazards and the stop-over sites are safe and welcoming for the birds. Centre staff visit local kibbutzim to explain the importance of birds and encourage them to become more bird-friendly. They also conduct research and monitor migrant birds. During the spring and autumn it is possible to watch bird ringing and see many incredible species up close and in the hand. About 25,000 birds are caught each year in Eilat for monitoring purposes. Using a special ring placed on the bird's leg, they track their migration patterns.

The IBRCE also has a small hospital designed to give immediate care to birds that arrive too exhausted and hungry and need to be injected with fluids and fed manually. Birds that arrive wounded are flown to the safari in Ramat-Gan for treatment.

The park staff organize a variety of activities for the general public and provide guided tours for groups and individuals. Guiding takes place in the mornings but a visit at any time of the year is recommended. I couldn't help but think how much Gadi, a bird-lover, would have enjoyed it.

Tomorrow night the festival of Pesach or Passover, the Jewish Festival of Freedom, begins. It is celebrated to mark the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. This year it will be less of a celebration and more a marking of the holiday. 133 Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza and are not free to sit around the Seder table with their loved ones. Celebrating the Festival of Freedom frankly feels impossible.

* This post has been shared on Sundays on Silverado, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Wild Bird Wednesday and My Corner of the World.