Diverse and indigenous cuisine brought by the many ethnic people to St. Maarten from all over the world piques our interest. To this end, we are on a quest to find where it comes from, if it is used for celebrations, if it is exotic to some but normal food to others. Anything to do with keeping the body and soul nourished with what is produced from good old terra firma is what makes the world go around.
When I was a young teen, I wanted to go and live on a kibbutz. It sounded like a fun thing to do, especially as some of the school leavers I knew were about to make their way to Israel to do just that. It was the “in” thing at that stage of many a school leaver’s life, taking a year’s sabbatical before returning to enter university. I never did go and always wondered how life would have turned out if I had gone.
“A kibbutz ‘gathering, clustering’; regular plural kibbutzim is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism. In recent decades, some kibbutzim have been privatized and changes have been made in the communal lifestyle. A member of a kibbutz is called a kibbutznik.”
This first kibbutz, located just south of the Sea of Galilee in Ottoman Palestine, was formed by a group of young pioneer Jews who felt the need to form a community founded on agriculture. In the country called Israel, much of the land was not at all conducive to growing crops. The land was either swampy or arid; the Galilee was swampy, the Judaean Mountains rocky, and the south of the country, the Negev, was a desert.
The harsh environment was more challenging to settlers who emigrated to the kibbutz as most of them had no farming experience. Sanitary conditions were poor and Malaria, typhus and cholera became rampant. Then there was another man-made problem – Bedouins would raid the farms in these settled areas. They would sabotage the irrigation canals, burn the crops and steal livestock and harvested food.
The most logical thing to counteract this was to live in a group settlement instead of on isolated farms. “On top of safety considerations, establishing a farm was a capital-intensive project; collectively. The founders of the kibbutzim had the resources to establish something lasting, while independently they did not.”
The young pioneers, helped by the Jewish National Fund, the greater Jewish community around the world, collected money and bought the swampland. Then with much blood, sweat and tears, 10 men and two women began to established themselves on the land at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee near the Arab village of Umm Juni/Juniya.
As time went by, more land was purchased (or reclaimed) in remote parts of the country due to a determining of politico-strategic needs. The reclaiming/purchasing of the land was influenced not only by considerations of economic viability but also and often chiefly by the needs of local defence.
These youngsters, who had worked as day labourers at the older Jewish settlements, converting wetlands for human development, now followed their dream to work for themselves. They drained the land and turned it into fertile fields, perfect for agriculture.
Some of the first group could not handle the hardships and left, but by 1914, there were 50 members of the first kibbutz. Although the hardships and the hard labour needed for this were mind blowing, the good outcome induced many other like groups to do the same; and soon a number of other kibbutzim were founded in the country of Israel, many around the Sea of Galilee and in the Jerel Valley. By 2010, there were 270 kibbutzim in Israel.
“The fall of the Ottoman Empire, at the end of World War I, followed by the arrival of the British, brought with it benefits for the Jewish community of Palestine and its kibbutzim.”
The Ottoman authorities had made immigration to Palestine difficult and restricted land purchases. Rising antisemitism after WWI forced many Jews to flee Eastern Europe. To escape the pogroms, tens of thousands of Russian Jews immigrated to Palestine in the early 1920s.
As time moved forward, many other Jewish people emigrated to the kibbutzim; many arrived from parts of Europe, Eastern Europe and Germany. Kibbutzim founded in the 1920s tended to be larger than kibbutzim founded prior to World War I.
Gradually, the harsh limitations set by the older Jewish in the older settlements were replaced by more informalities; meetings began to take place around campfires instead of in stiff dining halls. Instead of reading minutes of past meetings, sessions would begin with a group dance.
Kibbutzim grew and flourished in the 1930s and 1940s. When World War II began, the numbers had swelled from about 700 in some kibbutz to about 24,105 on 79 kibbutzim. In the 1950s, the figures went up to 65,000 and by 1989, the kibbutz population peaked at 129,000. There has been a small decline in the numbers of people living in the kibbutzim since then, but the number of kibbutzim has grown.
The original kibbutz in 1928, built the first dairy barn, promoted gender equality and had separate houses for the children to sleep in. Children were able to visit their parents for only a few hours each day. In the children's houses, trained nurses and teachers were the caregivers.
As each kibbutz was settled, the differences in the religion at each one became known – from the more secular and staunchly atheistic to more mainstream kibbutzim where they disdained the Orthodox Judaism of their parents.
However, these newer communities still wanted Jewish characteristics and so Friday nights were still Shabbat with a white tablecloth and fine food and work was not done on Saturday if it could be avoided. Some kibbutzim adopted Yom Kippur as the day to discuss fears for the future of the kibbutz.
Kibbutzim also had collective Bar and Bat Mitzvahs for their children. Some did not pray several times a day as others did. They would mark holidays like Shavuot, Sukkot, and Passover with dances, meals and celebrations. Holidays with some kind of agricultural component, like Passover and Sukkot, were the most significant for kibbutzim.
Kibbutzniks have enjoyed a steady and gradual improvement in their standard of living. In the 1960s, the kibbutzim standard of living improved faster than Israel's general population. Most kibbutz swimming pools date from the 1960s. “By the 1970s, kibbutzim seemed to be thriving in every way. Kibbutzniks performed working class, or even peasant class occupations, yet enjoyed a middle class lifestyle.”
Of course, the above way of life would change. One of the biggest changes and influences of kibbutz life was allowing TVs in the home. The kibbutz dwellers saw the lusher life one could lead away from a kibbutz and a general swing away from that life began.
Restructuring of kibbutzim was needed. Some kibbutz members established professional careers outside the kibbutz, accumulating power, privileges and prestige. The collapse of the Communist bloc resulted in the weakening of Socialist beliefs around the world, including in the kibbutz society.
To be continued…
Israeli food is famous for its delicious flavours and inventive cooking techniques. This cuisine is one of the healthiest cuisines in the world. The vegan food hub of the world appears to be considered as Israel; one finds there are more than 400 vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Tel Aviv.
RECIPES
Baba Ganoush
Ingredients
1/3 cup tahini
2 juiced lemons
2 roasted eggplants
1 clove raw crushed garlic
1 TBL extra virgin olive oil
¼ tsp ground cumin
¾ tsp salt
Pinch smoked paprika
2 TBL chopped flat leaf parsley to garnish
Method
Preheat oven 450 °F.
Cut eggplants in half, brush with olive oil and place cut side down on a baking tray.
Roast about 35 minutes until soft.
Remove and allow to cool.
Scoop out the eggplant with a spoon and place in a bowl; discard skin.
Add tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt, cumin and smoked paprika to the bowl.
Mash with a fork until well combined.
Stir in cumin and parsley, taste, season with more salt and lemon juice if needed.
Place in a bowl and swirl olive oil on the top.
Serve with carrot sticks and warm pita bread.
Flatbreads
These are a little like pizza, you can top them with whatever you like; one option is given below.
Ingredients
1½ cups flour
1 TBL baking powder
1 TBL za'atar
1½ cups full fat plain Greek yoghurt
1 tsp kosher salt
1 pack cherry tomatoes
1 burrata cheese
½ pack mixed salad leaves
Balsamic glaze
Olive oil
Method
Stir flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
Add yoghurt; stir until it forms a dough.
Knead dough on a floured surface until smooth.
Make 6 balls; flatten them with your hand.
Cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate 30 minutes.
Heat grill medium high.
Remove dough from fridge, roll out to make 6-inch rounds or elongated flatbreads.
Place on baking tray, brush with olive oil on both sides.
Grill 2-4 minutes on each side until crisp.
Remove from grill, sprinkle with za'atar, top with added chopped tomatoes, salad and burrata.
Drizzle with balsamic glaze.
*Sub: hummus for burrata.
