By Erez Ben-Ari, JTNews Correspondent
Kiryat Malachi, located in the south of Israel, might not be considered an attractive place to many Israelis, but seven women visiting from the region showed off a different side of this little town. Hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, the “Taste of Israel” series of events held during the first week of November gave more than 500 Seattle-area Jews a glimpse into the some of the unique cultures of Israel.
During the week, the seven women, Sima Kadori, Yehudit Shitri, Rina Golan, Aliza Surat, Clara Davidov, Chilot Gethon and Mazal Caravani, all originally hailing from different parts of the world, participated in a series of public events in which each of them cooked and shared with the audience some of their authentic ethnic foods, as well as insights into their lives and histories. Some of the women suffered incredible hardships until they finally settled in Israel, and they shared those tales with their audiences.
The person who brought these women together, Smadar Kaplinski, specializes in feminine empowerment. She gathers women from across Israel, and helps them find their inner strengths, then works with them to nurture and grow their gifts and talents. In the case of the Kiryat Malachi group, these talents are cooking, and the ultimate goal of the project is to establish a commercial entity to harness these talents and better the lives of these women.
Kiryat Malachi is a small development town, about 30 miles south of Tel Aviv. Originally named Malachi, or angels in Hebrew, to honor the Jewish community of Los Angeles, which had contributed significantly to its founding, the town was settled by immigrant Jews from Arab nations. Later on, thousands of immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union settled there, making it a diverse and unique community.
Sima Kadori, 55, was born in Casablanca, Morocco to a well-to-do family. She left her home country while still a baby.
“My father, who is no longer with us, met my mother when she was merely 12 years [old], and it took two more years for their parents to agree for them to get married,” she told one audience. “My parents were well-off financially, as my father was a tailor and served the upper classes and royalty of Morocco.”
Upon arriving in Israel, through France, her family was placed in Kiryat Malachi “in a neighborhood with many ethnic groups that coexisted warmly, and we were all very proud of our new country of Israel,” Kadori said. “I grew to become a kindergarten teacher, and did that for 35 wonderful years which also involved teaching preschool teachers how to work with special-needs children.”
Kadori retired a year ago and joined the Ethnic Flavors group to be able to share her native Moroccan cooking with people both in Israel and abroad, she said.
The women told stories, danced and sang in their native dress, and, of course, with the help of many local volunteers, cooked and shared the delicacies of their native countries.
The Jewish Federations of Tucson, Phoenix and Seattle, all of which have a long-standing relationship with Kiryat Malachi and the Hof Ashkelon region, have formed a partnership, named TIPS, that works toward several goals in improving the livelihoods of the people who live there. This visit is one result of their work.
“One such goal,” Federation volunteer Dina Tanners told JTNews, “is the strengthening of Kiryat Malachi, an often-neglected area of Israel, and the second is supporting and strengthening the relationship between the people of American communities with the people of Kiryat Malachi.” Tanners said that this cooperation has also helped to facilitate exchange of social workers, teachers, students, camp counselors, as well as many volunteer projects.
Many of the
recipes the women cooked have been collected in a special booklet published by the TIPS partnership. One of those recipes can be found below.
Kubeh – Oval meat-filled grain patties.
2 onions
2 lb. ground meat
2 lb. semolina
1 lb. bulgur wheat
2 tsp. chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. black pepper
A little salt
1 tsp. chicken soup powder
A little Baharat spice (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baharat)
1 tsp. sweet paprika
Water (as much as you will need)
The filling:
Fry the meat with a little oil. In a large pan, fry onions with a little oil. Add meat, spices and parsley. Cook for 5 minutes, and then cool.
The dough:
Soak the bulgur for 15 minutes in water. Wash and rinse well. Add semolina, adding a little water and oil as you go. Mix for a soft, elastic dough. Make 1-1/2” balls out of the dough, and flatten to about 3”. Fill with meat and close to a nice ball, and then drop the balls into the boiling soup. Stir well to make sure the balls do not stick together and cook for 1 hour.