Valley of Elah

Forty-five minutes southwest of Jerusalem, visitors to Israel can experience one of the country's most tightly held secrets: the Valley of Elah. The Oscar-nominated movie, In the Valley of Elah, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron, may have done more for its name recognition than David's epic battle against Goliath which raged here, but this region, flanked by the gently rolling hills of Judea, still remains one of the Holy Land's less frequented gems. 

Minutes after exiting Highway 1 linking Israel's two major cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the verdant approach to the Valley of Elah gives way to secluded monasteries and vineyards where Israelis and more and more travelers come to sample the rising stars in Israeli wines. 

The region surrounding the Valley of Elah is one of the hotspots of Israeli viniculture. Wine exports from the country have doubled since 2001 with France the number two importer of Israeli wine after the United States.

Rosh-Pina

One of the oldest moshavot in Israel, Rosh Pina has aged gracefully over the past 120 years. The small town of today is very different from the moshava founded in 1878 when a group of ultra orthodox Jews settled here and became farmers with the support of the Baron Edmund de Rothschild. Today it is a place of trendy cafés restaurants and guesthouses in a town whose main source of income is upscale tourism.

Rosh Pina is located on the north eastern slopes of Mt. Canaan overlooking the Hula Valley and the Golan. The old houses in the heart of the moshava have been beautifully preserved as have their cobblestone streets. In the center is the House of Officials which was built in 1885 as an administrative center for Rosh Pina during the time it was supported by Baron Rothschild. Now one can watch an audiovisual presentation about the history of Rosh Pina in the House and from there proceed to the nearby Baron’s Gardens, also built for the Baron’s staff, which were said to be modeled on the gardens at Versailles. Also in the center of old Rosh Pina is the synagogue, the second modern Hebrew school built in Israel, and the house of Dr. Mer, who researched Malaria in the Hula Valley during the 1930s. At the back of Rosh Pina there is the old cemetery with the graves of the moshava’s founders.

The old part of Rosh Pina is full of cafes, restaurants, guesthouses and art galleries. There are also many guesthouses in the newer parts of Rosh Pina as well as boutique hotels and a busy shopping center.

Rosh Pina is a convenient base for touring many attractions in the area such as Nahal Rosh Pina the Korazim National Park, Safed (Tsfat) and Tel Hatsor. It is also a good base for guided hiking tours, horseback riding, bike tours and jeep excursions.

Bnei Brak

Bnei Brak is the only large city in Israel whose inhabitants are mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews. The city is located in the Dan metropolitan region east of Tel Aviv. Its small physical size and large number of inhabitants (some 150,000) make it Israel’s most densely-populated city. Moreover, its birth rate is one of the highest in the country.

Bnei Brak started out in 1924 as an agricultural settlement established by a group of Polish Hassidim (members of a Jewish mystic movement founded in the 18th century in Eastern Europe). However, due to a lack of land, many of its founders were forced to turn to other occupations, such as commerce and handicrafts, and soon Bnei Brak assumed an urban character.

It was officially declared a city with the establishment of the State of Israel, and in the early 1950s, many Admors (Hassidic “Grand Rabbis”) began moving their courts from Tel Aviv to Bnei Brak. Within several years, Bnei Brak had turned into the largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish center in the world, and assumed a marked ultra-Orthodox Jewish character. The city’s religious character gives it a special charm. It has no modish fashion shops, yuppie coffee houses, or posh restaurants, but it has an extraordinary simplicity, modesty and uniqueness which culminate in the hustle and bustle as the Jewish Sabbath day approaches, when crowds of Hassidic Jews throng to the synagogues to pray.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews are divided into different Hassidic courts and into different communities, and the city is divided along the same principle. There are neighborhoods specific to particular courts (for example, the Vizhnitser neighborhood) and to particular communities (such as the Ponevezh district, whose residents belong to the Lithuanian stream of non-Hassidic ultra-orthodox Jews). Interspersed among them are a large number of Yeshivas (institutes of learning sacred Jewish texts), Admor courts, Kollels (institutes for advanced students of religious texts), and other religious institutions.

Katzerin

A pleasant north wind greets visitors to Katsrin - the capital of the Golan Heights. Founded in 1977, it has become an urban, commercial and tourism center. Katsrin is built in the heart of the Golan Heights and is a young city known for its landscapes and its quality of life. Its special location affords easy access to many nature reserves, historic and archeological sites, river beds and attractive visitor centers.

The city is named after the ancient town of Katsrin, whose ruins are located in the nearby Katsrin antiquities park. The ancient town was inhabited on and off from the Middle Bronze Age (about 4,000 years ago) and archeological digs found evidence of a Jewish village from the Talmudic period, which existed until the Moslem conquest just over 1,300 years ago. The remains of the ancient village are fascinating with reconstructed homes, complete with their interiors and the farming implements used by the inhabitants. The central site is a magnificent synagogue from the 6th century, evidence of a prosperous community. The park is full of beautiful rest spots, surrounded by fig trees and grape vines, and there is also a museum of modern basalt sculptures.

The Katsrin industrial zone houses a mineral water bottling plant and a large winery, among the most famous in Israel, and both have visitors’ centers that offer a glimpse of the water-bottling and wine-making processes. The Golan Antiquities Museum is located in the commercial center in Katsrin, with exhibits of archeological findings from the region as well as an impressive audiovisual presentation of the heroic defense of the town of Gamla against Roman forces in the 1st century. Also at the center is a doll museum depicting the history of the Jewish people up until the renewal of Jewish settlement of Israel and the Golan Heights in the late 19th century. Between the two museums are stores, pubs and restaurants, a few guest rooms and a field school that offers sleeping accommodations in hostel rooms as well as outdoor camping and guided tours. 

The nature and historical sites near Katsrin include Nahal Zavitan, the Meshushim Pool with its unusual hexagonal rocks, Gamla, Nakhal Yehuda and Seleukia Springs.