Onward Israel Blog 2023: Week 1

Shalom from the enigma that is Tel Aviv, Israel! My name is Yonaton Silberberg, the summer 2023 Onward Israel Cincinnati journalist. Over the course of the next six weeks, I will try to provide as authentic a glimpse into Israeli culture as I can through my own personal experiences. To do this best, allow me a brief introduction. I was born in San Francisco, California to my Israeli father, Tsvika, and my American mother, Diane. In the summer of 2000, at the ripe age of six months old, we moved to the Greater Cincinnati area where I would grow up to know the lush green countryside of Ohio. Fastforward 23 years later, I am a 23 year old fresh graduate from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering (and a minor in embedded systems). Given my academic background, I will be doing my summer internship with Stratasys, a world leader in industrial 3D printing technologies. Specifically I will be working with the embedded team, or in layman’s terms, I will be working on the electrical hardware (control boards)  with very low level software.

On the 7th of June, all of the Cincinnati participants moved into our housing located in the Young Towers! There are ~20 participants in the Cincinnati group this year, divided among three shared apartments, rounding us out to about seven people per apartment; how cozy! Each apartment is equipped with three rooms, a couple bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room, and some have a balcony. Although I don’t imagine many of us will be spending much time in the apartment, we are certainly equipped with all of the amenities we could ask for to have a more than comfortable stay here in Tel Aviv.

After we all got settled into the apartment for a few days and became familiar with the area, we had our first activity together as a group; a trip up north to Haifa. The first thing we did on this trip was take a brief hike through Nesher Park which sits just below the University of Haifa. The park boasted large cliff sides coated in a brilliant array of lush greenery, highlighted with the use of large bridges and trails. The views were simply breathtaking and in some way, reminded me of home.

Nesher Park

After exploring some of what Nesher Park had to offer, we boarded the bus and headed to a Druze village not far from the park. The Druze are a minority group of Arab Israelis that are neither Muslim or Jewish, but actually members of a secret closed religion. Druze living in Israel ally themselves with the Jewish faith and country of Israel, so much so in fact, that they consistently deliver the highest percent attendance in the Israeli special forces than any other ethnic group living in Israel. Although their religion is a closely guarded secret, a few of their core beliefs are that they must be loyal to their motherland as it is the motherland that allows them to practice their religion, that women are sacred and are to be held in higher standing than men, that those born Druze are not to be raised religious until they are able to make a choice to be at the age of 18, and that nobody truly dies. This last point is to say that the amount of souls in the universe is finite and once someone dies, their soul is reincarnated into another person of the same gender at a different point in time. The Druze with open arms welcomed us into their home, serving us a feast of Druze cuisine, including hummus, pita, tabouleh, rice, chicken, couscous, olives, and much more. They also served a cold tea that was very reminiscent of American sweet iced tea, but with a more natural, fruit-like, sweetness to it. Finally, we capped off our meal with a short and very enthusiastic drumming lesson from one of the Druze!

Pictured from left to right: Kit, Abby, Alex, Ryann, Itay, Morgan, and Stacy. Onward Cincinnati Enjoying Druze Feast

With our bellies full (and then some), we departed the Druze village for our last stop of the journey, Tishbi winery for a red wine tasting. We were greeted by a few winemakers who gave us four different red wines to taste. Each wine was of course made from scratch here in Israel with grapes from the very same vineyard. Tishbi winery is a relatively small winery all things considered, producing only ~1,000,000 bottles of wine per year. This may sound like a lot, but I was assured that compared to other vineyards, this is a relatively low amount of wine, making it that much more of a treat to get to taste a few bottles. After a full day of activities, we headed back to Tel Aviv to get some down time and rest before the first week of our internships that was ahead of us.

Tishbi Winery

Food Corner:

I believe one of if not the best ways to experience a culture is through food. Whenever I travel anywhere, food is the focal point of the journey for me. It’s with good food that friendships are made, bonds are strengthened, the best of conversations are had, and the most authentic laughs are shared. To better equip you to have some of these experiences yourself should you find yourself in Tel Aviv one day, I will aim to cover at least one new restaurant each week.

The Little Burger Shop

Nothing says Israeli cuisine like a… burger? Burgers are actually one of the most consumed foods here in Tel Aviv, which is not all that surprising when you realize Tel Aviv is dishing out some seriously good ones. My first burger experience was at “The Little Burger Shop”. The burger shop was in fact little, only offering a modest amount of outdoor seating to accommodate its diners. The atmosphere is highly dependent on the atmosphere of the street, so going on a weekend will give you a more energetic experience than going on an odd hour on a weekday.

The Little Burger Shop

I ordered the classic burger with an egg and caramelized onion, as well as a side of their special cabbage slaw. Unfortunately, this was not the best burger experience I’ve had as the beef patty was cooked well-done as opposed to medium and the egg was cooked all the way through, negating the point of the egg in the first place; to incorporate additional moisture into the burger. This mistake made the otherwise great array of accouterments and a very good bun, a waste. Now, even with a bundle of wasted potential sandwiched between two pieces of bread, not all hope was lost. The cabbage salad was wonderfully flavorful, delivering a nice sharp crunchy texture with a delicate creamy flavor, making for a wonderfully refreshing pairing to an otherwise heavier meal.

The Little Burger Shop – Burger & Cabbage Slaw