Israel Part 8: Mazkeret Batya

For a few years when N was little, the Lewis family, who are Israeli, lived in Englewood. Their son was a year younger than Naomi and the two of them were adorable together.

The last time we saw them was on our trip to Israel in 2015. We spent Shabbat together in Jerusalem with family of theirs and they housed us in their tiny and temporary apartment the night before our early flight back.

I wasn’t 100% sure I should tell them I was coming on this trip. With only a week there were so few people I had time to see. 

I reached out, nevertheless, and boy am I glad I did! Firstly, it was a miracle in disguise. I knew I’d be heading to Rehovot for most of Monday. I also knew I had nowhere to stay there. Would you believe that the Lewis’ lived just ten minutes away?

So after Tel Aviv at Kikar Hachatufim, I made my way to Mazkeret Batya. It was a delight to see how much the familiar children had grown and also a blast to meet the five year old whom I’d never met as well as the nine year old who was only a baby last time I was here. If you didn't already click above, please do here to see what they looked like then and what they look like now!

Tal invited me on a walk that was intended for exercise and company but became a history tour. (I think my full geek-put was contagious because Tal started getting into it too.)

Tha plaque says Rothschild

It’s an old agricultural town from the late 1800’s. The land was purchased by Baron Rothschild and town was renamed after his mother. 

We saw old farm machinery in the center of roundabouts. We saw an incredible old well. We even saw the bell that was once the town alarm system.

And along the way we picked different kinds of oranges wherever we felt like it.

I had the pleasure of watching the youngest squeezing those oranges. I got to sit with the nine year old while he practiced his English reading, and he, quite pleased —but also patient — enjoyed watching me stumble through the Hebrew text in the bat mitzvah album Tal showed me.