Shuk Habira שוק הבירה Beer Festival at Jaffa Port

 

Last Thursday, I joined the crew of beer tasters led by our intrepid tireless leader, Doug Greener, the beer maven on a trip to Jaffa Port for the best and most professional Israeli craft beer festival I've ever attended, Shuk Habira שוק הבירה WWW.BEER-MARKET.CO.IL.

I must admit that I had been a bit wary about what seemed like such a long trip from Shiloh via Jerusalem train and then a taxi from the Tel Aviv stop on the nice modern train. Thank Gd it was pleasant, the traveling and of course the company. Even the trip home to Shiloh worked out well, thanks to Gd for providing miraculous bus to train and to bus connections.

To be honest, we were treated as valuable VIPs by the management, but if the setup and/or beer had been awful, I wouldn't be praising it like I am.

There were various tasting options, reasonably priced for which you got a cup and coupons. 

If you're looking for a really good summer beer, try Ronen's B'DAY 13. It's fruity but not too sweet. I'd say it's like a cocktail, but a lot healthier. Give it a try.

I tasted more than a half a dozen different beers plus mead. This was my second, if I remember correctly, time tasting mead. The first was at a beer festival in Jerusalem's First Station, and I told them that I had remembered enjoying the mead greatly. I decided to let them choose which mead. It was very tasty, but more for winter than summer. 

This was for sure a very "only in Israel" scene. Yes, this baby was strapped to his father, the brewer. Yes, a devoted, enthusiastic father is also a beer brewer, Goren's Brewery, which I definitely recommend, great beer and a nice family. 

I was very happy to be able to taste some White Rabbit beers. We had visited their brewery last year. Since they're very careful about quality control, keeping the beers chilled, you can't find them all over, only at pubs and shops that are willing to follow their storage and serving recommendations.

Schnitt's COCONUT beer was much better than I had expected. I had once had a coconut flavored beer that seemed too fatty, but Schnitt's was very good. If you have a chance to get some, give it a try.

Ever since we had tasted a guava flavored beer at BeerBazaar's craft beer festival at Kfar Daniel, I've been craving more. It's the best fruit to flavor beer. It takes a strong fruit like the guava to do beer justice. Yes, I know that many people don't like guava, but I think that's why it's good with a strong beer. This beer with the line and guava was great, too.

These beer-flavored candies were also a treat. There were a few different flavors. Yes, LolliHop's the name, a very punny play on the words and key ingredient of beer.

Even at an enjoyable beer festival like this one, we can't avoid the fact that Israel's at war. No, we didn't hear sirens and run for shelter. One of the breweries is named for Tomer, who was one of the first soldiers killed on October 7, 2023. This is how he has been memorialized. 

Drink a "l'chaim" to Tomer and all those others murdered by the Gazan Hamas terrorists.

I wish to thank Doug Greener for inviting me to his beer tasting crew and teaching me so much. If you're on Facebook, friend him to learn more about Israeli craft beers. His beer reviews also appear in the Jerusalem Post.

What's your favorite beer?

Jerusalem Old City, Burnt House & Davidson Center

Less than two weeks ago, my Tanach/Bible learning group, aka chevruta, went to a couple of Jerusalem's Old City-- Rova Yehudi-- Jewish Quarter museums. The Burnt House and Davidson Archeological Center, which are extremely different.

First we went to the Burnt House, which is the same sort of "museum" as Plugat Hakotel, which I've visited a few times. Plugat Hakotel is in the building we had lived in when we first made aliyah-- moved to Israel, so it's very special to me. Both museums are located in accurately historic locations and offer a fictionalized versions of what had happened there.

In the Burnt house the movie is in Hebrew, English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and French

Davka, both museums write it up as a young man's story to help people identify with the history. The big difference is the eras when the stories happen, the Burnt House a couple thousand years ago and Plugat Hakotel close to a hundred years ago. Heroism is idealized, of course, which is good. 

The Burnt House is comfortable and recommended for those who can't walk easily, since you sit to watch the movie.

After the Burnt House we walked to the Archeological Garden Davidson Center, which can best be described as a "mixed bag." First with the good things. We took the tour led by a very charming young lady. Yes, there's a lot of walking and steps, so if you or some of your group isn't up to it, find out about an easier version. There are indoor parts of the tour which would be much easier, but we all managed quiet well. You can also do the tour on your own, following the instructions they'll give you when you pay and enter.

We walked around a section of the Kotel, Western Wall of the Temple Compound and around to the Southern Wall. It's all so majestic. Our guide explained why the building stones are so different in the same wall, the time periods and the builders.

We were mesmerized by the views and the stories. Luckily we were all up to the walking and steps. 

Following our guide, we ended up inside the archeological museum where there were movies, mostly short and one longer. One movie explained the significance of the seven branched menorah, but they made a mistake. They started off correctly saying that the seven branches were for the seven days of the week, but they got the days wrong. they stated that the middle, tallest branch was Wednesday, the fourth day of the wee, but that's wrong. The middle branch is for Shabbat, the most important day of the week.

Judaism has Shabbat at the center of the week. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday one prepares for Shabbat, and then Sunday, Monday and Tuesday one "cleans up" from Shabbat and can make the Havdala prayer, which ends one's observance of Shabbat. I checked this out with a rabbi friend, who said that I'm correct. I'm surprised that the mistake hadn't been caught and corrected soon after the museum reopened a few years ago.

We followed our guide further and I can't imagine going through this museum without a guide...

Then we got to the movie they had about Jerusalem which I remembered from my visit soon after the Davidson Center had reopened. I was very upset with the movie then and even more so this visit. 

The best way of describing it is that it's a "woke" version of the history of Jerusalem, intentionally masking and confusing the timeline, history of the city to give the impression that Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been around in the same timeframe. 

The truth is very different. Judaism began about two thousand 2,000 years before Christianity. The Jewish Bible begins its story almost six thousand 6,000 years ago. Christianity is barely two thousand years old, and Islam began about five hundred years later.

The Jewish People were ruled by Jewish Kings in Jerusalem and had two Holy Temples there before either of those religions even began. 

I was terribly disturbed by the sections about Islam. They were like knives in the back. It's clear that whoever wrote the screenplay for that section has an agenda, and it's not a good one. As you can see here, an Arab man and boy are playing chess. The man is showing the boy how to win. There's no actual history; it's sneaky at best. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. There was no need at all to add it. It doesn't relate to the rest of the movie in any way. Jerusalem isn't even mentioned in the Koran. It's political, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish.

I hate to end this blog post in such a negative way, because I really did enjoy most of my time in the Davidson Center.