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16 | OHCC LIVING | NOVEMBER 2020 | Just in case: Check with your club contact to confirm meeting place, date, and time. Yiddish Club Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed the High Holidays as much as possible under COVID-19 restrictions. May 5781 is a better year for everyone. I recently had the pleasure of attending a virtual tour of Israel run exclusively for my synagogue by Jewish National Fund (JNF-USA). As I had been to Israel several times before, I was keen to see both new places and some beloved destinations, such as Jerusalem. The tour took place via Zoom for an hour and half each evening for five nights and the entire cost of the journey was only $50. Our "tour bus" was limited to 25 virtual travelers and the proceeds went to compensating our Israel-based tour guide for her time and expertise. The tour guides in Israel are professionally trained and are very knowledgeable… and now the vast majority are sadly unemployed and not eligible for unemployment benefits in Israel due to their status as independent entrepreneurs. The incredible guides that work with Jewish National Fund via Zoom are awake and ready to guide in the wee-hours of the morning, sometimes as early as 2 am their time, because of the 10-hour time difference. The caliber of our guide, Karmit Rumbak, can be seen in her background and experience. Karmit was born and raised in Hadera, Israel and started guiding in 1997 as a hiking guide for Green Horizons – an Israeli Zionist Youth Movement supported by JNF. She began guiding foreign tourists in 2011 and specializes in sharing Israel's "hidden gems" found off the beaten tourist path. Karmit lives with her husband and two kids in Matat, a tiny village up in the mountains near the border with Lebanon. She earned her master's degree in Genetic Ecology from Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva and gives lectures on sustainability at schools throughout Israel. This is a brief overview of where we went: Day 1: Hula Valley Nature Reserve - the country's primary migration route for birds. Day 2: Western Galilee, Akko, and Rosh HaNikra. Day 3: We started at the interesting historical site of Beit Shean and the ancient Roman city of Scythopolis. Then we traveled further south into the desert to Arava, the greenhouses, and AICAT: Arava International Center for Agriculture Training. Day 4: First stop was the SodaStream factory near Rahat, the largest Bedouin city in Israel. We visited with Bedouins and saw Project Wadi Attir, and finished off with visits to Sderot, Sha'ar HaNegev (San Diego's sister city in Israel) and Kibbutz Nahal Oz just north of the Gaza border. Day 5: We spent the day with our rabbi and his wife in Jerusalem, visiting many favorite places such as the Western Wall (Kotel), Mahne Yehuda Market, and Mount Olive. For me, this was a wonderful week and I enjoyed every minute of it. Since this tour, Jewish National Fund has done 10 virtual tours in San Diego alone with more to come. We have a unique opportunity to organize a tour for Ocean Hills residents. If you are interested in participating in a virtual tour of Israel, please let me know by contacting me at ksbackman18@cox.net or (760) 613-3180. On a local note, I attended a great Zoom meeting hosted by Hadassah San Diego a couple of weeks ago. It was a tour of the Temecula Olive Oil Company led by Thom Curry, who explained the whole olive growing business and showed us how olive oil is produced. We received samples of the olive oil and Balsamic vinegar before the Zoom meeting, and tasted the different oils during the presentation, as Thom explained the different varieties and flavors. I became an instant convert and have already signed up for a tour of the ranch at the end of the month. There are also olive oil tasting rooms in Solana Beach and Old Town, or oil can be ordered online. Wishing everyone the very best. Stay safe. ~ Katherine Backman Israel's second largest lake was made in Beer Sheva at the River Park by JNF