Absolute Arava

An AACI trip holds history, geography, science and technology lessons.

By SHARON SLEEPER
An experimental field at Kibbutz Yotvata. (photo credit: SARIT RICHERSON)
An experimental field at Kibbutz Yotvata.
(photo credit: SARIT RICHERSON)
Tagged as a ‘Winner for Your Wallet’ and highlighted in The Jerusalem Post as ‘Absolute Arava,’ last months AACI Central’s midweek tour to the South lived up to great expectations.
To keep costs down, most of the 18 participants used their senior discounts as we traveled together on Egged from Tel Aviv to our first destination, Kibbutz Yotvata – reached four hours and two convenience stops later.
After lunch in the kibbutz’s selfservice kosher restaurant, we were met by one of the few female bus drivers in the Arava, an employee of an Eilat transport company. The guide from Yotvata’s Sovev Yotvata also joined us for the hour-and-a-half tour of this well-known kibbutz.
Yotvata was established in 1951 as a Nahal settlement by a small group of 20-year-old men and women just out of the army. In 1957, it became the first kibbutz in the southern Arava region, named after an Israelite encampment mentioned in the Bible (Numbers 33:34 and Deuteronomy 10:7).
We were shown the very spot where drip irrigation was first implemented in this country, and observed ongoing scientific research projects, such as just how much salty water a pomegranate tree can absorb before the taste of its fruit is affected. There is water in the desert close to Eilat – deep in the ground and very salty. We say fields of flowers and vegetables undergoing experimentation, as well as not-for-sale flowers whose seeds are harvested for export. Cows are big business at Yotvata. If a newborn calf is female, Yotvata keeps it; male calves are raised for sale. At the milking facilities we saw 50 cows on a rotating wheel. Automated milking is carried out after the cow’s udders are cleaned, and the milk extarcted is weighed and digitally recorded. In another building, we saw the magic of automation in the packaging of Yotvata’s biggest seller: Choco chocolate milk.
Those delicious Medjoul dates also hail from this kibbutz, which can provide all the necessary elements for growing and harvesting – sun, soil and a dry climate. After sampling the dates and Choco, we continued to our overnight stop, Kibbutz Ketura – named after Abraham’s second wife).
Located 50 km. north of Eilat in the Arava Rift Valley, Ketura was founded in 1973, after the Yom Kippur War by a small group of graduates from Young Judaea’s Year in Israel course. Some of the founding members still live in what is now the secondlargest settlement in the region – along with immigrants from other English-speaking countries, as well as Europe, the former Soviet Union and from the Israel Scouts Program.
The Speaker of the Knesset Prize for religious tolerance was awarded to Ketura for its awareness and implementation of religious pluralism. Members are free to do as they please in their own homes, although kashrut is observed in the dining room and at cultural events.
Yotvata’s membership boasts the highest number of academic degrees of any kibbutz in Israel.
After we checked into our rooms, we met our host, Leah Kayman. She works in Keren Kolot, the kibbutz’s bed-and-breakfast business.
KAYMAN TOOK advantage of the late afternoon light to lead a walking tour of Ketura. It is an entrepreneurial society – a way to survive in the desert. Some early ideas didn’t work, so they moved on to others.
The Arava Institute of Scientific Research is located on Ketura, as is the Arava Power Company. Founded in 2006, the power company inaugurated Israel’s first medium-sized solar field, Ketura Sun, in 2011. Covering eight hectares (20 acres), its mission is to supply 10 percent of the country’s energy needs through clean, renewable solar energy by 2020.
The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is the premier environmental studies and research program in the Middle East.
Accredited through Ben-Gurion University, the Arava Institute houses academic programs, research centers and international cooperation initiatives focusing on a range of environmental concerns and challenges. With a student body composed of Palestinians, Jordanians, Israelis and students from around the world, the institute offers an exceptional opportunity to learn from leading professionals while forming friendships and developing skills that will enable graduates to lead the region and the world in solving some of today’s most pressing environmental challenges.
Also on Ketura is Methuselah. Kayman told us that during the excavation of Masada in the mid- 1960s, the archeologists discovered a cache of date palm seeds preserved in an ancient jar. The seeds were held in storage at Bar-Ilan University for 40 years. In 2005, after pre-treatment in a fertilizer-and hormone-rich solution, three seeds were planted at Kibbutz Ketura. Three weeks later, one had sprouted. On January 15, 2014, we viewed a healthy 1.37-metertall palm tree with multiple fronds behind a security fence. The palm was named after the longestliving person in the Bible. It is the oldest known tree seed successfully germinated, and is the only living representative of the Judean date palm, a tree that had been extinct for more than 1,800 years.
Kayman told us about another business endeavor of Ketura.
Algae Technologies was founded on Ketura in 1998 and commercially produces microalgae The Algae Farm at the Arava Institute of Scientific Research on Kibbutz Ketura Having fun at the Botanical Gardens, located at the entrance to Eilat.
AACI members and guests take a break from their walking tour of Kibbutz Ketura.
20 METRO | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014 to supply one of the world’s most powerful antioxidants (astaxathin) available for human consumption.
In order to enlarge this section, their dairy herd will have to be relocated due to concerns that the animals might contaminate the algae reactors. As they are producing a very sensitive material that is used for nutraceuticals, cosmetics, food additives and medical research, no contamination can be tolerated. Even contamination of one part per billion can destroy their ability to market an entire crop of algae derivative. There is a huge demand today on the world market, and the largest consumers are Israel, the US and Japan.
AFTER OUR industrial tour we witnessed a magnificent desert sunset. Following a dairy supper we were invited for coffee, tea, cake and a talk by a kibbutz member. He spoke about the running of a kibbutz and the various groups that govern daily life on Ketura – from ideology, health care, security and response to theft to successful marketing of entrepreneurial ideas.
After a good night’s sleep and a copious kibbutz breakfast, Kayman found us peering through the giftshop window, so she had the store opened for us. It was full of items handcrafted by the artisans of the kibbutz – jewelry, photographs on canvas, pottery, and T-shirts and bags with the logo of the Arava Power Company.
Next came the Botanical Gardens at the entrance to Eilat. The guide who met us, gave over the history of a dream: The gardens started out as a nursery. The idea grew, investors were found, it spread to encompass an old defense post, and now something exquisite beckons travelers to experience the only rain forest established in a desert.
Winding staircases with handrails fashioned from branches of local trees, a gushing waterfall, lush vegetation and a whimsical “car” allowed us to climb up and be childlike again for photo ops. The nursery had a lovely variety of succulents, as well as other colorful plants and ferns for sale.
At Timna, we were met by local guide and Yotvata member Amnon Greenberg. We had previously learned that he had been instrumental in the forging of the peaceful border between Jordan and the young Kibbutz Ketura.
After a short film in the new, wellappointed Timna tourist theater, Greenberg led us through the history of the area and demonstrated how copper is smelted and the history of the synagogue at the base of Solomon’s Pillars.
We were able to witness the changes that have begun to enhance the desert: bicycle paths for families, routes for serious bikers, walking paths, hiking paths with stairs that passed through Solomon’s Pillars, a lake (no swimming allowed) for paddle boats, a charming restaurant and a high-quality gift shop.
There is never enough time to explore in depth when on a group trip, but we got a wide sampling, enough to lure us back next time the AACI sets a date.
After lunch at Yotvata’s restaurant – the ice cream was nothing short of divine – we waited, tired but happy, for the bus back to Tel Aviv.
COVER An experimental field at Kibbutz Yotvata.
Clouds are to supply one of the world’s most powerful antioxidants (astaxathin) available for human consumption.
In order to enlarge this section, their dairy herd will have to be relocated due to concerns that the animals might contaminate the algae reactors. As they are producing a very sensitive material that is used for nutraceuticals, cosmetics, food additives and medical research, no contamination can be tolerated. Even contamination of one part per billion can destroy their ability to market an entire crop of algae derivative. There is a huge demand today on the world market, and the largest consumers are Israel, the US and Japan.
AFTER OUR industrial tour we witnessed a magnificent desert sunset. Following a dairy supper we were invited for coffee, tea, cake and a talk by a kibbutz member. He spoke about the running of a kibbutz and the various groups that govern daily life on Ketura – from ideology, health care, security and response to theft to successful marketing of entrepreneurial ideas.
After a good night’s sleep and a copious kibbutz breakfast, Kayman found us peering through the giftshop window, so she had the store opened for us. It was full of items handcrafted by the artisans of the kibbutz – jewelry, photographs on canvas, pottery, and T-shirts and bags with the logo of the Arava Power Company.
Next came the Botanical Gardens at the entrance to Eilat. The guide who met us, gave over the history of a dream: The gardens started out as a nursery. The idea grew, investors were found, it spread to encompass an old defense post, and now something exquisite beckons travelers to experience the only rain forest established in a desert.
Winding staircases with handrails fashioned from branches of local trees, a gushing waterfall, lush vegetation and a whimsical “car” allowed us to climb up and be childlike again for photo ops. The nursery had a lovely variety of succulents, as well as other colorful plants and ferns for sale.
At Timna, we were met by local guide and Yotvata member Amnon Greenberg. We had previously learned that he had been instrumental in the forging of the peaceful border between Jordan and the young Kibbutz Ketura.
After a short film in the new, wellappointed Timna tourist theater, Greenberg led us through the history of the area and demonstrated how copper is smelted and the history of the synagogue at the base of Solomon’s Pillars.
We were able to witness the changes that have begun to enhance the desert: bicycle paths for families, routes for serious bikers, walking paths, hiking paths with stairs that passed through Solomon’s Pillars, a lake (no swimming allowed) for paddle boats, a charming restaurant and a high-quality gift shop.
There is never enough time to explore in depth when on a group trip, but we got a wide sampling, enough to lure us back next time the AACI sets a date.
After lunch at Yotvata’s restaurant – the ice cream was nothing short of divine – we waited, tired but happy, for the bus back to Tel Aviv.