Inspired Zion

"People like the idea of giving their dog something healthy," Arnstein says about her business.

By ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
Beth Arnstein (photo credit: Courtesy)
Beth Arnstein
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Nobody took Beth Lapides seriously in July 1967 when she announced her intention to live in Israel and become an Israeli.
That’s not surprising, because she was only 10 years old at the time, and had no firsthand experience of Israel.
Nevertheless, Israel’s against-all-odds victory in the Six Day War had sparked a determination that would stand the test of time.
“There was something about the war that made me decide this is where I belong,” she says today from her longtime residence in Beersheba.
She first visited the Jewish state at age 16 as part of a summer program through her family’s temple in Springfield, New Jersey, and came back after high school to spend nearly a year volunteering at Kibbutz Revivim in the Negev.
The desert suited her. When she went back to the United States to study fiber arts, she chose a college in arid Arizona. And she married a local resident, David Arnstein, in 1978.
Therefore, it made perfect sense for them to consider Beersheba as their future home in Israel – once David agreed to the move. “It took me eight years to convince him that it was his idea to make aliya,” she jokes.
Since arriving in July 1988 with her husband, two children and a dog, Arnstein has worked in a succession of jobs – as an office manager for the Beersheba branch of the AACI, an import-export manager for textile factories in the Negev, a private caterer and a customer service representative for an American company.
DogBarie treats
Now she believes she has found her true calling as the founder, CEO and chief baker for DogBarie (www.dogbarie.co.il), a healthful dog treats company she launched in December 2014.
“Since I grew up in a family business, I eventually decided that was what I really wanted to do,” Arnstein says. “I love to bake, but there are so many people out there opening bakeries. I also love animals, so I decided I might as well combine the two.”
She had been making her own natural treats anyway for her dog, because although this kind of product has become popular in the US it is almost unheard of in Israel. She spent five years researching and testing her products on friends’ and neighbors’ pooches. All DogBarie varieties are meat- and dairy-free, and five of them are endorsed by Israel’s Vegan Friendly organization.
“Every ingredient I use, there’s a reason it’s in there,” Arnstein says. “People like the idea of giving their dog something healthy; they are getting more serious about knowing what they give their animals. When you buy a dog treat in the store, if it has meat you don’t even know what it is.”
For now, she is selling DogBarie through her website and from her home “factory.” She has a business license and is in the process of getting her permit from the Agriculture Ministry in order to start selling in stores and veterinary offices. Her eventual goal is to open a production facility and hire a staff. “I don’t want this to be a hobby; I want it to be a real business,” she says.
Friends become like family
Arnstein has accomplished all this despite not speaking Hebrew as fluently as she’d like. “In the beginning, I had to have my daughter be my translator. Now I can go shopping, have a conversation and give a recipe in Hebrew. But I always got hired for my English.”
Her daughter, Gia, now lives in Tel Aviv and works for the tourism company IsraelExperts. Son Zachary is currently in Arizona working in stem-cell research.
Both Arnstein children served their time in the IDF and speak to one another in Hebrew, though they converse in English with their parents.
Beth and David’s parents are no longer alive, and all their siblings, nieces and nephews live in the US.
Though the physical distance has not been easy, they’ve created their own close-knit community in Beersheba.
“We made friends that became family. It wasn’t the same as having your real family, but I have girlfriends here who are like sisters to me,” says Arnstein.
Beersheba has grown quite a bit since they came to the immigrant absorption center in 1988 from West Orange, New Jersey.
“When we arrived, Beersheba had 60,000 people and now it has a quarter million. On Independence Day, we once knew every person at the fireworks show, while today we’re lucky if we run into somebody we know,” says Arnstein.
“But it still has a homey feeling because you get to know the people in your own neighborhood. We have a fantastic mayor working hard to put Beersheba on the map and to turn this into a great city.”
In her eyes, Beersheba feels safer at any hour than did her childhood hometown of Maplewood, New Jersey. “I like being able to go out and walk my dog at midnight or 1 a.m. without a worry,” she says.
Spurts of missiles fired from Gaza over the past few years haven’t made her feel any differently. “When we’re being bombed, I wear shoes I can walk in quickly,” she quips.
Arnstein enjoys hiking, camping, reading, weaving and beadwork, but perhaps nothing is dearer to her heart than cooking: “I love feeding people,” she says.
And dogs too, of course.
She uses the term “laid back” to describe herself and her husband, who works in administration at the Medical School for International Health at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. “Where did the ’60s go? If you’re looking for them, come to our house,” she says with a laugh.