Peres receives first fruits from Dead Sea region kids
By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Because the upcoming festival of Shavuot is a harvest festival and one of three pilgrim festivals during which in ancient times the Children of Israel brought offerings to the Temple, the latter day celebration in Israel includes bringing a first fruit offering to the President of the State.Each year, farmers from a different part of the country come to Jerusalem bearing not only the seven Biblical species of olives, pomegranates, grapes, figs, wheat, barley and dates, but also many other fruits and vegetables, including new strains that are exported to foreign markets.This year it was the turn of the Megilot-Dead Sea Regional Council which brought not only its edible first fruits, but also its human ones.In recent years council chairman Motti Dahaman, one of the founders of Kibbutz Kfar Shalom told President Shimon Peres, there has been a 20 percent population increase in the area, with many young couples and young families opting to live in the region. "We now have a whole new generation of desert population," he said, indicating some of the parents who had come with babies in their arms in addition to the group of white clad kindergarten children with garlands in their hair symbolizing two aspects of the festival.
Anti-Israel activists vandalize Texas congressman's office door
