Wednesday 19 November 2014 Moshe & Rachel in Yavne

We drove to Yavne, a suburb of Tel Aviv, to visit Moshe Shaked and his partner Rachel.  Blaine gave them a tour of the Jerusalem Center a few months ago.  At the time, Moshe gave Blaine a Jewish cookbook he had put together and invited us to visit. We had breakfast on their patio and spent a good part of the day with them.  Rachel had fixed a yummy breakfast of eggs cooked in a tomato sauce, cheeses, juice, cucumber salad, and breads.

Moshe's grafted a lemon and another citrus plant together.



It looked like a pumelo but it had another name.

And these were the lemons.

After breakfast, Moshe walked us around their neighborhood.  It was developed about 30 years ago.  The neighborhood was developed for military personnel.  It was based on a lottery system so everyone would have equal access to the prime building lots.  They could put their name in with 3 other families so they could pick their neighbors.  They have the same neighbors and Moshe said they're closer than brothers.

They built a convenience store on one of the building lots.

There were walking and bike trails that wound through the neighborhood.

Moshe is a gardener and his yard shows it.

Moshe, Linda, and Rachel in their living room.

Yavne has a country club that residents can buy into.  It has swimming pools, a gym, parks, etc.


They drove us around Yavne and then into Ashdod.  Ashdod is on the Mediterranean Sea between Tel Aviv and Gaza. We stopped for desert at a restaurant on the beach. 

After lunch, we went to a school in Yavne where Moshe helps with an after school program for Ethiopian children.  They showed us the healthy lunch they were eating. Moshe was an air force  pilot in the IDF.  He was involved in the War of 67 and 73.  In 1991 he flew a plane into Ethiopia during Operation Solomon.  There were 35 planes that airlifted 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.  It was a covert operation to save their lives from an unstable government.  Moshe said it was one of his proudest moments.

I taught them the song "A to a taw"

and they translated the English words into Hebrew.

Kids are always a lot of fun.