From the Good Land - Springs Flowing in the Valleys & Hills

This week we made a break in our preparations for the trip to Carpatho Rus. We have been planning a gala outing for the whole family in the beautiful green and wet Galilee region for a number of weeks. This Sunday  our family vacation began with a get together at Nachal Hakibbutzim in the Valley of Springs area. The shade and running spring water made the nearly 40 degree temperature enjoyable. Most of our kids and their families made it to the rendezvous and the little ones really loved the dip!

Harel with Yifat & Chen

From the Valley we headed to our camp site near Kibbutz Dafna in the Upper Galilee. Everyone pitched in to make camp and our outdoor barbecue.

Shlomi Pitching the Geva Tent

The next days were spent hiking, enjoying water activities (swimming, water sports, fishing and kayaking).

Tzion & Adi - the Two new High School Girls

This past Shabbat we read Parshat Ekev, in which the wonderful natural attributes of the Land of Israel are described:

Ori & Aviyah in the Dan

For the L-rd your G-d is bringing you into a good land--a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills;  a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing...                            Devarim 8

Linda & Reuven in the Center of Kibbutz Dafna

These days together in the beautiful green, wet landscapes of our country helped us appreciate our Land and its Divine blessings. 

The Women of the Tribe Relaxing

It provided us with a chance to cement our family relationships and the for third generation to get to know their cousins. 

During our three day outing Linda & I visited the awesome Memorial Site at Dafna dedicated to the memory of the 73 soldiers and flight crew who perished in a tragic collision of two military helicopters in February, 1997. The soldiers were on their way to forward positions in Lebanon. The memorial utilizes the natural landscape and springs to create a monument which emphasizes the bravery and dedication of these young men who perished while serving to protect the borders and people of the State of Israel.

The Helicopter Tragedy Memorial

As we departed the Galilee, I noticed that our grandson, Carmi, was wearing a T shirt  with a very pertinent message: "I feel that my roots are here. Here I was born."

This is the message that will accompany us on our trip. How I would love to be able to show my family that perished there,their offspring with such deep roots in the Land of Israel which was chosen & blessed by the L-rd; in the Jewish State which has arisen from the ashes.

Preparing for Munkacs - Some Resources

With another week and a half until our trip, I am trying to learn more about the Munkacs area. There are a few interesting resources on the web.

• The US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) has an online  Holocaust Encyclopedia with a few articles about Munkacs.

• Yad Vashem has a rich  online exhibition about the history of Jewish settlement in Munkacs (in Hebrew).

• The Israeli Association of Carpatho Ruthenians has a rich website (in Hebrew).
• Final Presentations of the Journey into Jewish Heritage Delegation to Carpatho Rus 

• In the 1930's the American film company, "March of Time", made a short newsreel about the Jews of Carpatho Rus. It contains sections about the court of the Munkacser Rebbe, R' Chaim Elazar Shapira, his daughter, Chaya Frima Rivka's regal wedding to Rabbi Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinowitz, local Jewish vendors and artisans, Cheder students studying, Zionist youth group members dancing the Hora to a Chasidic tune and Zionist Hebrew school students singing Hatikva.

• I"m also reading the autobiography of David Ben David, a member of the original Kfar Etzion. David was born and raised in a village in Carpatho Rus. In his story, he gives vivid accounts of growing up, studying in cheders and Yeshivot in the area and eventually joining Bnei Akiva and coming via illegal Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael. The reader is swept along into David's story, truly experiencing life in Carpatho Rus during the 1920's - 30's.

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Getting to Know You

I'm here in Petach Tikvah at the offices of Shai Bar Ilan - our tour organizer. In a few minutes we'll be  meeting with our guides and organizers and with the group who'll be going with us. One of the organizers - Yehuda Chen from  Kibbutz Ein Tzurim was a partner on a project I worked on many years ago. It was good to see him again. He'll be coming with his wife and will be responsible for technical aspects of the tour.

Shmil Holland historian of East European cuisine and chef will be covering this aspect of our tour (and will be hosting a culinary workshop in Uzhorod).

Dr. Shlomo Tikochinski historian of modern Jewish European history  whose specialty is in the history of Lithuanian Yeshivot. (Don't think there were any of those in Carpatho Rus!)

Our Planned Trip Route

Shmil opened with an overview of the area accompanied with slides. We"ll be landing in Budapest, Hungary and moving to Slovakia - Koshitze & Preshov.  From Koshitze we'll cross the border to the Ukraine & stop in Uzhorod the capital of the SubCarpathian region, the smallest province capital in all of the Ukraine.

The history of the Czechoslovakian rule is predominant in Uzhorod.  From there on to Munkacs, much smaller, but with a very intensive Jewish presence.

We get a view of the Latorica River which runs through the town. From there on to Khust.  From there southwest toVinohradiv (Selish). We''ll then visit the village of Veliki Komiaty where we"ll see a rare wooden synagogue which serves as a barn. From there west to Berhove  (Beregsas) where the Hungarian culture reigns supreme.

"One of the problems we"ll face is the passage between the country boundaries" says Shmil.


Shlomo tells us that this area is known as the Unterland - the Carpathian - Transylvania region, a very green forest - mountain region. Uzhorod & Munkacs were central in the Jewish settlement.

In the 19th century, by the Chatam Sofer's followers from Pressburg.The other stream dominant in the area are the Chasidim, who were very influential in the region. We  will also learn much about the the Streams - Orhodox - Neologs & status quo faction. We will follow the very influential Munkacser Rabbi - the Minchas Elazar in his battles against the Zionists, Neologs and other Chasidic rabbis.


Here is a more detailed description of our planned trip (in Hebrew),



Yehuda fills us in with travel details: flights, meals, weather, bus,etc.

Yehuda, Shlomo & Shmil

We"ll be 19 people from all over Israel, mostly couples including the staff. Most of the people have roots in the region. Not everyone made it to the meeting.

Looks like this might be a nice trip. Will we find what we"re looking for?

To CarpatoRus

For years I have been interested in going to see the area from where my family originated - the area between Munkacs and Uzhorod  in SubCarpathian Rus. I had heard stories about the area in my youth and read some about the area in later years. My parents lived in small towns near Munkacs and, as far as I understood, earned their living from farming and simple crafts. At one point I entertained the idea of being able to visit the area with one of my relatives who had survived the Holocaust and would be willing to go back and visit the area with some of the second or third generation family members. But that never materialized.

A few years ago, I  heard of a group of students that would be visiting the area as a learning expedition under the auspices of  the Shazar Institute. I was granted permission to sit in on some of their preparatory sessions, picking up much about the area along the way. After they returned, I attended a public session where they presented much of what they had discovered about the Jewish communities of the area: Munkacs, Uzhorod, Hust, Beregsas and more.

Was I excited when about two months ago, I saw an ad in one of the Shabbat pamphlets which flood our Batei Knesset about an organized tour to this area organized by Shai Bar Ilan. Nine days from Budapest, Hungary to Kosice, Slovakia to TransCarpathia - Uzhorod, Munkacs, etc. with an emphasis on  Jewish heritage, Jewish  cooking, the fate of the Jews during the Holocaust and the remnants of the Jewish community  during the Soviet period till today.It didn't take long for us (Leah & I) to decide  that we would join this tour.  My first cousin Moish Lebowitz and his wife Surie,  from Masuot Yitzchak, decided to join this adventure too, only adding to our expectations on this journey to our family's roots.

Tomorrow, we will be meeting with the other members of our  tour group as well as our guides and organizers. This should help us clarify our expectations and focus our preparations for the trip which will begin on August 5, 2013.

In preparation we are reading about the area. First is a research project on our family written by our granddaughter Reut Har Zahav, a few years ago. The project was based on interviews with relatives, mainly my cousin Morris Stern, Z"L.