That Funny Green Powder

One of the miracles of Israeli life is zaatar. It’s an herb blend with some sesame seeds thrown in – everything in Israel has sesame seeds thrown in – but the main ingredient is hyssop.

My first experience of it was when I learning Hebrew and working on Kibbutz Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem. Our teacher took our class on a nighttime tour of the city, buying us beigelei – rings of bread that have nothing in common with bagels – and encouraging us to put the zaatar on them. We looked at each other and at the funny green powder with doubt and suspicion. Then one brave soul (not me) tried it and pronounced it really good. We all munched happily.

But the real initiation came a few years later when my husband and I lunched at a restaurant in a small village and were served humus topped with olive oil and zaatar. It was a revelation. I had never liked olive oil before but when mixed with zaatar it was heavenly and I was hooked.

The odd thing is that zaatar doesn’t really work on vegetables. Put it on your average green salad and the result is a big so what. But on bread with a drizzle of olive oil it is fabulous. A note to potential exporters: I think zaatar could be a hit in America, but you’d have to give it a new, pronounceable name.

Nahal Alexander

To call the Alexander a river is somewhat overstating it. The part of it that forms the northern border of Kibbutz Maabarot is little more than a drainage ditch with delusions of grandeur. In the summer, the slow-running, nearly stagnant water becomes choked with algae and is a putrid green.

This wasn’t always so. People my age tell me they remember when they were children riding on inner tubes in it all the way to the sea. While that sounds like gobs of fun, the thought of actually touching that water now not only makes my skin crawl, it makes it scamper back home to a safe corner and assume the fetal position.

Yesterday a woman’s dismembered body was found in the river, where exactly I don’t know. It’s horrific. I have watched endless “CSI” episodes and I’m a great fan of murder mysteries. But never before has it come to the stream where I live, and I am outraged.

The victim has not yet been identified, at least not to the media. But whoever she was, I want to extend my heartfelt condolences to her family and friends. I pray you will have justice.