“Of course, I’m including it because it’s Israeli, but the product is also excellent,” says Ravitz. “It’s nice to share it with friends — it will be a special treat for them.”
Like others who are planning simchas these days, Ravitz is thinking about what would be appropriate and benefit the Israeli economy at the same time. She’s one of many who have been inspired by Dr. Elliott Lavey, a plastic surgeon based in Danville. Seeking to aid Israel in troubled times, he’s undertaken a new mission: promoting products from the Holy Land.
When he went looking for products that people could buy here, he found everything from borekas, traditional pastries filled with cheese, to Bamba, snack puffs flavored with peanut butter.
“We’re going to eat anyway — it’s just a matter of changing purchasing patterns,” says Lavey. “If every Jewish supporter were to spend $100 a month on Israeli products, you’d have tens of millions of dollars going into the Israeli economy.”
In April, the Israeli Embassy in Washington set up a Web site to encourage people to buy Israeli goods. The resulting Israeli Partnership directory lists items from Papa Goose kosher foie gras to Gottex swimsuits. Israel’s most famous export was once the Jaffa orange — a sweet, nearly seedless fruit; in the 1960s, agricultural crops constituted 30 percent of export revenue. Today, high-tech predominates. Technology goods accounted for 80 percent of $20 billion in exported products in 1996, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Food is a relatively tiny slice of the pie; in 2000, Israel exported $50 million of mostly kosher and health foods to the United States.
Buying Israeli foods may be mostly a symbolic gesture. But boycotts of consumer products in the past, from the Boston Tea Party to a moratorium on table grapes, have been powerful political instruments.
“Buying Israeli is a reaction to European boycotts of Israeli goods,” says Lavey. He publicizes Israeli products, selling them at the meetings of the local action committee he founded, Contra Costa Bridges to Israel. The grassroots group is affiliated with the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay and is one of several community groups that works with the federation’s Israel task force.
For more information on Contra Costa Bridges to Israel, email [email protected] or call (925) 820-3633.
Members of the 175-person Contra Costa group have participated in an American Israel Public Affairs Committee letter-writing campaign and raised money for a reservoir in the Negev. Currently the group, which also works, is planning a Sunday, Aug. 25 benefit for suicide bombing victims with the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center.
Contra Costa Bridges to Israel will hold the barbeque at the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center, 2071 Tice Valley Blvd., Walnut Creek. For RSVP information, call (925) 938-7000.
The menu will feature local kosher meats and fowl — and a range of Israeli foods, wine and beer. There will even be imitation chicken cutlets for the vegetarians. The vegetarian schnitzel, made from soy and wheat by an Israeli company called Zoglo, is a personal favorite of Lavey, who microwaves them for lunch.
“It’s got no cholesterol — it’s low-fat and healthy, so that’s a good idea,” says Lavey. His family spends about $200 a month on Israeli food and wine. Israelis in the Bay Area cite Elite chocolates and Osem soup mixes among the specialty products they continue to buy here. At Oakland-based Certified Kosher, a wholesale distributor, the most popular imports from Israel are hummus, tahini, pickles and olives. For celebrations, Israeli couscous, wine and beer are favorites.
For those who are interested in throwing an event, Sunrise Catering in Walnut Creek will use Israeli products upon request. Southern Wine and Spirits sells premium Israeli table wines wholesale to caterers and hotels, and Prima’s Wine in Walnut Creek will order it by the case. Other local kosher food stores and those with kosher sections stock their shelves with Israeli products.
Lavey says Americans may find a couple of items less than appealing. “The sardines and herring may not be for every taste,” he says. “They’re cut up into segments — you can see the backbone — and they taste kind of fishy.”
And one thing that’s not making it into Ravitz’s goody bags is a certain type of falafel-flavored snack from Osem. But she’s thinking about including some of the company’s chocolate-orange tea biscuits. “They’re delicious,” she says. “Everybody loves them.”