Sometimes it’s tough being an Israeli tour guide. It’s not all fun in the sun you know. A guide has to keep up with the latest information on many different topics. Take the Israeli wine industry for example. There is so much to know and so much hands on research to do. Just this past week I had to give up my Friday morning brunch at a Tel Aviv area café (also for tourist research purposes but that’s for another blog) and attend the Recanati Wineries Wine Tasting Event at their winery in the Hefer Valley. And I had to drag my poor wife, my colleague Della (#dellatoursisrael), and a friend to help with the research, you know, to get their expert opinions. And there were so many different v
In rude Hebrew, when you want someone to go away or even to tell a cat to get out of here you say “Kishte” So where did this word come from? Well, its origins are in the Turkish language. When the Ottoman Turks ruled Israel there was a lock-up near Jaffa Gate and the Tower of David which the Turks called “Kishle”. Whenever the authorities wanted to clear an area of unruly people (yes the Middle East has some unruly people) they’d tell them to get out of the area or they’d be sent to the Kishle. Somehow Kishle became Kishte but it still means SCRAM! One thing you don’t want to do today however is Kishte from the Kishle. A little over a year ago the Tower of David Museum opened the site of the
