Israelis enjoy Oz-inspired Succot
Some 12,000 Israelis made daytrips to Australia during the Succot holiday ... kind of.
Some 12,000 Israelis made daytrips to Australia during the Succot holiday … kind of.
Kangaroo food was flying out of the vending machine at one shekel per handful, and the kangaroos couldn’t believe their luck: they had never had so many visitors, keen to indulge them in the spirit of Succot joy.
This little piece of Australia, transplanted to Israel, was one of the country’s most popular attractions as the nation took to the roads in search of fun daytrips this holiday season. From the moment the gates opened in the mornings at Gan Garoo until visitors filed under the exit with its Israeli and Australian flags at five o’clock, the place was heaving.
The all-Australian theme at Gan Garoo, a four-acre park in the Beit Shean Valley owned by a kibbutz, goes beyond the kangaroos and other species that live there. The park has started to go all-out with entertainment, actors and activities during holiday seasons, and the investment is paying off and drawing the crowds.
There were queues to get into the 40-seat succah and, at various points, the kangaroos became so satiated that they headed en masse to their rest area, which visitors aren’t allowed to enter, for a shluf.
The kangaroos at Gan Garoo nowadays are sabras, native Israelis descended from the initial 18 kangaroos donated by Australian zoos back in 1996 when the park opened. Aliyah worked well for these immigrants and kein ayin hora they had so many children and grandchildren that some have moved to other zoos. Some even went, free of charge, to the Palestinian-run Qalqilya Zoo, in the West Bank.
The Gan Garoo mobs today are very friendly and happy to eat from the hands of visitors. Children were giggling with delight as the kangaroos took their food, and adults were busily taking selfies.
“Boomerang demonstration in five minutes,” sings the voice on the public announcement system. The crowd gathered and a man appears, behind a tall security fence as if he were about to demonstrate the Iron Dome, and explains all about boomerangs. “Are you from Australia?” I ask. He replies in Hebrew: “No, I’m a kibbutznik.” By his own admission, he is no expert at boomerang throwing, but he succeeds. Another kibbutznik, in what he imagined to be traditional Aboriginal attire, dances around singing “boomerang, boomerang”.
A few minutes after this, there is a beeline for the koala area, which is dedicated to the memory of the four Australian athletes who died in the 1997 Maccabiah Games disaster. Yehuda Gat, the man who came up with the idea of Gan Garoo, got it started, and now oversees the place, is giving a talk. He tells the crowd of grown-ups and kids about just how much of the day the koala spends sleeping. The parents, coming towards the end of a month that has seen their kids have more vacation days than school days, all yawn simultaneously.
After his talk I grab Gat to get him to reminisce about when he set up this unusual park. It was clear in the 1990s that all kibbutzim needed to diversify their businesses to survive and his kibbutz, Nir David, was looking for an idea. “I love -Winnie-the-Pooh and wanted to set up a kind of Hundred Acre Wood attraction,” he says. “I made plans but was told in the end that it wouldn’t work.”
AA Milne was too niche, but two of his characters stuck in Gat’s head: Kanga and Roo. In 1996 he headed to Australia to learn about kangaroos and find out how to care for them, and the park opened shortly after he returned home.
As well as the kangaroos and koala he has brought kookaburras, pteropus (or flying foxes), cockatoos, cassowaries, wallabies and emus. Activities during peak seasons have increased, and over Succot there were performances, arts and crafts stations including one where you make a card kangaroo, and educational talks.
Now that Succot is over and the Israeli winter will soon set in, the inhabitants of Gan Garoo will get some quiet. The kangaroos may already be dreaming about the next major festival when they get indulged by a mass of visitors, Passover. For these kangaroos have a strange partiality for … matzah.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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