This year, Chanukah comes out late, between Xmas and all the way through New Year’s—what a combination! I guess this year many of you will be taking vacations as a result of both work and school holidays coinciding. Those with children still in school have my sympathies since bus service will be a challenge this year and I do not envy anyone who has to do carpools—been there, done that!
Moving on to some of the fun stuff, every year on Chanukah, it seems as if you read more or less the same stuff about this special holiday. Either it’s another angle of the Chanukah story or else some exotic new recipe to put a spin on holiday favorites, such as zucchini latkes, cauliflower and leek latkes, sweet potato latkes, or some other combination I might have forgotten. Or else there are recipes for exotic sufganiyot, from sufganiyot with jelly, to sufganiyot without jelly, gluten-free sufganiyot, chocolate-glazed sufganiyot, whole wheat sufganiyot, and spelt sufganiyot.
Ideas for getting fat on fried foods on Chanukah are endless and unfortunately, they’re all delicious, which makes them hard to resist when they’re offered at parties everywhere.
I realized this was the perfect time to connect the two for those contemplating aliyah soon but are still trying to figure out where they want to live and settle once they get to Israel, so I will combine the Chanukah story with Modiin (a terrific place to live) and how it fits into the story of Chanukah!
Let’s go back to the place where it all began, Modiin, the town where the Maccabees, a group of Jewish rebel warriors, led the revolt against the Syrian-Greeks who ruled over Judea and tried to Hellenize the Jews. The ancient town of Modiin consisted of a variety of small settlements and a lot of inhabited caves that provided not only shelter but protection from marauders. Today they are located in the town of Modiin-Maccabim-Re’ut, which is located in central Israel about 22 miles southeast of Tel Aviv and 19 miles west of Jerusalem. Modiin-Maccabim-Re’ut was originally three different towns and moshavim that, due to the gold rush of construction, built neighborhood after neighborhood until it made sense to just combine the three and create one municipality for all of them.
Modiin, which is the largest, has been laid out beautifully with distinct neighborhoods surrounded by parks connected by slopes with flowing staircases for easy access from one area to another. Modiin is centrally located halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, just on the edge of the Judean Desert and boasts Arizona-type weather. This probably made for a pleasant life at the time the Maccabees called this area home.
Re’ut, a small but beautiful area on the edge of Modiin, has beautiful suburban-type housing and streets with small shopping centers for easy shopping for the residents, and sits alongside a kibbutz (whose name I do not remember) with agricultural fields as far as the eye can see, and horse farms at the corners.
Maccabim, which is opposite Modiin on the other side of Highway 443, is more of a sleepy suburb, with beautiful large homes and quiet side streets. Shopping in this area is actually done by commute to Modiin or one of the two large industrial parks, Shilot and Yishpro created to service these areas.
Shilot, located off Highway 443 between Modiin and Maccabim, is the Roosevelt Field of Israel with more stores than I can name off the top of my head, as well as restaurants, gas stations, car rental depots, and one section with a maze of landscaping and garden supply stores.
On the opposite side of Modiin, feeding out on Route 431 (which also heads towards Route 3 and Route 1 and the Maccabi archeological parks and cemeteries), is Yishpro, which is an even larger Industrial Center consisting of several dozen interconnecting shopping malls with supermarkets, restaurants, shops, car dealers, movie houses, and much more.
Just before the Yishpro turnoff is the second of two train stations in Modiin including a progressive park n’ go parking lot for commuters using the train to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and other parts of Israel.
I think our Maccabim ancestors would be amazed at this modern and vibrant area that has been recreated and regenerated from their starting point thousands of years ago. Did I mention that if you are in Israel over Chanukah, the holiday celebration in Modiin in their main park at the center of town is spectacular? But what else would you expect from this section of the country!
Happy early Chanukah to everyone! n
Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a Licensed Real Estate Broker (Anessa V Cohen Realty) with over 20 years of experience offering residential, commercial and management real estate services. You are invited to visit her website at WWW.AVCREALTY.COM. She can be reached at 516-569-5007 or Readers are encouraged to send any questions or comments by email to anessa@avcrealty.com.