Congregation Ohav Sholom

Travel in Israel - Rishon LeZion

Off the Beaten Track in Israel - The Rishon LeZion Wine Cellar Nightclub

by Michael Rosenbloom (spidermr@aol.com)

If you would like to experience an evening that is pure Israeli, even at the risk of feeling like an outsider looking in, then I suggest you spend an evening at the Rishon LeZion Wine Cellar Nightclub.

Rishon LeZion is located about five miles southeast of Tel Aviv. The second settlement in Palestine (after Petah Tikva), it was established in the 1880’s. When the settlers found it difficult sustaining themselves, Baron Edmond De Rothschild interceded and funded the building of a winery in the village. Rishon and the winery are worthy of a separate day visit, being one of the first towns and institutions in Palestine established by the nascent Zionist movement. However, this article is not about the winery, rather about the nightclub, which functions inside it.

The fun begins at 9:00 P.M. and lasts until 1:00 in the morning. As guests arrive, they are seated in a large, high-ceilinged hall (The Wine Cellar), at picnic-like tables adorned with a variety of Israeli salads, bread, soft drinks and decanters of red and white wine. As the salads and wine are consumed waiters and waitresses promptly refill them. The meal continues, as the festivities progress, with Middle Eastern hors d’oeuvres such as Moroccan cigars and other doughy items filled with treats (all non-meat), and then cheeses and bite-sized fish fingers.

In the meantime, an entertainer with an electric keyboard which sounds like a five piece band, begins singing and playing a variety of songs, practically non-stop that span the entire 50 plus years of the country’s history. Several of the guests then get up and start dancing on the tables. Soon, the crowd becomes energized and the entire hall is up and dancing, mostly on the tables, all the while singing along with the entertainer.

There is a healthy mix in the crowd, of ages 25 and up, mostly secular but with a sprinkling of "kipot srugot" (knitted yarmulkes), Ashkenazi and Oriental Jews alike. The lines get blurred as the evening progresses to the point where for example a Moroccan Israeli will find himself singing along to old kibbutz songs while an Ashkenazi Israeli will be up on the table dancing to a song made famous by one of Israel’s Sephardic singers. Now some of you may say: "So what!" or attribute this to the wine. But I say that in an Israel today fraught by increasing polarization, an evening where the fault lines of Israeli society are covered up (even with the help of a little wine), is no small achievement.

Once the crowd starts dancing on the tables, the waiters and waitresses clear the tables of food and drink to avoid a mess. At about 1:00 A.M., after a lively evening, the crowd breaks up as the entertainer, packs her things.

The Wine Cellar Nightclub is closed on Friday and Saturday nights and serves kosher food. I recommend an evening at the winery to all those who either have Israeli roots and are back for a visit or to those who would like a glimpse into the Israeli experience on their trip. Good luck waking up early the next morning for the next leg of your trip.

February 2000

Next article: The Children’s Holocaust Museum-Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot

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