The Jewel of the Sea of Galilee: Kibbutz Ein-Gev

When Mark Twain first visited the Sea of Galilee in 1867 on horseback, he found "an unobtrusive basin of water, some mountainous desolation, and one tree." Clearly, Mark Twain wouldn't be able to recognize it today. Kibbutz Ein-Gev, is just one of many pearls of the Sea of Galilee. Surely he wouldn't recognize the surrounding settlements of the Sea of Galilee today.

Kibbutz Ein-Gev is one of these pearls of Galilee that combines an opportunity for the newcomer to become acquainted with the typical kibbutz lifestyle of an agricultural and dairy farm that combines the natural beauty of the Sea of the Galilee.

The best way to experience the wide range of kibbutz and its holiday village of Kibbutz Ein-Gev is taking a train ride that connects you from the new to the old parts of the kibbutz. The old parts is where you'll have a chance to watch kibbutz members enter the communal dining room for breakfast or lunch, bring their children to the communal children's center and watch the seniors make handicrafts in their new senior center lounge. You'll enter the wide sweeping alleys of banana fields and may speak to a few new volunteers who might just tell you in fright and shockingly how they've mistaken a black water hose for a snake! And you'll tell them the "I told you so lesson of the unwise": Never walk around a banana field barefoot!

The dairy farm of Ein-Gev is just another side of kibbutz life, which doesn't get nearly as much attention as the Anchor Museum, symbolic for fishing as its first major source of economy. You'll fnd some old relics and fishing equipment used by the first fishing pioneers of Ein-Gev.

After sundown, you can see Tiberius appear like a small galaxy of stars lighting up the opposite mountains of the Sea of Galilee halfway across the distance. Clearly, Mark Twain would not be able to recognize the difference between the Sea of Galilee then and now.

Ein-Gev is just one of the pearls The Sea of Galilee night excursion connects you between one of the ferry docks directly across from Tiberius to the banks of kibbutz Ein-Gev where you go straight up to the pavilion dock. Who knows? You might just witness a wedding in action with a huge freshwater lake and wide maountainous ranges in the backdrop.

After you walked along the wide array of shops, eateries and art galleries featuring local kibbutz artists, follow the pavilion to the end of the dock. Ein-Gev is well-known for its St. Peter's fish newly married couple photographed on the pavilion not too far away from where Rachel, Israel's famous poetess wrote many of her poems including "My Kinneret." On the banks of the Kinneret.

Ein-Gev is an 82 year old kibbutz where a tourist can still find communal way of life in action with just a ten minute train ride. From the modern newly restored pavilion, you'll see the already the signs of the communal kibbutz life up ahead past the cow sheds, communal dining room, the train will take you past the communal baby houses and a major theater hall close to the main road where you stop at a small quaint fishing museum.

You can take a train ride from the modern holiday village then to the kibbutz itself past the communal dining room, baby and children houses, and living quarters and finally to the fish restaurant and local shops that represents a variety of local crafts including Jerusalem candles and chimes.