Adi Rozen wants visitors near Israel's Gaza border to see more than the ravages of war. "I don't want terror tourism," she said.
Instead, she's serving up a filling--and fulfilling--experience through her own business: Culinary Tours.
Rozen and her four fellow tour guides take guests to restaurants and food shops in the "Gaza Envelope," the 4.5 mile-wide stretch along the Gaza Strip. It's home to approximately 70,000 Israelis who live in more than 50 communities. It's the region that suffered the greatest devastation when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
"When you think about the Envelope, you think about terror, you think about bombs," Rozen said. "You don't think about how beautiful and surprising this area is."
She grew up in the region and, after getting married, she and her husband returned to raise their three children, a decision that brought questions and judgment from others.
"I felt frustrated that people asked me, 'Why do you live in the South?'" she explained.
After attending a food tour in Tel Aviv, Rozen felt "enlightened" on how to show off her native land.
"This is what I have to do in the South," she recalled. "This is the solution: to give people the opportunity to fall in love [with this place], by getting them to eat amazing food and meet fascinating people."
She launched her business in 2018. Now, six years later, she runs tours for groups of up to 90 people, Sunday through Thursday. Her guests dig into everything from French cuisine to indulgent desserts. Globes, an Israeli business newspaper, named her outings among the top five food tours in the country.
During the course of three hours, her visitors also talk with business owners and hear their stories--including what they endured on October 7.
After the terror of that day, businesses across the Gaza Envelope shut down, and Rozen put her tours on hold for months. Following Passover, people began to return to the area.
"It's very important now to come to the South. The businesses really want people to come," she said, adding that everyone benefits from visitors. "This really gives power and hope. We feel a lot of love for Israel, from abroad, and the people who come feel it as well. It makes you more optimistic about the future."
This December, she's planning to welcome a group from JUF's Partnership Together program, which links Chicago's Jewish community to the people of Israel.
"We have been partnered with Kiryat Gat-Lachish-Shafir for close to 30 years," said Elissa Polan, JUF's Associate VP of Israel & Overseas Projects and Programs.
While the partnership communities are not located in the Gaza Envelope, some residents from Kibbutz Nir Oz are now living 40 miles away in Kiryat Gat.
"They were hit so hard on October 7. We've adopted them through our Israel Emergency Fund," Polan said.
Members of the Partnership's Steering Committee typically travel to Israel twice a year to look at programs the group supports financially, but more importantly, Polan said, they are building bonds.
"It is this feeling of family. It's different from looking at Israel through the window of a bus," she said, "When you get involved with the partnership, it's the people, and the people are really quite amazing."
As Rozen looks forward to fostering personal connections when her Chicago visitors arrive, she offers one piece of advice: "You have to come really, really hungry!"
Learn more about Adi Rozen's Culinary Tours at
travelandeat.co.il/en
.
Julie Mangurten Weinberg is a Northbrook-based freelance journalist with 25+ years of experience in broadcast, print, and digital media.
