Producing Honey for Rosh Hashanah, Israeli Beekeepers Testify to Zionism’s Indomitable Spirit

In Israel, as in America, Jews consumed an inordinate amount of honey over the past few days, considered by ancient tradition a symbol of wishes for a sweet new year. But for Israel’s beekeepers, the war brought unusual difficulties, and their perseverance is very much a testimony to Israeli perseverance over the past year. Cnaan Lidor reports from Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, home to the country’s largest honey-making concern, whose efforts

prevented price hikes and honey shortages in Israel, where local production provides some 80 percent of the annual consumption of roughly 4,500 tons.

On October 7, Yad Mordechai, which is situated less than two miles from Gaza, was among the twenty-odd towns and locales that Hamas terrorists attacked after crossing the border. The local security team kept the terrorists who targeted Yad Mordechai out. . . . No one from the kibbutz was hurt, but the apiary and honey factory shut down for the first time in decades amid heavy rocket fire. They remained closed for about a month, as management worked vigorously to reopen even though the kibbutz had been completely evacuated.

Israeli tanks, often maneuvering at night, ran over some of Yad Mordechai’s 4,000-odd hives. Foreign workers fled Israel in the weeks following the massacre, leaving honey makers understaffed. Often, hives were in areas that the Israel Defense Forces declared off limits for civilians due to rocket and sniper fire from Gaza.

Kibbutz Yad Mordechai was evacuated once before in 1948 after its fighters and Palmach reinforcements fended off for days a vastly superior Egyptian army force. It was reconquered and resettled months after the evacuation, and it became a national symbol of endurance and revival. After its second evacuation last year, it was among the first border-adjacent locales to return en masse. It is now almost completely repopulated.