Yarka A Very Friendly Druze Village In Israel

I am waiting for the bus to Haifa and have to discover that it will take another hour at least as it has already passed a few minutes ago. It is noon-time and very hot: around 35 degrees celsius and the sun scorches the little beton roofed busstop.

A car comes by with a what at first sight seems a Russian young man. He stops and asks me where I need to go. Haifa is no problem for him as he on his way to Yarka a village in the North. He is willing to take the downtown Haifa road for me instead of the shortcut through Wadi Milk. I soon discover that he is of Druze origin although many he says, mistakenly, at first sight, think he is Russian.

It is my first time hitchhiking with a Druze young man and we very quickly see how many things we have in common. One of the first things is respect for each other and our different backgrounds. It may not be recommended for a woman to hitchhike in Israel. Tourists, however, are an exception and are usually treated respectfully. I quickly understand that he has a few amazing stories to tell about the way foreigners get well-treated within his family.

We get into a very interesting conversation about both our family backgrounds and discover that we truly have a very similar point of view when it comes to what values make for a stable business in the Middle East and in the West and that these values are actually the same. I am getting more and more curious to see his family business: a marble manufacturing and processing factory with its own quarry.

Shaim is running one of the biggest and thriving stone cutting and processing factories in Israel with just a few family members. I suggest that we stay in touch and that I get to see the factory next time. Not long after that first encounter we meet up again and he takes me to his village Yarka where Druze have lived for centuries. I am being guided through the factory and all of its departments. I get to see how blocks of Galilee Rock, twice as hard as the similarly colored Traventin sandstone from Turkey and big rocks of Jerusalem stone are cut with a 6 to 8 feet diameter saw-like wheel while water is being spurted on the edge of the stone as the saw cuts through the rock and produces 2, 3 or 4 inch thick slices of rock.

The stone cutting saw and machinery is imported from Turkey. Other smaller saws cut the final square or rectangle shape. You can order polished, brushed, honed, and burnt surface and it´s high quality. It is no wonder that his family´s business is still thriving whereas most of the other marble and sandstone processing factories in Israel have shut down in the last few years.

For more information on the Druze culture and religion go to

http://travelguideyarkaisrael.blogspot.com/