Joe’s Place – A Creative Oasis in the Wild East
By Deena Levenstein
On a hilltop that sort of feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere, in a place that could be nicknamed the “Wild East,” sits Joe’s Place. Situated in the Jewish settlement of Shiloh in the Binyamin Region, Joe’s Place is run by the lovely Joe and Daphne Bazer, immigrants to Israel since 1991 where they really seem to create to their hearts’ content.
Joe’s specialties are instrument making out of wood and wood turning, Daphne’s are silk painting and ceramics. And the entire family together, with some help from their friends, make 100% natural wine.
As a musician at heart and in actuality, I reveled in the different ancient and international instruments that Joe makes.
For example, the kamancheh is an Iranian bow string instrument that predates the violin:
- That’s Joe!
The tuned drum allows you to play a few different notes on one small wooden box and it’s so pretty too:
And the instrument he’s been making the longest is a flute out of river cane:
- That’s me in heaven
After playing in the musical instrument playground, we sat outside on their beautiful deck with the stunning view and drank their delicious red wine.
They use only Shiloh grapes which ferment in glass bottles in a refrigerated room:
Joe and Daphne explained to us that there are around 250 ingredients that can be added to wines without having to list them on the bottle and their guarantee that the only ingredient in their wine is… yup, grapes.
It was wonderful tasting a wine that was both tasty and clearly one of the healthier wines one is going to come by.
They sell their wine and other crafts on the premises along with art by other local artists.
What visitors get to do at Joe’s Place
At Joe’s Place you don’t only get to look at Joe and Daphne’s creations; their “creative tourism” offers people many activities with everything from picking and crushing grapes (around Sukkot time – September-October) to basket weaving and flute making. They host parties such as bar and bat mitzvas as well and just for fun they often host local music nights simply because they love throwing parties (and, of course, Joe is a bassist and their sons are musicians too).
Contact Joe’s Place
Email: joe@shiloflutes.com
Phone: Joe: 054-599-4275, Daphne: 054-599-4234
https://www.facebook.com/joesplaceshilo
- Daphne and Joe, thank you for your warm hospitality!
See beautiful photos from the first winery we visited that day in January, 2015.
Author
Deena Levenstein
Deena Levenstein is a writer and social-cultural entrepreneur in Jerusalem. She creates and hosts events and runs "Things to do in Jerusalem," a Facebook group of handpicked cultural events in the city. In her spare time she blogs at http://deena.co/.
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