The rolling hills of northern Israel appear as lush, emerald-green carpets after heavy winter rains. The image of renewal feels especially bright driving through the Western Galilee. After more than two years in which tourism all but vanished due to war and security concerns, small businesses across the region are cautiously reopening their doors, inviting Israelis and visitors to return.
The 13th annual Western Galilee Winter Festival on Dec. 18–20 provided JNS an opportunity to preview three of the locations. Organized by Western Galilee Now, a grassroots consortium of small tourism businesses, the festival brought together food, art, culture and the diverse Israeli communities of Jewish, Druze, Christian and secular.
The 2025 Winter Festival marks a return to the Western Galilee. Last year, the festival was held in Tel Aviv, a symbolic gesture to keep the Galilee present in the public consciousness when travel north was discouraged by the circumstances. This year’s decision to bring the festival home reflects a step to economic recovery, as evacuees and businesses return.
Tourism in the Galilee is recovering slowly, organizers say, rising from roughly 20% to 30% of pre-war levels. Every security alert along the northern border threatens that progress. Yet optimism is returning as several events sold out well ahead of time.
A trip on Thursday offered a glimpse of the culture, cuisine and creativity that are helping breathe life back into the Western Galilee.
A shared table in Moreshet
The first stop was the village of Moreshet in the Western Lower Galilee, where culinary artists Yaarit Stern and Nohad Bisan host what they call a “Galilean Culinary Duet”—a cooking and baking workshop that doubles as a cultural meeting point.
In Stern’s beautiful home kitchen, Jewish and Druze culinary traditions blend, not as a novelty but as something natural and inviting. Participants knead dough and prepare dishes from both worlds, including fresh za’atar, tabbouleh, sambusak and homemade labneh with roasted beets, ending with a melt-in-your-mouth gluten-free chocolate cake fresh from the oven.
As the participants’ hands work, stories flow, and connections are made about home and traditions passed down through generations. The result is less a workshop than an act of coexistence, anchored in shared love of good and healthy food. Sitting together afterward at the long set table for a winter dinner by candlelight, the experience is intimate and symbolic of diversity and unity.
Christmas in Mi’ilya
From Moreshet, the winding roads with magnificent views, took us to Mi’ilya, one of the Upper Western Galilee’s Christian villages, where Christmas brings a distinctly European atmosphere to the hills of northern Israel. Led by tour guide Ofek Ron Carmel, the tour begins with warm tea before continuing through the village’s narrow alleys strung with sparkling holiday lights and decorations. Along the way, visitors learn about local holiday customs and the rhythms of life in a Melkite Greek Catholic community that has maintained its traditions for centuries.
A highlight is the Chateau du Roi, where a restaurant is located within the carefully renovated remains of a Crusader-era fortress. Its underground chambers hold insights into centuries of layers of history. Nearby, a Greek Catholic church anchors the village’s spiritual life, offering an impressive display of lights and tradition.
In Mi’ilya, the holiday season is not only about celebration, but continuity.
Light, art and movement at Kibbutz Ga’aton
The third stop of the experience was in Kibbutz Ga’aton, home of the internationally renowned Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. Here, the event “When Art Lights Up the Night” blends contemporary dance, visual art and light installations into a multi-sensory evening.
The gallery tours included peeks into the working studios such as Studio Lil, where visitors encountered Liat Gilad in her gallery and workshop. Ga’aton has blurred the line between cultural space and daily life in the kibbutz.
The program continued with a guided walk through light installations created especially for the festival by members of The Collective—artists who explore light as both an artistic and a philosophical element. Their works invited reflection on illumination and darkness, themes that resonated deeply.
The evening culminated in a high-energy performance by the kibbutz’s student dance troupe, featuring audience participation. Founded by the late Yehudit Arnon, a Holocaust survivor and Israel Prize laureate for her achievements in education and the performing arts, the company is now under the artistic direction of her long-time student Rami Be’er. It is one of Israel’s leading contemporary dance companies, performing on major international stages.
At the heart of the night was connection: between art forms, between residents and visitors, and between creativity and resilience.
Rebuilding, one visitor at a time
Western Galilee Now represents more than 100 small tourism businesses, a number that has grown steadily. The grassroots consortium includes privately owned enterprises, artists, food producers, tour guides and businesses, united by the belief that tourism is essential not only to the regional economy but to the social fabric of the Galilee.
Michal Shiloah Galnoor, CEO of Western Galilee Now, says the organization’s survival during the war years depended on sustained outside support, particularly from Jewish National Fund–USA, with which the consortium has worked for more than a decade.
“When the Galilee was effectively closed, and businesses had no income, JNF-USA didn’t disappear,” Shiloah Galnoor said. “They helped us think long-term—how to keep people working, how to maintain dignity, and how to be ready for the moment visitors could finally return.”
During the war, the consortium helped businesses survive through donated support packages purchased directly from local producers, paid workshops and activities for evacuated families, and ongoing professional training focused on operating under uncertainty. “Beyond the financial help,” she added, “the message was that these small businesses were not alone. That made all the difference.”
As winter rains continue to green the hills, the Western Galilee Winter Festival offered a modest but meaningful sign of renewal: one table, one village, lights, and one performance at a time.
