Garlic festival T-shirts and posters, handmade pottery with gold edging, woven tapestry artwork and antique musical instruments were all up for sale at the Love Israel family moving sale Saturday.
People came to the countryside ranch to shop and reminisce.
"I came to check out the Love garage sale because I was curious and for a piece of nostalgia," said Bonnie Rose, who came to the sale from Arlington with her sister Nancy.
"It’s a really kind of sad, too, because it’s the end of an era and walking through, you can see people reminiscing and saying goodbye — it’s bittersweet."
Love Israel and his alternative Christian family are packing up and moving from the 300-acre Arlington-area ranch to a new home, near China Bend in Eastern Washington north of Colville on the Columbia River, where his wife Honesty Israel’s family owns land and a winery.
Love Israel, born Paul Erdman, assumed his name because of the group’s founding vision that "love is real." New community members take on virtuous or Biblical names as first names and Israel as a last name. They are not associated with any Jewish organizations.
The Israels have lived on the Arlington ranch since 1984, when they left about 25 homes on Queen Anne Hill after internal disagreements. Many members left the group at that point, 70 followed Love Israel to Arlington. Between 24 and 50 members are expected to make the move to Eastern Washington.
Every summer the group held its Garlic Festival on the ranch, an event that drew a crowd of thousands from all over.
This past December, to avoid bankruptcy, Love Israel sold the property for $4.2 million to the Union for Reform Judaism, which plans to use the property as a summer camp. The Israels racked up debt during the 1990s on building and business projects that ran afoul of state and county land-use rules.
The weekend’s moving sale became emotional for some, a reunion for others.
"This is a very emotional time, but also very liberating," said Menahem Israel. "We see it as an adventure we are all doing together."
Susie and Rich Hecht came to the sale to meet the family. They recently bought the Israels’ original home in the 2500 block of Sixth Avenue W. on Queen Anne Hill.
"We came here today because we were curious about the history of our home, all the artistic touches, and wanted to meet the Israels," Susie Hecht said.
While the family has canceled the Garlic Festival for this year, plans are in the works to hold it again next year, either here on rented land, or on the new property in Eastern Washington.
Honesty Israel said, "We are not at the end of an era, just at the end of our time here in Snohomish County. It is a new chapter in our lives to be moving together and starting over."
Reporter Pam Brice: 425-339-3439 or pbrice@heraldnet.com.
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