Sensible Israel lives only a few miles from a place that shaped her entire life. She and others who made that place home share far more than the Israel name.
They share memories of a singular experience, a communal life few will ever know. At the 300-acre Israel Family Ranch in rural Arlington, they shared kinship, hardship and worship.
Love Israel, a man with a vision of religious utopia and roots in the 1960s counterculture, founded the commune on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill. For more than 20 years, the group owned and lived on the Arlington property.
In 2003, the Love Israel family filed for bankruptcy. The land, once occupied by organic gardens, yurts and other dwellings, was sold to the Union for Reform Judaism. Last week, the new owners broke ground for Camp Kalsman, a Jewish camp. As a new chapter begins on the bucolic site, the last chapter isn’t forgotten.
“The truly amazing thing was the whole community,” said Sensible Israel, 43. “There was a large group of people together for a very long time. We’ll always have those memories.”
Sensible Israel was ready to move on. “It was time for a change,” she said. She raised five children at the Arlington ranch. Her two youngest, 17-year-old daughter, Commitment Israel, and 16-year-old son, Clear Israel, still live at home, where Sensible has a small organic farm seven miles from the old property.
“A handful of the grandparents spent their entire lives raising large families in an alternative lifestyle. We couldn’t even afford the taxes,” Sensible Israel said. “We tried a lot of innovative ways to have the property pay for itself, but none of it really worked out.”
For the dozens of children born and raised there, life was “almost idyllic,” Sensible Israel said. Her daughter Commitment agrees.
“It was one of the most beautiful places you could have grown up,” said Commitment, who attended Arlington High School and is now a student at Everett Community College.
“There were about 15 kids in our age group, and we all lived close together. They lined us up in a row to change our diapers, and we still all hang out together.”
Commitment was schooled on the farm until sixth grade, and then attended Arlington schools. At first, she bristled at the regimented system of public school. “At lunch, we had to line up and get trays. It was so mechanical. We were used to sitting down as my mom got a huge bucket of peanut butter to make sandwiches,” she said.
She said she never envied kids with more conventional lives, and had a hard time relating to their interest in pop culture.
The Love Israel family is now based in Bothell, where Love has a home, said Mithcah Israel, who is staying this summer on the group’s 50-acre camp near Northport, in the far northeast corner of Washington on the Columbia River.
Mithcah, who’s been with the group more than 30 years, never had her own children but helped raise many kids. “There were about 300 people at the height of farm’s population, and maybe half of those were children,” she said.
Across the Columbia River from the Israel camp property, Victory Israel Alexander and her husband, Loyalty Alexander, run the China Bend Vineyards. Their son, Success Alexander, also works at the winery. They sell wine, organic produce and run a cannery that produces salsas, garlic items and other specialty foods.
Many goods sold at the Israel family’s annual Arlington Garlic Festival, once held every August, came from the Northport business.
While Victory Alexander said she knows that some are bitter about the group’s breakup, “I personally didn’t have any bad experiences. I thought every part of it was fantastic. Community is a great way to live.”
Commitment said some friends and relatives have gone back to see the property since the sale. “Our homes have been demolished. All five us were born in that house – it hits you in the gut,” she said.
Although she’s saddened by the loss of the land, Commitment is pleased it will be used for a camp, and not for more dense development. “I’ve made friends with the new caretaker out there,” she said.
Shoshana Israel, 59, now lives in Northport, but not on the group’s compound. She wasn’t part of the family long enough to get a “virtue name.” Members first took Hebrew names, she said, until someone noticed a particular virtue in them. Love Israel had final approval over virtue names, she said.
A potter, she met Love Israel in the 1970s in California and was lured by the chance to live in a community. Life could be hard, particularly for the women burdened with child-rearing duties.
“I definitely have good memories,” Shoshana Israel said. For her, the downside was physical hardship. “You had to put your laundry in a wheelbarrow and wheel it to the barn. A lot of people couldn’t handle it.”
The best part isn’t lost.
“I’m grateful for the relationships I still have with the people. I never would have formed such solid relationships. I miss living with people,” Shoshana Israel said.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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