The story of a Holocaust survivor - Moshe Bar Haim from the "Einat" restaurant A helping hand to a friend

The kind man, remembered mainly by food lovers in the 70s-90s, from the Einat restaurant in Haifa and Ma'aloat, has already passed the age of heroism, lives in his own right and has only one request: "Let me come back and cook for you."

The adults among you surely remember the restaurant "Einat" in Haifa Bay which was active from the late 60s to the mid-90s. Later, the restaurant was moved to Ma'at and following the 2nd Lebanon War, it was closed.

Behind the restaurant that hosted and enjoyed the time of many, stands Moshe Bar Haim - a smiling, hospitable man who even today, at the age of 85, and despite everything that has passed (we'll get to that later), continues to radiate optimism and enjoys hosting everyone who comes to visit him. Moshe currently lives in a small 2-room apartment in the complex of the "Yad Ezer Shevre" association.

background

Moshe was born in 1933 in the city of Braila, in southeastern Romania, on the banks of the Danube where he lived with his parents and three brothers. During the Second World War, Moshe, his mother, and his younger sister fled to a town in Poland, when they heard that the Germans and Romanians were expected to enter the town and perpetrate atrocities on the local Jews. His father was taken to hard labor and his two older brothers to labor camps in Romania. Fortunately, his immediate family survived and at the end of the war , they all returned to their home in Braila, and in 2 immigrated to Israel.

As a graduate, he began his career in agricultural training, engaged in gardening and worked in the nursery of the "Khodori" school. After that, he took a waiter course in Zim's merchant navy and from there actually found himself drawn to the subject of cooking and restaurants.

          The period of restaurants

In 1968, he opened a restaurant "Einat" Known in the Haifa Bay, it was named after the name of one of his daughters and its menu was based on the purity of the folk and traditional food Moshe grew up with in Romania. Then he also opened a restaurant "Mira Bell" At Stella Maris in Haifa. In 1988, he left for the USA, where he was involved in the management of a delicatessen and paid off in the field of meat smoking and restaurants.

In 1993, he returned to Israel and three years later moved the restaurant "Einat" to Ma'at in the Western Galilee. During the restaurant's operation, quite a few famous people visited Moshe and enjoyed his handiwork such as the late Shimon Peres, Muni Moshunov, Gidi Gov, Jordana Arzi and more. The year 2006, you will remember as the cursed year in Moshe's life - his wife Meira, died of a serious illness shortly after Before the Second Lebanon War, when the restaurant was closed under tragic circumstances when a Hezbollah missile hit it directly.

After the destruction of the restaurant, Moshe found himself helpless, without the ability and possibility to restore the restaurant, after encountering resistance from the authorities and the bureaucracy involved. Later, one of his daughters died in tragic circumstances that Moshe does not want to talk about.

-------------------------------

Today, Moshe lives in the Hadar neighborhood, in the complex of "Yad Ezer Chavere", where he has been living for two years (excluding a period when he moved to live with his daughter in Kfar Vardim and returned). He lives modestly in a small apartment, but is always happy to host with his inviting smile and his many stories. Despite his advanced age, Moshe is looking for meaning in his life - in his apartment there is an oven for smoking meat, which Moshe is interested in selling to a business that would like to buy it. Moshe longs to teach others and contribute from his experience in the field of smoking, which he learned in the USA. Moshe also published a book summarizing his 50 years of activity in the field of restaurants, in which he shares the basics of hospitality, barbecue and smoking meat.