Resourceful women have long been the backbone during war and in the face of tragedy. That is the case now in Israel and the Palestinian territories, where among the few positive stories is the story of Sindyanna, a joint venture fronted by Jewish and Arab women, developing and selling authentic food products.
Sindyanna’s produce, with its hero fair trade olive oil, is of such high quality that it is now stocked online in the UK by the man who can truly be said to have transformed British cooking — Yotam Ottolenghi.
The women who began Sindyanna did not themselves originally have a food background. Hadas Lahav, who lives today in Haifa, was born and brought up on a kibbutz in the Jordan Valley. She says: “I was raised on the idea that Jews and Arabs could live together — and not only live together, but benefit from each other”.
Her father was a Holocaust survivor who lost his entire family in Novy Sad in Yugoslavia. Aged 11, he arrived in Israel and eventually met her Tel Aviv-raised mother.
Hadas Lahav and Hanan Zoabi
After she left her kibbutz, Hadas Lahav became a passionate political activist, working against what she saw as the Israeli occupation of Arab lands. And in that role as a peace campaigner, she met, and became close friends with, many Arab Israeli women.
“In 1996 I was one of the founders of Sindyanna. The idea was that we had to build something sustainable between Jewish and Arab people. I don’t have a formal degree, but I do have a very strong background in agriculture from my time on kibbutz. My father was a farmer all his life, responsible for the olive groves, and I used to go with him, to irrigate the growth of the olive trees. So I knew about olives, it was not something strange for me.”
Right at the beginning the intention was to launch a startup — even before such a term was coined —with the aim of enabling Arab women to find a job. The early founders of Sindyanna decided that since the main source of income for the Arab villages was the olive groves, they would buy olives and olive oil from the local farmers and bring it to the Israeli market.
At first, says Hadas, the Arab farmers were not aware of the commercial possibilities of their olive oil. It was a local product with limited sales. But Sindyanna created a demand among Israelis for the highly prized extra virgin olive oil, with a guaranteed high quality in the brand — with the added bonus of getting Arab women into the job market.
In 2015, with an expanded variety of products — different kinds of olive oil, nut pastes, honey, and the rightly feted za’atar spice — Sindyanna opened a visitors’ centre in Kafr Kana in the Galilee, where its warehouse is now based.
Hanan Zoabi is an Arab Palestinian woman born in Nazareth, who runs all the marketing for Sindyanna. She met Hadas 20 years ago and had studied at Haifa University. “When I was a student I saw the injustice between the Jewish and Arab societies, and I always wanted to change society, particularly for Arab women. I saw in Sindyanna the opportunity to do something which would enable me to work with Jews and Arabs — but particularly to empower Arab women and give them an income outside their villages.”
Sindyanna team
Today Sindyanna consists of 14 salaried staff, of whom 11 are women. Product development is always on their minds, and Hadas explains that the unique carob syrup which they make is the result of a complex process, which has to date only been known by one Palestinian farmer. Hadas’ dream would be ultimately to open a factory where modern production methods can be applied to traditional foods.
All through the wars and terrorism which have plagued Israelis and Palestinians since Sindyanna’s founding, the women — who have numerous social welfare and educational projects as well as the food products — have stayed strong. They admit that October 7 was a serious setback until they realised “that we find our strength in trust and friendship. We are much stronger than the fascists and terrorists”.
In February 2024, clutching fistfuls of foodie gold medals from international judges, Hadas Lahav and Hanan Zoabi flew to London to meet Yotam Ottolenghi to try to persuade him to sell Sindyanna products. They were an instant hit.
He says “I am so proud of being able to sell Sindyanna’s produce in the UK. The women who run this wonderful venture approached me a few months ago and asked to meet up. I completely fell in love with their spirit of collaboration and what they stand for. Later on, I also fell in love with their produce: the nut pastes, the olive oil, the za’atar and that unforgettable carob syrup.”
On his fine foods website, Ottolenghi waxes lyrical about the Sindyanna products, telling prospective buyers the history of the company, and noting that “the real triumph, though, isn’t the taste or the accolades — each bottle sold funds education for women, supports organic farming, and fosters cultural understanding”.
He asks: “Can olive oil create hope? Sindyanna of Galilee proves so. They’re about extending an olive branch to communities, fostering peace, respect, and a shared future. Their olive oil builds bridges; Arab and Jewish women working side by side, creating products that carry a message of unity and hope. We’re proud to partner with them.”
As Nietzsche said, “love is the oil that eases friction”. This is genuinely the case for the Sindyanna women.
Sindyanna olive oil is available online at Ottolenghi
