Soon after founding Tel Winery on Moshav Sha’al in the Golan Heights in 2018, Lital Ovadia realized that she had inadvertently hired an all-female staff to help her plant, prune, pick and crush grapes and transfer their wine to barrels for aging.

“I didn’t think of it too much at the time, but now I realize it’s what both I and the winery needed,” Ovadia said by phone at the end of a long day of tending to the fruit that would, in just a few months, become her 2025 harvest. “Women are neat, precise, flexible and thoughtful, and now I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Ovadia, 37, was granted her 60-acre plot of land as part of a government initiative to foster agricultural careers among younger Israelis. Earlier, she spent a decade working at the well-regarded Pelter Winery, also in the Golan Heights, and earned a master’s in winemaking before founding Tel, which this year is slated to release 20,000 bottles of viognier, sauvignon blanc, rosé and cabernet franc. Her business avoided much of the damage to its vineyards and facilities that many wineries in the Galilee experienced after October 7, 2023 (read a related story here).

“Over the course of the war,” Ovadia said, “we worked literally under fire, with rockets flying overhead. It was extremely stressful, but also incredible that we managed to maintain our winemaking routine in the vineyards and winery.”

Ovadia’s career in winemaking is indicative of a larger groundswell in Israel that finds more women working in every aspect of the industry.

According to Tal Tauber, founder of Hashizra, a 4-year-old, 900-strong network of women working in wine and food in Israel, there are now almost 50 female winemakers spread across Israel’s approximately 300 wineries. That’s a far cry from 15 years ago, she said, when you could practically count them on one hand.

One of those early winemakers was Roni Saslove. Her father, Barry Saslove, founded his namesake winery in 1998 on Kibbutz Eyal in the center of the country. After she joined as assistant winemaker at 25, she said, “someone asked me how dare I call myself a winemaker since I had no formal training.” That comment motivated her to further her career. She earned a master’s in winemaking and then became head winemaker before her father sold the business in 2013. Now 47, she works as a consultant for private collectors and restaurants and on book projects.

“There is something in women that allows them to guide winemaking while being more sensitive to what the grapes themselves need and want to do,” Saslove said. “Women do it with a humble, collaborative confidence.”

It’s that sense of collaboration that inspired Tauber, 37, to found Hashizra, which is Hebrew for the central vine in a cluster of grapes. Looking for a career change, she transitioned from corporate marketing to work for the Israeli branch of WSET, an international wine-education organization, before founding Hashizra. “I was the exact person who needed Hashizra, so I created it,” she said. “But there still remains a significant male majority, especially in key positions” in the Israeli wine industry.

Hashizra began by hosting wine tastings, dinners, seminars and social gatherings to help women form friendships and professional connections. Then came the Hamas attacks on October 7. Tauber’s husband was called up to military reserve duty, leaving her to care for their young children. “The war derailed many of Hashizra’s plans,” she said. “But in a way, the network has proven itself to be even more valuable since then.”

Tauber is especially proud of Hashizra’s active online job board and member directory. Those resources have helped connect dozens of women with employment opportunities as well as with mentoring programs.

Hilah Ronen Sahar, a wine consultant and restaurateur who co-founded the award-winning restaurant Rutenberg, just south of the Kinneret, with her late husband, Yizhar Sahar, is a Hashizra mentor. Growing up on Kibbutz Tzora in the Judean Hills, she worked at the kibbutz’s eponymous—and internationally renowned—winery. She then entered the retail wine industry in the United States before returning to Israel to manage the country’s largest chain of wine stores, Derech Hayayin. In her role as a mentor, Ronen Sahar recently guided a woman with a new cooking studio through the process of building a wine list.

“I’ve worked with women in wine all over the world,” said Ronen Sahr. “It’s nice to see Israel catching up.”   

Select a light red such as pinot noir to pair with and use in this Italian fish stew. It would make an ideal summer supper during the Nine Days—when Jews traditionally eschew eating meat—that precede Tisha B’Av, the fast day that begins this year on August 2.

Ingredients 

For the fish broth 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 1 large celery stalk, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 whole black peppercorns
• 3/4 pounds fish bones (ask your fishmonger for these)
• 6 1/2 cups water

For the stew 

• 10 tablespoons olive oil
• 9 fresh sage leaves
• 7 garlic cloves, halved
• 1 hot chili pepper
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 cup red wine
• 2.5-3 pounds whole red snapper (4 small, 3 medium or 1 large snapper), cleaned
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1 cup water, as needed to cover the fish
• 8 thick slices crusty bread

Directions

1. Make the fish broth: In a 3- or 4-quart saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook, stirring, until the vegetables begin to soften, 6 to 7 minutes. Add the bay leaf, peppercorns, fish bones and water, increase the heat to high, bring to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes, skimming and discarding any scum that gathers on top. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Strain, discarding the solids; you should have about 6 cups of broth

2. Make the fish stew: In a large pot, heat 4 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the sage leaves, 6 of the garlic cloves and the chili and cook until fragrant, 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine, scrape the pot to bring everything together, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and scrape the mixture into a bowl.

Pat the fish dry and season it generously with salt on both sides. Add another 3 tablespoons of the oil to the pot, increase the heat to high, add the fish and sear until golden, 2 to 4 minutes per side. Add the red wine-tomato liquid, the fish broth and the salt; use a spatula to shift the fish to make sure the liquid gets in between the pieces, adding the water, if necessary, to cover the fish, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the liquid thickens slightly and the fish cooks through, 15 to 17 minutes.

3. While the fish is cooking, make the toasts: Arrange a rack in the top third of the oven and preheat the broiler. Rub one side of the bread with the cut sides of the remaining garlic clove, arrange the slices on a baking sheet, brush one side generously with the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil and broil until golden and toasty, 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and serve with the fish stew.

---

Adeena Sussman lives in Tel Aviv. She is the author of Shabbat: Recipes and Rituals from My Kitchen to Yours and Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen.