Gad Dairy

About a hundred years ago, Ezra Cohen and his wife Levana would milk their only cow in eastern Turkey, heat the milk on a Primus stove, add yogurt, and begin the cheese-making process. They wrapped the cheese in thin cloth, hung it in the yard, then transferred it with salt to wooden barrels to develop its flavors, much like wine. The cheese was ready when Ezra decided. A few years later, the Cohen family immigrated to Israel, joined the Jewish community in Gaza, and continued their cheese-making traditions. The milk from their cattle and sheep went through the same process, waiting in wooden barrels for Ezras approval. In the 1930s, the family moved to central Israel, expanding their cheese selection with more Balkan varieties, selling them at their family store Cohen Dairy in Tel Avivs Levinsky Market. In the 1960s, Ezras son, David, established another dairy specializing in Balkan cheeses, passing down the cheese-making secrets through generations. Ezra Gad Cohen, named after ...