Strauss ice-cream in Ramat Gan

Almost every kiosk has an ice-cream board featuring the Strauss company emblem: it consists of brightly-coloured petals arranged in a bunch. Many Israelis are unaware that the German word “Strauss” means “bunch”. To them, Strauss is a brand. For a long time it has not just represented ice cream, but covers a whole range of dairy produce – from yoghurt, chocolate and salad to their popular cottage cheese (whose price increase was one of the triggers for the social protests of Summer 2011).

© Goethe-Institut

The founders of the company come from Germany originally. From Ulm, to be precise. There in 1936 Dr. Richard Strauss and his wife Hilda packed their cases and emigrated to what was then Palestine with their one year-old son Michael-Peter. Like many other Yekkes – in other words Jews originating from Germany – they settled in Naharija, in the north.

Family business in a cowshed

Their family business started with a cowshed in Naharija. Because the transport routes back then were not without danger, so that daily deliveries were not possible, they invested in products that lasted longer such as cheese. Thus began an empire. Today Strauss is one of the largest food retail groups in the country. In 1951 they began ice cream production, which now accounts for almost half of the entire market. Although the majority of Strauss Ice Cream shares were sold to Unilever NV a long time ago, Strauss ice cream is still considered a very national product – likewise their mash of chickpea, known as hommos and cottage cheese, which is served at every typical Israeli supper table.

Strauss has remained a family-run company. After their son Michael (who doesn’t use his second name Peter in Israel) spent many years at the helm, his daughter Ofra took over management in 2001.

The former family home in Naharija has been kept in its original form as cultural heritage and a memorial to the founders. But this is also where management meetings are held, VIP guests (such as the German ambassador) are received, and the Strauss descendents gather there to celebrate Chanukka or Pessach.