The location of this flourishing old jujube tree – at the end of a quiet residential street in the picturesque Galilee mountain town of Mghrar, in the front yard of the Fadel family home –might seem to visitors from other cultures to be an unusual for a holy place; but that is part of its charm.

This species of tree, also known as Christ-thorn jujube, bears its bitter summer fruit (related to the crab-apple) along spiked branches. According to tradition, Nebi Shu’eib (Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law) rested in its ample shade. It later served as a rendezvous point for Druze pilgrims making their way to Nebi Shu’eib’s tomb.  The locals say it is the offshoot from another significant tree, the Sheikh Rabis jujube, located in central Mghrar, home to approximately 19,000 Druze, Christians and Muslims.

You’ll find the tree, surrounded by a low, decorative concrete fence, in the southern part of Mghrar, about 250 yards down road to Tefahot, which branches south off road 806.