What's Love got to do with it?

Book: Everything when it came to Arlington commune

Steve Powell

Arlington Times
October 11, 2018

First in a series.

Rachel Israel was taken by her mother to live in the Love Israel commune outside of Arlington in the 1980s when she was almost 7 years old. She lived there for eight years. She has written her memoirs called, “Counterculture Crossover: Growing up in the Love Family.”

 The following is a Question and Answer article with the author.

Why do you want to go by Rachel?

I want to use my community name to protect my privacy, which is hard to do these days. I was just a kid there, so I didn’t choose to join the Love Family, but since I disclose so much personal information, that is controversial in many ways, it could be harmful to my career. Not only that, but when the Love Family broke up, I actually kept my community name for years. So authoring the book in that name is consistent with the time period I discuss in the book.

What was your life like before that, and how did it change?

My mom had dropped out of society, and we were living in the hippie counterculture. There were a lot of adventures that took place before we moved to Alaska, but just before we met the Love Family, we lived in the Alaskan wilderness, in a tepee with just my mom, my brother and my stepdad. It was a simple, quiet life. My room was a loft built up near where the poles protrude out the top. My parents worked at the cannery and on fishing boats. My step dad would hunt with our German Shepherd. My mom taught herself how to tan hides. She ground her own flour to make bread or custard pie in the little stove that was in the tepee. Then, my mom met the Love Family. They had a homestead in Homer at the head of the bay. She left my stepdad and moved to the Love Family’s home base in Seattle on Queen Anne. My life changed drastically. I now lived communally with hundreds of people who were considered like family. My mom was no longer in charge. I was taken care of by designated caretakers. I was home-schooled with my communal brothers and sisters, and my teachers were family outside of school. In my book, I talk in detail about my schooling. I also share a lot of memories about what it was like being communally raised. It was a lot to get used to and nothing like what I had known life to be before we joined.

How old were you when you joined the commune?

I was almost 7. I lived there for eight years. I left during the mid-1980’s breakup, so was almost 15 when I left and was entered into public high school in the outside society.

Why did your mom join in the first place?

My mom was looking for a commune, that was a popular hippie ideal, and she was sick of society and was looking to drop out. The way to change society, she told me, was to “not be a part of it.”

What was life like in the commune, good and bad?

Good: It was a huge family and because it was communal, everyone was really close. There was a lot of adventures, my activities in the Love Family drama group, caravanning across the country to rainbow gatherings. Bad: I was growing up in a society where my own mother wasn’t an authority over me. One man, Love, was in total control and made all the decisions about how I was raised from where I lived, to what I ate, to who took care of me, and his authority was so great that there was no balance of power. There was no feedback loop where membership could voice complaints and be heard so that problems could be solved. It was patriarchal, so I was raised in a society where, according to doctrine, men were in charge. Love’s vision for the community reflected that. Women were subservient, and their roles were limited.

What were some of the hardest things you went through while you were a part of that?

Being in a family where women were not equal and didn’t have a voice in the leadership and in major decisions. I discuss in detail the nature of sexual relationships in the community because I had to witness my own mother’s involvement in a polygamous relationship. I discuss in my book, in excruciating detail, what I experienced when my mother was sanctioned into one such relationship. Part of the Love Family’s sordid history, that is rarely discussed publicly, is the polygamy and the Love’s Family’s version of group marriage. What was also hard was what I lost by being there, which was a close relationship with my mother. Being raised communally meant that I wasn’t close to one parent. I had a lot of parents, but when I got attention, it was part of a group, not a lot of individual attention. So when the community broke up, I was a teenager, living with my mom. She hadn’t raised me, Love had. It had a devastating impact on our relationship. Culture shock when I went to live in the outside world. The adjustment was traumatic. Growing up in the Love Family didn’t prepare me for life on the outside.

Why did you leave the commune?

The Love Family broke up. A petition had been signed by the elders and 90 percent of the membership left. My mom left with that wave. Of course, the Love Family never actually broke up. What it really was, was a mass exodus. Then once that took place, it changed drastically in order to survive the shift.

How old are you and what’s your life like now?

I am almost 50, I work in the psychology field, helping people. I live in the country, raising two daughters. We have animals.

Why did you decide to write a book?

I always wanted to tell my story. I knew that story was important. As a child, I had read the Diary of Anne Frank, and it had a big impact on me. I received, as a gift, a diary, around that

I don’t think people have any idea what was really going on in that group. It was a very isolated group, and there wasn’t a lot of interacting with the outside world. I talk in my book about controversial things that were never mentioned in the papers or articles written over the years. I see value in telling the truth of what I saw and experienced there. It has helped me heal to talk about what happened to me there, what it was like, for me, growing up in that world. One of the things that I was taught in the Love Family was that the past wasn’t important. So in the Love Family people didn’t talk about the past, and there was this focus in everyday life on the present. And there’s value in that but I have also learned that history is important because lessons can be learned that guide us into the future.

For more on the book go to rachelisrael.net

Next week: A look at the book.

https://www.arlingtontimes.com/life/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it/

Patriarch of Arlington’s Love Israel Family Ranch dies at 75

Julie Muhlstein
Herald Writer
March 29, 2016


 

Love Israel 

BOTHELL — Love Israel was a patriarch and spiritual leader. From the religious community he founded in 1968 on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill, he brought his counterculture commune to Snohomish County in the 1980s. In its heyday, the Love Israel Family Ranch near Arlington was home to more than 100 followers.

Born Paul Erdmann, Love Israel died Feb. 1 at his home in Bothell. He was 75.

“He was surrounded by people he loved and who loved him,” said Serious Israel, a follower from the community’s early days. Love Israel had suffered from cancer, Serious said.

“The last few weeks here, it was a really beautiful scene with a lot of people coming to see him,” Serious Israel said.

Love Israel is survived by his wife, Honesty Israel, and by his children: Kevin Clayton, Kim Metaxa, Life Israel, Compassion Israel, Clean Israel, Perfection Israel, More Israel, Bernadette Israel Carter, Luke Israel, Lovely Laban, Justice Israel, and many grandchildren. He also is survived by his brother, Steve Erdmann, and sisters Mary Shipp and Ellen “Dee Dee” Girt, all of Oregon. He was preceded in death by his brother, Peter Erdmann, and daughter, Tiffany Fackrell.

“His whole message was always about positivity,” said Lovely Israel Laban. She lived at the ranch until her mother left when she was 4. She attended Arlington High School and now runs a cosmetic dermatology company in Oregon and California.

“His message about love and forgiveness was very powerful,” she added.

Girt said hundreds of people attended her brother’s funeral Feb. 20 at Seattle Unity Church. “Love was a gentleman,” said Shipp, his other sister.

Their brother was born in Germany but the family moved here when they were children, Shipp said. “He grew up in Seattle,” she said. Girt said their father was Roman Catholic, but after their parents divorced religion didn’t play a big role in their lives.

It wasn’t until adulthood that Erdmann, once a TV salesman who also worked in mortgage banking, “had a life change, his belief system changed,” Shipp said.

He changed his name, too, and at a house on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill he founded the Church of Jesus Christ at Armageddon.

“He had a vision. He saw that we were all one,” said Confidence Israel, another longtime member now living near in Eastern Washington’s Stevens County.

Confidence Israel joined the commune about a year after its start. “There was a strong belief in Christianity,” he said, and followers have three key principles: “Love is the answer, now is the time, and we are all one.”

Members took the surname Israel “right out of the Bible,” Confidence said. Serious Israel said first names were discerned by Love Israel and others who witnessed individual virtues. That tradition continued for the next generation.

The Love Israel Family has existed for decades, but its history has been troubled by divisions, financial difficulties and land use regulations. In the early days, some parents even hired “deprogrammers” to remove their children from what they saw as a cult, Serious Israel said.

In 1984, the Seattle property was lost in a settlement with a former follower, Daniel Gruener.

The group battled Snohomish County in the 1990s over its yurts and other structures, many built without permits. And in 2004, a year after the Israel family filed for bankruptcy, the 300-acre ranch near Arlington was sold for $4.2 million to the Union for Reform Judaism. The Jewish denomination today runs Camp Kalsman on the bucolic site.

About 30 people associated with the Love Israel Family live in northeast Washington, where the group runs China Bend Winery.

While in the Arlington area, the Love Israel Family became a vibrant part of the community. For more than a dozen years it hosted a summer Garlic Festival, with food and live music. The Israel Family owned The Bistro, a fine-dining restaurant in Arlington, and had a construction business. Israel Family children played sports for Arlington schools.

By 2005, the Love Family had two homes in Bothell. Today, Serious Israel said, many members of the next generation live in that area.

“While we were all young, it lasted quite a good while,” Confidence Israel said. When members began having children, differences in values arose. “The winds of change blew us in different directions, like a dandelion getting blown and all the seeds flying,” he said. “Love tried to keep it all together. Overall, he was a good man, a compassionate man. But in some ways, he was blind to a lot of things.”

Serious Israel said that while members took the name Israel, they also heeded a kind of anagram: “Love Is Real.”

“We patched together our own culture,” he said.

At one point, the group had places in Seattle, Arlington, Eastern Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. “We don’t really have a communal land base anymore,” Serious Israel said. Rather than a church or a cult, he sees the Love Israel Family as “a small tribe.”

“We have our family tree and our relationships to one another,” he said. “Our kids grew up with a lot of aunts and uncles.”

On Sunday, they held a big Easter gathering.

“The sun came out and we felt very blessed to see all our young families,” Serious Israel said. “Our children don’t all share the same religious beliefs their elders had, but the principles are still the glue.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-0339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20160329/NEWS01/160328973

Counterculture icon Love Israel near death

Eric Wilkinson
KING 5 News
January 30, 2015

BOTHELL, Wash. -- Despite the sadness hanging over the Bothell home, there is a joy that fills it. It's a joy rooted in love.

Friends and family of Love Israel began celebrating his life Friday, as they prepared for his death. The 75-year-old is losing his battle with cancer, and doctors say his days are few.

"He taught us love is the answer. We're all one family. He tried to tell the whole Earth we're all one," said his wife Honesty.

It was 1968 when Paul Erdmann, a TV salesman, came to Seattle, spreading his message of God, love, peace and unity. Six people moved into the home on Queen Anne Hill, followed by many more.

At its height, the following grew to about 300 people and expanded to a commune in Arlington. There were only a small number of blood relatives. but they all considered each other part of one big family, taking on "virtue names" like Justice, Confidence and Patience. 

"People ask us, how do I join the family? You don't. You just wake up one day and realize you're in it," said his son Justice.

Justice recalled his childhood, some of which was spent in a Mongolian yurt with no electricity in the foothills of Cascades, and the transition to mainstream America.

"Every girlfriend you had, the parents were like, 'You're dating the son of a cult leader!'"

They laugh off cult comments now, saying they were simply misunderstood by most. After all, it's one thing to say we're all brothers and sisters on this planet. It's another to actually live your life that way.

"It was fear of the unknown when we were growing up," said Justice. "They didn't know what to make of it. Now people think it's cool."

Over the years family members have gone their separate ways, due in part to the loss of their Arlington property to financial issues. A core group have always stayed together, however.

Love's wife Honesty has stayed by his side for 47 years. She says it's hard to see her husband so sick, but her love is alive and well.

"Every morning I say, 'Tell me you love me!' And he still does."

The family's numbers have grown to about 100 between Bothell and their property in eastern Washington, which includes a winery. They hope to have a memorial placed at Queen Anne's Parsons Gardens Park, a focal point for them, the Israelites, in the 1960s and 1970s.

They say they're stronger than ever. And despite the loss of their patriarch, Justice says their love will never die.

"This gift, this truth that he gave to us, that's not going away."

http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/2016/01/29/counterculture-icon-love-israel-near-death/79543310/