ISRAEL21c-Shafrir Levi's baby boy loves to slurp spoonsful of bananas, pears and apples mashed with pure sesame-seed paste, known as tahina in Israel and tahini most other places.

The baby's affinity for ground sesame seeds is understandable, and not just because tahini is a staple of the Israeli diet (the word tahina comes from the Hebrew verb "to grind"). His ancestor in Morocco was a master of making the tahini-based treat called halva, and opened the Halva Kingdom in Jerusalem in 1947.

Today, Shafrir Levi manages the Halva Kingdom factory near Jerusalem, supplying 23 flavors of tahini and 52 flavors of halva to seven branded stores in the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem and in the Carmel and Sarona markets in Tel Aviv, as well as retailers across Israel and now in Russia and the United States.

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