Everything to know about Tu BiShvat, the original Earth Day

By Yossi Kahana 

When is the last time you wished a tree Happy New Year? The 15th day of the month of Shevat on the Hebrew calendar is a great opportunity. It's known as Tu BiShvat, the New Year for Trees. This year, we will celebrate on Monday, February 10, 2020.

Why is Tu BiShvat in the winter? Why celebrate trees when nothing is growing?

The 15th of Shevat is the midpoint between fall and spring. Once half the winter has passed, its strength is weakened, the cold is not as intense, and the budding process begins.

So, yes, it may be smack in the middle of winter, but Tu BiShvat marks a turning point, a time when under all that cold and snow the sap of the trees is rising, readying for spring. 

Meet three inspiring young women Zionists working to protect Israel

In honor of Tu BiShvat, which is January 21, we're profiling three amazing women who proudly serve the land and people of Israel through Hashomer Hachadash, which assists farmers and ranchers faced with challenges in protecting and securing their land. 

Esther and husband, Raz

My name is Esther, and I am 24 years old, married to Raz and living in a community in the northern region of Israel. I grew up most of my life in Manchester, England, in a Zionist home and as an active member of the Bnei Akiva youth movement. 

I always had a deep connection to Israel, and felt as if it was a home away from home. After high school, I decided to take a gap year in a seminary based on a kibbutz in the north. I took part in a program to get the real "Israel experience." 

I thoroughly enjoyed my gap year and bonded with many Israeli girls on the program, which opened my eyes to what I was looking for in terms of my future. I suddenly found it difficult to accept that I was supposed to go back to England and start university, while the Israeli girls on my program were about to get drafted and give two years of their lives defending our country. 

Building Israel and battling terrorism, one tree at a time

Rosaline and Alan Barron, both doctors from Newton, Mass., encourage planting trees
in Israel for Tu BiShvat. 

Alan and Rosaline Barron are kicking off their new JNF-sponsored mission right before the Jewish festival of Tu BiShvat, the "New Year for Trees." It's a time of renewal, and a celebration of nature and the environment. They are encouraging others to do the same. This article originally appeared here. 

By Marina Brodetsky

For years, Dr. Rosaline Barron woke up every day and asked herself the same question: “What have I done for Israel today?”

Now the recently retired gastroenterologist of Newton, Mass., has an answer -- and it's the same one every day. She's committed to planting a tree in Israel every day for the rest of her life through Jewish National Fund, continuing to help build the land of Israel.

"I can’t yet be there to live and work, but I can commit to Israel with the gift to JNF of planting one tree every day. It’s really a gift to myself,” she said. “By doing this small thing, my husband and I have participated in the ongoing journey to take care of building the land of Israel."

A child of Holocaust survivors, Barron remembers always having a Jewish National Fund Blue Box, or pushke, in the home that served as an inseparable link between Diaspora Jewry and the people of Israel. She and her husband, Alan, a retired internist, honeymooned in Israel and have returned many times, visiting the well-known sites, spending time with family, and yes, planting trees.

91-year-old veteran and great-grandpa wins Israel trip for Tu BiShvat

Gordon Mellish might just have a new favorite holiday.  

The 91-year old great-grandfather and WWII veteran from Clemmens, North Carolina, won the JNF Tu BiShvat Sweepstakes in celebration of the Jewish New Year for Trees.

Mellish is a retiree of the Martin Marietta Co. who also worked as a sewage treatment supervisor in Toledo, Ohio. He bought $2,000 worth of trees during the sweepstakes and said he supports Israel through Jewish National Fund regularly because he looks at Israel as a "flowering oasis." 

Saplings honoring lost life take root in Israeli soil, and sisters' hearts

Tu BiShvat bash in Tel Aviv connects hundreds with their roots: 'I've never seen anything like it'

By Shira Nussdorf

Heavy winds and driving rain couldn't dampen spirits at the Tel Aviv Tu BiShvat wine and cheese tasting seder this past Sunday night. Hundreds of young Jews gathered at the JNFuture Israel event to learn traditional Tu BiShvat customs using the latest technology. 

"I came all the way from Jerusalem to check out this scene,” said Ahuva Moses, a sociologist from New York City. "I've never seen anything like it."

Guests included students and new olim (immigrants), JNFuture members, and a rabbi to lead the event. Rabbi Shlomo Chayen, with a glass in one hand and an iPhone in the other, challenged the crowd to participate in a Jewish-themed trivia game. Winners received a bottle of wine from a Golan winery as participants learned blessings. 

For Tu BiShvat, going back to nature as it was in biblical times

Tu BiShvat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar, marks the new year for trees in Israel. It's a time of renewal in nature when the earliest-blooming trees awaken from their dormant winter state and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle. 

There is perhaps no better place in Israel to observe this process than at Neot Kedumim, a reserve that's host to a biblical landscape in the heart of the country. Neot Kedumim was founded in 1964 near the city of Modi'in, and was once a barren no-man's land on the border with Jordan. Its founder, the late Israel Prize winner Nogah Hareuveini, turned it into a lush re-creation of Israel's ancient landscape that today serves as both a 625-acre park and a learning center. It also encompasses the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Harvey Hertz Ceremonial Tree Planting Center.

Plant a tree, and win a trip to Israel

Photo: Eric Elkins

Plant a tree in Israel and win a chance to go there -- for free. 

Fancy a free to trip to Israel? 

In celebration of Tu BiShvat -- the Jewish New Year for trees, which will be celebrated on February 4 -- the Jewish National Fund is offering a chance to win a trip to Israel by planting a tree.

    
JNF has partnered with EL AL Airlines and the Carlton Hotel Tel Aviv for an exciting online raffle. When you plant a tree through jnf.org between January 26, 2015 at 12 a.m. ET and February 4, 2015 at 11:59:59 p.m. ET, you will be entered to win two free round-trip tickets to Israel, courtesy of EL AL Airlines, and a free two-night stay at the luxury Carlton Tel Aviv, breakfast included. Ten runners-up will win a free JNF E-Z Tree account, which allows you to purchase trees at a discount. 

    
"I was so grateful for this wonderful experience," said last year's winner, Susan Mair of Sarasota, Fla. "Israel always brings out deep feelings in my heart, and I am amazed at the ingenuity of the Israelis to overcome all obstacles."