Bedouin life - a "new" model of sustainable living

While "sustainability" is the environmental buzz word of the day, the Negev Bedouins have been part of this trend since their earliest days.  Their nomadic lifestyle has roots in making the most out of the dry regional landscape in which they live.  Bedouins have been practicing sustainable farming and agricultural techniques in the desert environment for thousands and thousands of years.  There is so much we can learn from their model and now JNF is working in partnership with the Bedouin municipality of Hura to do just that!

Bedouin practices have historically relied on herding sheep for meat, milk, and clothing - using every part of the animal, letting no part go to waste.  They have collected, saved and planted ancient seeds, some which are no longer available otherwise, which are favorable to the desert's unique growing challenges.

Since the urbanization of Negev Bedouin life at the start of the Ottoman rule, most have lost their connection to these ancient practices as their lifestyles have been more "modernized" and therefore less sustainable.  Project Wadi Attir is a collaboration meant to get Bedouins back to their ancient practices and to serve as a model for desert communities worldwide.

Jewish National Fund is working with the Bedouin Hura Municipal Council on this truly unique and empowering collaboration.  The project was designed by The Sustainability Laboratories and the local population to help bring back these ancient techniques with the purpose of creating community based enterprise combining Bedouin aspirations, values and experience with sustainability principles, modern day science and cutting edge technologies.

The core of the enterprise will involve raising several hundred goats and sheep, to produce organic meat and dairy products. In addition, a significant portion of the farm will be dedicated to the cultivation of a wide variety of medicinal plants that have been valued by generations of Bedouins for their health benefits. The medicinal plant operation will showcase and preserve Bedouin knowledge of natural remedies and will produce a line of healing and body care products.  Project Wadi Attir is also re-introducing the production of highly nutritious, desert hardy, indigenous vegetables which once formed an important part of the Bedouin diet, using the ancient seeds that have been saved over many generations.  In addition to growing these native vegetables on the site, a seed bank will be created and a women-led program will be launched to help spread the cultivation of vegetable gardens on family managed plots - empowering local women and girls!

Imagine - a project that connects urban Bedouins with their traditional practices, that generates new income, and re-introduces a healthier lifestyle into the community, all while serving as a model for communities in similar landscapes worldwide!  The project has attracted many collaborators, including the Bedouin community members, university scientists and researches, local non-profit organizations, a nearby kibbutz, government agencies and private sector companies. Project Wadi Attir has recently been established as the first ever, Bedouin agricultural cooperative in Israel. 

Sustainability is not a new concept!  We have much to learn from cultures, like the Bedouins, who are experts in conserving the small resources available to them and making the best use of their sparse environment!

LOTEM and the JNF – Here for the People of Southern Israel / Aviv Paz

As someone who has been through the 2006 Lebanon War in one of Israel’s northern cities (Carmiel, which suffered some 160 rocket hits), none were as happy as I was at the idea of hosting residents from southern Israel at LOTEM's Farm at  Emek HaShalom, and at the possibility to make their time a pleasant one.

When operation Pillar of Defense began, we were contacted by our longstanding partners at the JNF, who inquired about our needs, for the purpose of assisting residents of the South at this hard time. That very day we requested JNF’s assistance in taking groups of children and adults with special needs from the South on stress-relieving day trips and activities, away from the battle zones. Gladly, JNF responded immediately, and we were able to take seven groups of children, adolescents and adults out on a restful activity in nature, within a day’s notice.

The first group that visited us at Emek HaShalom, near Yokne’am, was very diverse, and included children at kindergarten age, children in elementary school, adolescents and parents. Some children and youths even arrived without their parents. They didn’t ask for much – all they wanted was a short break from the harsh reality surrounding them at home. Success was not guaranteed, as visitors’ faces showed their worries, stress and fears. The young children cooperated fully, and clang to the olive workshop products without letting go, as if receiving an empowering force. Just before the group got on to the vehicles taking them back to Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek, where they were staying at the time, we managed to take a short trip to Forer Spring, and hear more of their daily nightmarish routine in the South. We bid them farewell wishing them peace and quiet.

The next day a group of boys studying in grades 8-12 from Kedma Youth Village, came to Emek HaShalom by foot, after walking from Emi Spring, passing HaShofet Stream. Following an olive workshop that included producing oil at the olive press, the boys made pita bread at a field oven (taboon), a rich vegetable salad and tahini, with sweet krembo for dessert. A bit of small talk, a short goodbye, and on to the buses they went.

In Jerusalem we were visited by five more groups of adolescents and adults with mental disabilities, residing in hostels at Ashkelon, Ashdod and Be’er Sheva. All groups expressed endless gratitude for the opportunity to go out on a trip away from the battle area, at a time of pressure, stress and anxiety, which only amplified their everyday emotional difficulties.

The last group that came on a trip was one of women from a battered women’s shelter in Be’er Sheva. A day before JNF’s approach, the shelter’s manager at Be’er Sheva sent us a heartrending letter, pleading to take the women and children from the shelter on an outing away from the battle zones. In her words “it’s not enough that these women suffered violence at home for years, they are now coping with violence on a national scale, and the tension at the shelter is mounting…” Gladly, we were able to provide them with a day of joy and repose in the Jerusalem Mountains.

Emek HaShalom, the farm on which most of the activities during the fighting took place, stands true to its  Hebrew name – "a valley of peace". Our purpose at LOTEM is to provide peace, quiet, rest and tranquility to all who knock on our doors. We had the pleasure to give enjoyable experiences to these groups, who experienced difficult times living under routine rocket and missile barrages. We hope we succeeded in our mission, if only for a few hours, and pray for quieter and more tranquil days.

It should also be noted that thanks to JNF’s commitment and help, the Christian Embassy in Israel also joined in assisting LOTEM’s activity, enabling us to continue providing days of repose for the children of the South throughout the year. Although the military operation had come to its close, it must be kept in mind that its physical and mental consequences will sadly remain for a long time.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all supporters at the JNF, who made it possible for us to carry out these activities.

44 candles

Do you remember where you were 2 years ago for the first day of Chanukah?  It's been two years since the first day of Chanukah 2010. A day when we light a fire in the menorah. You see - fire is a great thing. It brings light. We light candles to welcome the holy Shabbat. We light the menorah to commemorate the miracles. We light the fire place to stay warm on cold winter nights..... But two years ago on the first day of Chanukah another fire started. It was the first day of Chanukah 2010 when the Carmel fire began. It is two years since 44 people lost their lives and 44 families were shattered.  

Chanukah is a time to remember and celebrate the miracles. In those days and today G-d makes miracles. In this generation we have so much to be grateful for and so much to celebrate as well. The miracle of having a homeland. The miracle of being free..... And there are still many miracles that we perform together every day. 

We have made Israel a safer place over the last two years. We have purchased many new fire trucks and life saving equipment. We are currently building a new fire station on Mount Carmel which could have prevented the fire.  There are still many miracles we need to work on. It's two years later. We remember the 44 people who lost their lives and we promise to continue to work for a better tomorrow. 

Did you ever realize how many candles we light on Chanukah?  Take a look at your Chanukah candle boxes. There are 44 candles in total, lit over 8 days. Wow. 44 people lost theirs lives in the carmel fire.  Let us light 44 candles and remember them. 

From our JNF family to yours, Chanukah sa'meach!!! Thanks for the miracles. 

Love,

The Kotlers

March of object

March of objects

By Marina Furman, Regional Director - JNF Regional Director, Eastern Pennsylvania

Iranian human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh sits starving in a prison cell in Tehran. Twenty-five years ago that was me. The prison was Leningrad, but the story was the same – a mother of young children punished by a dictatorial regime, yearning for the basic freedoms Americans sometimes take for-granted.

Protesters carry images of Sotoudeh, and clamor for her freedom. Americans did the same for me. And soon after, I was free.

For more than a decade my husband Lev and I had been denied permission to leave the Soviet Union. We were “refuseniks” – and in November 1987 the Soviet government again informed us that we would never be permitted to leave. And so we planned the first unauthorized demonstration on Palace Square– the very site of the 1917 Communist Revolution – knowing full-well that the KGB would be closely monitoring. We brought along our infant daughter Aliyah (named for the Hebrew term for emigrating to Israel).

The timing of our demonstration was not coincidental. For we had learned that our brethren in the United States were preparing a massive demonstration of their own – one that would end up with 250,000 participants, constituting the largest gathering of Jews ever in North America - as the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrived for the first time in Washington, D.C. to meet President Ronald Reagan.

We left our apartment in Leningrad, carrying protest posters and started our 20 minute walk to the Palace Square. As a mother, I was overwhelmed by the knowledge that I could be placing Aliyah at risk, but impelled by the awareness that her future had to come from a willingness to speak truth to power. As we walked, two KGB cars followed along loudly trying to intimidate us by referring to our family as “objects” and I understood that this captured the essence of what we Jews were in the Soviet Union: Objects of oppression. We walked on proudly knowing that we would be metaphorically linking arms with 250,000 activists in America so that our baby girl would never grow up to be an object of the Soviet regime.

At the Palace Square the KGB and approximately 40 policemen were waiting. We chained ourselves to Aliyah’s carriage so we couldn’t be separated and took out the Soviet constitution that guaranteed freedom of expression. The three of us were quickly arrested and shoved into the bus and taken to prison. Aliyah and I were imprisoned with no food or water for five hours and were separated and kept in the different cells for much of the time. Lev spent 10 days in the prison. It was to be the last of his many arrests. The Soviet officials were bombarded by telegrams from thousands of activists in the United States. Eight days after Lev’s release from prison, on the last day of Hanukkah after more than a decade of trying, we were finally given an exit visa, to leave the Soviet Union.

Twenty five years later, Sotoudeh is imprisoned for daring to speak out against the oppressive and tyrannical Iranian regime and its denial of freedom of expression. Where are the hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding freedom for today’s prisoners of conscience? Twenty five years ago a small group of refuseniks were able to defeat a global superpower and brutal dictatorship because Americans on the other side of the globe fought for our freedom as fiercely as their forebears had fought for their own freedom 200 years earlier.

Theories abound for the reasons that Gorbachev initiated perestroika. I believe that on the Freedom Sunday 25 years ago, a quarter-million activists on the Mall shook Gorbachev.

A quarter of a century later as prisoners of conscience suffer in jail, Ahmadinejad visits the U.N., does media interviews and speaks at universities. Many speak out against him – but not enough. One generation after the incredible success story that was the Soviet Jewry movement, its lessons must be renewed and applied to present circumstances. Regimes that deny basic rights of speech and assembly to their citizens are a threat to freedom everywhere. They must be confronted. And the lesson of my experience is that if they are confronted with sufficient passion and scale, freedom will prevail.

Marina Furman is a former Refusenik and a member of the steering committee of Freedom 25, a coalition focused on teaching the history and lessons of the Soviet Jewry movement to the next generation.

Nofey Prat

After touring Israel on the President's Society Mission this past November my wife and I visited the community of Nofey Prat.  Nofey Prat is located just east of Jerusalem.  Several years ago we worked with JNF to build a playground for the children of that town in memory of my grandparents, Hedwig and Benno Gutmann, who were killed in the Shoah at Auschwitz in 1943. Since then we have added an adult fitness area and recently the town put in some awnings to shade the playground.  All in all, the park at Nofey Prat looks great.  During our visit we met many members of the community who not only thanked us but ensured us that the park has changed life in the town of Nofey Prat by affording children a place to play and parents to meet while their children are playing.  Because the day of our visit was cold, we were invited to the kindergarten where we met both 4 and 5 year old pupils.  They presented us with many drawings and sang us songs to let us know how appreciative they were of the work done by JNF to improve their lives.  It's been a pleasure for my wife and myself to witness the change we made in Nofey Prat and an honor to work with JNF to transform Israel into a better and better nation.  It's especially heartwarming to see on people's faces in Israel how appreciative they are of the assistance given to them by JNF USA.

Benjamin Gutmann 

Our recent mission to Israel - Bob Levine

Helen and I have just finished another amazing JNF Leadership Tour of Israel. We have visited sites all over the Negev and the Galil and are feeling so proud of JNF's contributions to making Israel "a better place.
Our mission began on Sunday evening with an opening banquet in Jerusalem where we were addressed by the former Israeli Ambassador to the US Danny Ayalon.  He gave us an overview of Israel and its international relations issues.  He is always a truly dynamic speaker.
PS – the food was delicious.

Monday morning we went to the Jerusalem Headquarters of the Israeli firefighters.  There we saw a demonstration as to how different types of fires have to be handled.  We also saw many different types of trucks and equipment as the Israeli fire department has both urban and forest responsibilities to fight fires.  Several of the trucks bore JNF emblems as they had been donate by JNF USA.  At one point the fire chief asked to be introduced to me and invited me up to his office to show me something.  He said we had something in common.  I was stretching my mind to figure out what that could be.  I was remembering that as a teenager I had almost started a forest fire.  In any event, there on his office wall was a large picture with 4 people.  He was on the left and I was on the right.  We were standing mid-court at a Hapoel Jerusalem basketball game presenting gifts to a seriously ill young man.  This was done by the Jerusalem team but they chose the four of us to make the presentation. What a small world!  The Chief indicated to us that he was seriously understaffed considering the size of Jerusalem, new and old cities.  In fact there is NO fire station in the Old City.  He wants one desperately.

From the fire headquarters we travelled to the Gush Etzion block to see a proposed JNF project which is to refurbish and upgrade the museum in memory of the defenders of the Gush bloc all of whom died in the War of Independence when Arabs and Jordanian troops surrounded the Gush bloc. The Jewish residents fought to the last man but in the end they all perished when they ran out of ammunition. Today wives and children of those early settlers and defenders as well as new residents are living there in a thriving group of communities with industry, agriculture and educational institutions.  After lunch we had four of their representatives talk to us about their politics, industry, culture and agriculture. We returned to Jerusalem to another feast meal at the hotel and a talk by the minister of trade and industry.

Tuesday we drove down south to the Negev.  This has been a prime area for JNF activity in which we have undertaken many projects.  We drove down the new Route 6 superhighway and could see where the railroad from Tel Aviv to Beersheva is now fully two tracked so that trains don't have to be shunted to a siding to pass each other.  The trip can be made one way in 55 minutes. A reasonable commute.
 
We have seen the amazing Beersheva River project in which JNF is building a lake in the middle of the desert. It will be second in size only to the Kinneret and because of our creative thinking it will use reclaimed water so as not to use precious drinking water. Our group planted Eucalyptus trees along the river banks. We visited the Beersheva Amphitheatre project with 4,000 permanent seats and an additional 8,000 lawn seats which will make it the largest in Israel. It will help be a magnet to bring people to the desert. We then visited the construction sites for several new Negev communities to attract both religious and non-religious people to the Negev.

We also visited the Abraham's Well tourist site still under construction.  Before we left Beersheva we stopped to see the Pipes Bridge, which was funded by a client of mine with some assistance from Helen and me.  It is an amazing site to see. We also visited the development town of Arad where we dedicated our gift of a Skate Board course in their Central park as a gift to the children of Arad. We also visited the new community of Givot Bar, 5 miles from Beersheva, where we visited our gift of a brand new "Central Park" with its playground equipment and a little water stream to flow through it creating a great place for fun and relaxation under shade
trees. We saw the newly completed primary school and nursery and the thirty new homes under construction.

We ended our tour of the Negev with a visit to the magnificent indoor bomb-proof playground in Sederot. We got there about 5 pm and the building was filled with over 600 children.  Some were playing soccer or using the disco or the rock climbing wall or the computer room or the pin pong, knock hockey or computer game machines. The younger children were playing in the miniature supermarket filling up their shopping carts with make believe canned foods, loaves of bread, etc. Parents were sitting in the cafe area sipping tea or coffee and munching on a danish while enjoying watching their children gleefully playing. IT WAS SO GRATIFYING TO KNOW THAT WE HAD BROUGHT TREMENDOUS JOY into what would otherwise be a sad lonely existence staying at home near their safe room (BOMB SHELTER) in the event of a rocket attack from Gaza.  How proud all of us JNFers are or should be! Wednesday we left Jerusalem and drove north.  Our first stop was a sewerage recycling plant in Israel opposite Tulkarem in the Palestinian West Bank.  Unfortunately the Palestinians do not process their sewerage letting it run through the streets and down the mountainside into Israel.  With JNF assistance a recycling plant captures the runoff sewage and treats it so that it becomes "safe" water.  If not, the Alexander River (which flows out to the Mediterranean) would be polluted, the fish would die and all the picnic and other park sites would be unusable due to the stench.  Kudos to us!

From there we traveled further north to Lotem, an amazing JNF park facility.  Nature provides a spring that spouts water all year round near the top of a mountain and flows down to the bottom of the mountain where Kibbutz Ein Hashofet is located.  The name means the "spring of the judge."  It was named in memory of Judge Louis Dembitz Brandeis by some American settlers.  JNF built a forest trail alongside a paved path (wide enough for a wheelchair and sloped so that a reasonably strong occupant of the chair, or caretaker, can roll himself up the mountain (down is really easy).   There are picnic areas and many groups of physically challenged kids as well as injured soldiers are brought here for outdoor experiences in addition to scouting and other youth groups.  Every time I go there I have plenty of opportunities to perform magic shows for the groups.  They are very appreciative audiences.

From Lotem we traveled to a Druze village (Usafiya) for a kosher Druze lunch.  It was delicious!  Unfortunately, it was in this village that two Druze boys were outside smoking an Arab water-pipe.  When they had finished smoking they tapped their pipes to empty the ashes. Unfortunately all of the embers were not extinguished and as a result they started to burn some forest tinder and in a very short time the disastrous Carmel Forest fire was begun.  The fire turned out to be the worst in Israel's history.  The fire caused 44 deaths including one 15 year old Junior fire fighter.  After lunch we traversed the forest and ended up at the Carmel Hotel Spa, a very luxurious hotel. When we arrived we were met by a representative of the youth group, Green Horizons, together with about a dozen of the youngster members. Green Horizons is an outdoor hiking, camping, leadership training group which promotes social responsibility, physical and mental development and leadership training for kids of high school age and older.  They invited our mission participants to join them on a short hike in the Carmel mountains.  About a dozen of us agreed to join them.  The kids were bright, knowledgeable, very friendly and were chosen because they all knew English.  As we hiked along the crest of the mountain we could see nature at its finest.  The kids pointed out plants and flowers. They told us which were edible and which were poisonous.  They explained how the forest was regenerating itself after the fire and much more. Halfway along the trail they surprised us. There were three kids who had been sent ahead, made a "protected" fire and made tea from plants we had seen on the trail.  It was delicious.  We returned to the Hotel, I did another magic show for the kids, they left and we prepared for another delicious dinner.

Thursday, our last mission day, was another moving experience.  We started by driving to the memorial site that has been erected in the Carmel forest for the 45 victims of the fire (the prison guards, the police chief, the firefighters and the 15 year old junior fire fighter). There we had a surprise dedication of a small forest fire truck that had been bought with the funds raised by a young Bar Mitzvah boy who, two years ago, asked that in lieu of Bar Mitzvah gifts that his friends and family help buy a fire truck.  He had joined his mother on this trip and to the cheers and applause of all of us, climbed behind the wheel of the truck with cameras flashing all around. It was a beautiful and symbolic act of practicality.  After the truck was properly presented to the fire chief we moved on to the memorial plaza. The memorial sculpture is a long piece of steel that curves off into space and partially turns back and abruptly ends.  It is moving in its simplicity.  There is a commemorative wall that lists all the names and ages.  We had with us at the memorial ceremony the mother of the 15 year old boy who perished.  He was her only child.  She had been devastated by the loss and did not leave her house for 7 months from the time of his death.  Russell Robinson, our CEO of JNF of America,
would visit her on each of his visits to Israel (he had visited her on the third day after his death) trying to comfort her and Russell told her that JNF had created a scholarship for other teen agers to be fire scouts like her son.  JNF also contacted the boy's school and agreed with the principal to build an area on the school grounds in his memory.  Students of the school and members of JNF's college program, Alternative Winter Break worked together to build the memorial space. It is a hallowed ground at the school and an inspiration to many other youngsters to volunteer for service to the nation. His mother spoke and told us of her son, of his dedication, of JNF's support to her and her husband and of her great appreciation for Russell's friendship As she put it… "A friend found me."  We all said Kaddish and were moved to tears.  Tears of sadness for the loss….tears of joy for the
good man can do for man.  As we got back on the bus I couldn't help but feel so proud.

During the four days we trans versed Israel from Negev to Galilee many of our co-travelers took the mike and addressed the group.  They spoke of the projects that they had sponsored and the sense of pride and satisfaction when they saw the joy they had brought to others, of our amazing collective effort on behalf of the environment and our constant efforts to improve the quality of life.

We, the Jewish People, have a reputation for goodness, and deeds of loving kindness.  Everything JNF had done that we had witnessed showed our concern for the land and people of Israel.  We have been working to transform the desert into a paradise, to improve the quality of life for all the residents of Israel, Jew and non-Jew.  We have done it with hard work, creativity, enthusiasm, integrity and love for the land and its people.  How proud we are that our efforts are being appreciated by so many.  How thrilled we are to know how many mitzvahs we are performing.  Increasing those deeds of loving kindness is dependent on bringing many more JNFers to see Israel with their own eyes and have them find the challenge that they want to address…. to make Israel and the world a better place.

Bob Levine

Dear JNF family,

Today marks two years since one of the worst tragedies in the history of the state of Israel - the Carmel fire, which took the lives of 44 people. Since then there have been many fires. Israel fire and rescue services have responded to more then 150,000 calls: home fires, forest fires, motor vehicle accidents, terror and rocket attacks and so much more. Although our brave fire fighters have been long forgotten by the press, we, you, JNF, our family has not forgotten them for one second. Today is a time to reflect and remember. To remember the ones who have lost their lives. To reflect on what we have done and on what we still can do.

Over the last two years, together we have made Israel a safer place. The new fire trucks, equipment, scouts program fire stations and so much more have made a crucial difference in Israel.  Every fire fighter in Israel knows who JNF is – and what JNF has done for Israel. 

Let’s take a minute to stop and remember, Elad Riven, Uri Samindiev and Dani Chayat – the three fire fighters who sacrificed their lives in an attempt to save others. Let’s commit to the future together – to make sure another tragedy like this can never and will never happen again.

Together we are making a difference each and every day!!! Thank you for being part of Israel's fire fighters.

Toda Raba.

Yael 

JNF-FIF liason