Summer on an Israeli field of dreams: To these kids, baseball is life

Photo: Robert Kerzner

At summer baseball camp in Israel, young players listen to coaches intently. 

As part of our #JNF #SummerLovin series focusing on lesser-known Israeli summer happenings that also happen to be #PoweredByJNF, we bring you the story of a baseball camp where young players dream big.    

By Leslie Katz

Ido Peled wants to play in the Major Leagues one day. So does Uri Federman, Nadav Schwartz, Yair Chen, and virtually every other Israeli boy crowded into the bleachers of a Petah Tikvah baseball field on a sticky late morning in July.

For these 12- to 15-year-olds attending summer baseball training camp in Israel, America's favorite pastime is far more than just a pastime. 

"Baseball," Gal Partouche says simply, "is my life." His baseball buddies would surely echo the sentiment.

On JLIM leadership mission, getting emotional in the Arava desert

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Starrett

JNFuture Arizona board members (from left) Penelope Karp Abad, Andy Becker, Talyah Sands, Jennifer Starrett, and Stephanie Kelman visit Alexander Muss High School in Israel during the JLIM. 

JNFuture Arizona board members are currently in Israel on the Jewish National Fund Leadership Mission in Israel (JLIM), and are sharing their impressions on the blog for the Jewish News, a weekly newspaper serving Greater Phoenix and Northern Arizona. Here, one participant shares some thoughts from the fourth day.

By Stephanie Kelman

I had the understanding after 10 years of involvement in JNF that the Arava was an important project that revolved around agriculture innovation. I had no idea that the Arava desert itself was an example of Zionist pioneering to the greatest extent. About 4,000 pioneers have established themselves in one of the most extreme and difficult environments in the world to show our Jordanian neighbors that we are here and flourishing.

Our JNFuture group was fortunate to learn about the Arava from Noa Zer, resource development director of the Central Arava Regional Council. While I was impressed by the agriculture innovation and spirit of the residents, the Arava International Center for Agricultural Training (AICAT) school astounded me and I was overwhelmed with passion and a true sense of connectivity that I had not yet experienced with a specific JNF project.

In the JNF Kitchen: Osi's summer cauliflower patties

Enjoy the inaugural recipe in our new JNF #RecipeOfTheWeek series: Osi's summer cauliflower patties! 

These cauliflower patties are light and crunchy, and fragrant with spices from Morocco. Osnat Lankri owns a catering business, Osi events, in Ofakim, a small town west of Be'er Sheva in the Negev. Her delicious cuisine reflects her Moroccan and Iraqi roots.

From Gaza to Halutza: Stories from 10 pioneering years on a new frontier

Photo: Robert Kerzner

The Halutza community of B'nei Netzarim. 

By Megan E. Turner

Standing on a hill overlooking B'nei Netzarim, one of the small communities that comprise Halutza in the southwestern Negev desert, one can see a dry, rocky sandscape spread all around.

The sky seems a little bigger here, without urban life blocking its grandeur, but this expansiveness also serves as a reminder of the isolation necessary to create it. This is indeed pioneer land that finds residents building something from nothing, all while coping with the difficulties of remote desert farm life and the painful memory of a life that once was.

Mother Nature program: Helping battered women heal through the great outdoors

A child's depiction of the LOTEM Mother Nature outing. 

By Miriam Braun 

Mothers and children splashing in a stream.

There are currently 13 shelters for battered women and children in Israel, housing up to 650 residents per year. Imagine the fear, isolation, and trauma experienced by these victims, not being able to leave their residences alone, afraid of being recognized or followed. 

LOTEM - Making Nature Accessible, recognizing the need to promote trust, independence, and leadership in these moms and kids, has developed the Mother Nature program to provide days of relief and respite to them through the healing power of nature.

LOTEM -- which offers educational outdoor activities throughout the country for children and adults with special needs -- also guides trips for battered women and their kids, from newborns to teens, into parks, trails, and quiet streams. There, participants learn about their surroundings, including lessons about ecology and seasonal patterns in vegetation and animals that they can relate to their own stormy lives. 

The natural surroundings allow the participants to relax and let go. Hadas, director of a Haifa shelter for battered women, says that one day in nature often does more for the women and children than several therapy sessions.

Baseball, goats, and glida: #JNF #SummerLovin uncovers hidden treasures

Photo: Robert Kerzner

Been to Israel in the summer? Then you've probably spent a balmy evening walking Jerusalem's Old City, floated in the warm waters of the Dead Sea, and downed a cold beer in a bustling outdoor cafe on Dizengoff Street.

But have you ever enjoyed a nighttime concert at a desert amphitheater? Wound your way through Israel's sun-drenched wineries? Pitched a tent just feet from a gaggle of goats?

You can, and throughout August, we'll tell you how. To celebrate summer in Israel, JNF-style, we'll feature stories of some of the country's best kept summer secrets, all #PoweredByJNF.  

Fighting the Beit Shemesh fire: A dramatic view from the ground in pictures

Photo: Or Many

A firetruck bearing the JNF logo at the site of the massive Beit Shemesh fire. 

A huge fire -- the largest in Israel since the 2010 Carmel forest fire -- destroyed nearly 400 acres of the beautiful Beit Shemesh forest west of Jerusalem late last month. Tens of JNF fire trucks and 50 JNF forestry personnel, along with firefighters from all over the country, joined to battle the raging blaze. It is believed the damage to the forest is so severe it will take nature 20 years to recover.

"Firefighters were deployed in large forces in the field to give a quality response, with great personal risk," Chief Shmuel Friedman, acting head of operations of Israel's fire and rescue service, told the JNF. "Despite the intense heat and smoke on a particularly hot day, the fire fighters were able to fight hard to stop the fire, preventing it from spreading to the communities." 

Crews remain on the scene and are still extinguishing reigniting areas while also removing trees in danger of collapse. Click through our gallery below to get a sense of how the drama unfolded -- and is still unfolding -- on the ground. All photos by Or Many.