Birthright Israel volunteers bring greenery to displaced Kibbutz Be’eri’s temporary digs
Some 2,500 people from around the world are helping landscape the compound at Kibbutz Hatzerim, southern Israel, where Be’eri residents are living until their homes are rebuilt
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
The compound housing Kibbutz Be’eri’s displaced residents in southern Israel buzzed last week as a gaggle of volunteers speaking Spanish, Portuguese, English and French helped unload a large truck, carrying off trees, bushes, and shrubs.
Dressed in green with a big floppy hat, gardening guide Yogev Vanounou shouted friendly instructions. “Let’s grab two shade trees,” he told a pair of young men, explaining that one of the trees was a moringa, known for its health benefits.
One woman pushed a wheelbarrow full of spades while another carried a tray brimming with lavender plants.
Half an hour later, dozens of people wearing gardening gloves and white T-shirts emblazoned with the Taglit Birthright Israel logo were deployed throughout the area of the compound reserved for Be’eri’s elderly residents, busily planting in small groups.
Among them, Vanounou and other green-clad guides told them what to plant, where, and how. “You need a bigger hole for a tree,” said one guide. “Ease it in slowly!” cried another.
On hearing Portuguese, Luis Gaz and his wife Parola — the only members of Be’eri originally from Brazil — emerged from their house to welcome the Brazilian volunteers. Louis proudly showed them the Brazilian flag on one of his golf carts. “[The Hamas terrorists] stole the other cart with the second flag. Today, it’s driving around in Gaza,” he quipped.
The project has brought Birthright and Israeli nonprofit Venatata together to landscape public paths and plant private gardens for each of Kibbutz Be’eri’s 287 families living temporarily in southern Israel’s Kibbutz Hatzerim.
Out of 1,000 residents of Be’eri — a lush paradise compared with the barren sands around Hatzerim — Hamas-led terrorists murdered 101 during their rampage through southern Israel on October 7, 2023. In all, some 1,200 people were murdered that day, and 251 kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. The badly damaged kibbutz is being restored and rebuilt; residents are due to return at the end of 2026 at the earliest.
Birthright — best known for the free introduction-to-Israel tours it has given to some 900,000 Jewish adults aged 18 and 26 — is providing around 2,500 volunteers for this project, which kicked off last month on Tu Bishvat — a Jewish holiday that Israelis have adopted as a local Arbor Day — and will continue until Passover, which begins April 12.
Venatata (Hebrew for the biblical injunction “You will plant”) has created more than 150 therapeutic gardens nationwide, primarily raising funds from companies whose staff then volunteer to plant. After the Hamas onslaught, the group’s leadership decided to focus on communities in the affected region.
Georgina Alculumbre, 46, from Buenos Aires, was on her fifth trip to Israel, joining two friends, Gisela Albus and Gabriela Stolovisky.
All three said the trip had warmed their souls and that the interaction with Israelis had been more meaningful as volunteers rather than as tourists. Two days before, they had helped cook Argentinian asado meat for Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese border. “They kept thanking us for coming,” Alculumbre said.
Brian Jadd, a government worker from Toronto, also on his fifth visit to Israel, said the project had brought him closer to the Jewish state. In Toronto, antisemitism is on the rise, he explained, and regular anti-Israel protests are held outside the Jewish community center he frequents. He said he hides his Star of David necklace when on the streets.
Jadd added that he was waiting to visit the site of the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Rei’m, where terrorists slaughtered some 360 revelers on October 7 and abducted over 40 to the Gaza Strip. “I’m 26,” he said. “The people there were around my age. They could have been friends of mine.”
Elvin Roytman, a real estate salesman from Brooklyn, had not visited Israel since participating in Birthright’s 10-day introductory program 20 years ago.
“It’s nice not to have to have pepper spray in your pocket,” he said, adding that “for 15 months, I’ve carried a razor blade to take down antisemitic posters in Brooklyn and Manhattan.” The planting activity, he continued, was “good for mind, body and soul.”
Daniel Alon, a semi-retired air conditioning installer originally from Argentina, came out of his home to welcome the Argentinians. “Where are you from?” he asked one volunteer, who pointed to Alon’s heart and said, “I want to be here.”
“Kol hakavod [all the respect] to them,” Alon said. “It feels like all the People of Israel are coming to volunteer.” His wife Naomi disappeared into the house in tears, later emerging with a box full of home-baked walnut cookies.
Venatata CEO Dorielle Rimmer estimated that at least 1,000 trees and 50,000 other plants will be in Hatzerim’s sandy ground by Passover, irrigated by piping donated by the global drip company Netafim, which is based at Hatzerim. She added that the organization is now seeking funds to create three large community gardens at the site.
Once Be’eri’s residents return to their rebuilt kibbutz, Kibbutz Hatzerim will likely expand into the area, or a new community will move in.
‘A win-win’
Gidi Mark, international CEO of Taglit Israel Birthright, told The Times of Israel that the organization has brought 10,000 people on the 10-day introductory tour since October 7 and an additional 10,000 to volunteer. Most of the latter were graduates of the former, he said. “As soon as they dirty their nails in the soil here, they take ownership of the Jewish and Israeli story,” he said, calling it a win-win.
Riky Grunewald, originally from Argentina, led a group from that country. A tour guide in Israel for 25 years, he said he could “kiss the hand” of Birthright for giving him his first guiding work since October 7, 2023.
The program is a win-win in other ways too: Student Emanuel Kogan, 29, from Tennessee, and car saleswoman Keely Young, 27, from Colorado, fell in “love at first sight” while volunteering over the week and intend to get married. Young took part in an introductory Birthright trip three years ago. Kogan’s Israeli parents, originally from Moldova, left the Jewish state for the US when he was 10. Gidi Mark said 150,000 people have met their spouses through Birthright.
The Birthright Israel volunteer program is run in partnership with Mosaic United, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, and Jewish philanthropists and communities worldwide.
