Six months in the Gaza envelope
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“To our friend, our new family, Livnot U’Lehibanot, I want to thank you in the name of Kibbutz Zikim for all the assistance – for all the support,” says Shahar Goldberg, manager of Kibbutz Zikim. “Eleven of our kindergartens and youth centers are now ready to receive back our children and our teenagers. I hope to be at home with my family and with the community soon, so we are ready, and it’s important that we say thank you to Livnot, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
For 38-year-old volunteer Rebecca Neuhaus, “it was a way to both bear witness to their pain and help them build their future.”
For 30-year-old volunteer Seth Schwartz, “it was everything I was looking for to help Israel all in one program.”
And for volunteer Naama Levin, age 38, “it was a way to feel I was making a real difference for those who had suffered the most.”
Thanks to Livnot U’Lehibanot’s “Help Rebuild the South” program, early this summer these three traveled far from their comfortable New York apartments early this summer to do boots-on-the-ground repairs in war-torn neighborhoods, while meeting the people most affected and seeing the destruction first-hand.
Thanks to donors, Livnot is able to offer this intensive five-day experience for these young adults and hundreds of others like them ages 21-40 for only $250.
Mornings are spent repairing, restoring, and painting damaged kindergartens, senior centers, playgrounds and homes, followed by meetings with affected Israelis and IDF soldiers fresh from Gaza, visits to the Nova Festival scene and other attacked areas in the south, and evening presentations exploring geopolitics and Jewish values. The program wraps up with a powerful Shabbat in the mystical city of Tzfat, when allowed for security reasons.
Livnot which has been on the scene since 1980 in Tzfat, bringing young Jews in their 20’s to have a pivotal life experience of hiking, community service, and learning Judaism and especially, a meaningful Shabbat experience. Since this January, we tried something new. We allowed all ages to participate in Building the Land. In our evaluations after the program, almost all said it was one of the best and most meaningful experiences in their lives.
Now, though, we are returning our focus to 21–40 year-olds. “We’re inviting young Jewish adults to make a difference in the lives of those most affected by the attacks of October 7 and the war while connecting with their roots – and each other,” says Livnot Executive Director Aharon Botzer, who founded the organization 44 years ago with the goal of building Israel, Jewish identity and the bond between Jews around the world. “Indeed: friendships — and countless couples too – often result, based on a shared passion for getting their hands dirty for a good cause.”
In this case, that good cause includes, along with a crew of 12 professionals, repairing, painting, and actually taking part in the rebuilding of kindergartens, playgrounds, classrooms, homes, senior centers, and more, devastated on that terrible day in October, a Simchat Torah when the joy turned dark.
A Time of Great Need
Now, thanks in great part to these Livnot volunteers, many residents are able to come home after months of living in refugee centers and hotels.
As yet another illustration of Livnot’s 150+ projects in the south to date, allowing countless families to return to home, work and schools, this spring the children of Kibbutz Gvaram were able to enter a bright and freshly painted classroom.
“There were soldiers living in it for 5 months, so when the volunteers came, they cleaned and repaired the walls, fixed the electricity and bathrooms and painted and built new cupboards,” says kindergarten director Karen Vallach Shirazian. “They wanted to do anything they could to help — it was really heartwarming.”At the other end of the age spectrum, among their 150+ projects to date in the south, Livnot also renovated four senior centers, allowing retirees to come together in a way they had not been able to since October 7. Giving Israelis a chance to return to life creates a week to remember, say the volunteers, each of them returning home profoundly changed.
Volunteer Seth Schwartz (who often goes by his Hebrew name, Shmulie), a graduate student working in real estate, was inspired by the program’s listing on an Israel volunteer opportunities Facebook page, “the actual experience far exceeded any expectations,” he now says. One powerful takeaway: visiting the Nova Festival site. “I’m involved in hostage rallying in NY, so standing in the place where so many were taken brought it all together for me. I knew that, though I was coming back to New York, I was really leaving my true home.”
For volunteer Neuhaus, a child psychologist, “hearing the stories directly from them, I felt we were privileged to bear witness and maybe help in their grieving process and in our own battles with antisemitism at home. We all felt grateful to have Israel, where you can be openly Jewish.”
All of which is music to the ears of Nir Bom, a major (reserves) in the IDF Homefront Command’s Gaza division. As liaison, he’s matched Livnot with dozens of communities with pressing needs to get families back home, parents back to work and kids back in school. “We realized that having them home was an important part of winning this war, so these communities can flourish again,” says Bom. “Livnot’s been partnering with us all along — the fact that 70 percent are home now is in good part due to their volunteers.”
“Livnot offered an incredibly meaningful way to help the country rebuild while also forming new friendships.” – Ariel Noorparvar
“An incredible week of working with other diaspora Jews to contribute to Israel’s future by helping impacted southern communities recover from the October 7th terrorist attack.” – Deborah Epstein
“The most meaningful experience in my life.” – Margaret Schreiber
But now that things are slowly improving in the South, the job is just beginning in the North, Bom says, with rocket damage to homes, schools, stores, and office buildings crying out for volunteers to repair and rebuild. Livnot is now preparing to join in the effort. After The 2nd Lebanon War (2007-8) Livnot was asked by the New York and West Palm Beach Federations to restore 220+ Bomb Shelters. We succeeded in doing it with only 25 professionals and 25 volunteers every two weeks. ‘That is the model.”
At the end of the day this is what Livnot U’Lehibanot is all about. “These Hebrew words — meaning ‘to build and to be built’ — are about building the Jewish homeland while being built up as Jews and as a people with an eternal mission in our ancient homeland,” says founder Botzer. “Coming together to help our brothers and sisters who’ve lost everything brings out something in each Jewish soul,” he adds. “It’s a powerful experience that binds them to their land and to their people.”
“They thank us, but we really should be thanking them,” says volunteer Levin. “These people whose lives have been so disrupted, and the soldiers on the front lines, they’re there for all of us.”
The cost of Livnot’s “Help Rebuild the South” program for ages 21-40 is only $250, as long as current funding holds out.
To make it possible for more young adults to engage in rebuilding Israel, please email tzviroth@livnot.org. To find out about joining upcoming programs, email ari@livnot.org.
To contribute directly to Livnot’s ongoing Tzfat programs and “Help Rebuild the South” initiative:
From the United States (*):
Please click on the button below, select the type of donation that you’d like to make, the amount and currency, then click on the blue-highlighted ‘Donate’ button:
From Canada (**):
Please click on the button below to the Ne’eman Foundation, select the type of donation that you’d like to make, the amount and currency, and follow the donation procedures:From Israel (***):
Please click on the button below and follow the donation procedures:NOTE:
(*) Livnot U’Lehibanot and American Friends of Livnot are recognized 501(c)(3) non-profits.
(**) Donations to Livnot U’Lehibanot made through the Ne’eman Foundation, Canada, are tax deductible by Canadian law.
(***) Donations to Livnot U’Lehibanot made through Meshulam are tax deductible by Israeli law.
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