The Beauty and Mystery of Israel’s Olives

to adapt themselves to the residents. The residents need to accommodate themselves to a younger, more vibrant generation.

“We have to be very stubborn in our approach to these yishuvim,” she says. “Oftentimes, they don’t understand the values we strive to meet, or they have forgotten that they once held the same values.”

Tira-El envisions Kedma’s longterm presence across the eastern, northern, and southern borders. They will continue to go into the most challenging and remotest places with the hope of eventually having a presence in 36 yishuvim.

This young 28-year-old visionary with degrees in journalism and public policy plans to begin her doctorate on settlements in the Jordan Valley and the border regions. She is tireless and indefatigable. She is the face of the newest embodiment of Zionism.

She has a dream that extends further than the borders of Israel. She has given much thought throughout the pandemic to the Diaspora, particularly how to connect and give strength to communities there.

She shares, “We have a dream to connect the settlements to different communities over the world. I’m only talking about the young generation. I have a feeling that we have plenty to give and plenty to learn from them. It’s a connection that doesn’t exist for young people in the Diaspora. I have a dream that we will be able to bring youngsters from overseas to visit our yishuvim. Remember that young people everywhere are searching for meaning and a way to fulfill themselves by connecting to values bigger than themselves.

“The crossroads between the needs of the younger generation to do and be a part of something bigger than itself on the one hand, and the rural areas that give you something to grow and influence on the other was all we needed,” she says.

“Establish a real home in the village and revive entire area. That’s the whole story.”

Sitting with Chen Makover and Sharon Trebitsch in the clubhouse only meters away from the border, one gets a better sense of Tira-El’s understanding of how we can best strengthen and protect our borders – not through tanks, soldiers, and the air force alone but through communities living there. As Tira-El so aptly puts it, “These communities provide the real security of Israel.”

In this post-modern age, Tira-El has created 21st century Zionism. It is a Zionism faced with new challenges. Life on the border doing volunteer work is an approach that combines the spirit of the founding fathers of the State of Israel with its current needs.

It is easy to disparage today’s millennial generation glued to their electronic devices. The headway Kedma has made into a difficult and older world bears testimony to the fact that today’s youth are just as capable, as daring, and as enterprising as those upon whose shoulders the State of Israel was forged.

Bearing witness to Misgav Am’s revitalization, and infused by Tira-El’s unbridled enthusiasm, one cannot help but view Kedma’s incursion along our border communities as nothing short of miraculous. Tira-El’s vision-turned-reality is one of the many miracles which, combined with those throughout our difficult history, charges our spiritual batteries with energy and allows us to dream and realize a better future not only for Israel, but for young people in the Diaspora.

Postscript: Tira-El recently became the recipient of the prestigious Hero of Israel award. The ceremony was broadcast on state television.

For more information, go to http://kedma-hityashvut.org/language/en/home/

Rafi Sackville, formerly of Cedarhurst, teaches in Ort Maalot in Western Galil.