Dateline Jerusalem — It has been said that since the destruction of the Holy Temple and the exile of the Jews from the land of Israel, the Land of Milk and Honey reverted back to a barren, arid, scorched desert wasteland. But when its people returned to the land, it once again became a flourishing, and literally fruitful, agricultural oasis.
“Hatikva,” the national anthem of Israel, means ” hope.”
It is the essence of the Israeli heart and soul. Today I had the pleasure and honor of meeting two industrious Israelis, Moti Sender and Ilan Leffler, both in their late 50s, who have more than their share of heart and soul.
Approximately 32 years ago, they packed up their young families at the request of the Israeli government to pioneer deserted areas in the Gaza Strip where an Israeli military unit had been stationed.
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With 28 other families, they moved to Gush Katif. But they did not settle in any Arab areas. In fact, their Arab neighbors thought the land was cursed. They thought this community of religious Jews was crazy for trying to grow anything in the yellow sand. Other than date palms dotting the sand dunes along the turquoise and aqua Mediterranean Sea, vegetation was non-existent.
Israelis are known to be an industrious and technologically creative people.
Moti and Ilan and the other pioneers built Ganei Tal Moshav. A moshav is a cooperative agricultural community or village similar to a kibbutz. But where the farms are individually owned rather than collectively owned, the moshav is governed by a Va’ad, a committee or homeowner association.
The Good Days Soon Ended
Ilan is currently head of the Ganei Tal Va’ad. The “family” of Ganei Tal grew to 90 families, about 400 people. They turned this desert into a community of large homes, a magnificent synagogue, schools, sports fields, markets, and hundreds of acres of greenhouses and farms.
They produced world-renowned cherry tomatoes, green peppers, spices, worm-free leafy vegetables, organic vegetables, various plants and flowers that were exported throughout the world.
Life was good.
Four years ago their world fell apart.
While watching TV, they learned that they would be forced to leave their homes and farms of almost 28 years because of the Disengagement. Israel was expelling Israelis from Gush Katif, from Gaza, to make available a homeland for Palestinians. All their years of hard labor and efforts were for naught.
While the Palestinians moved into Gush Katif and destroyed the greenhouses, farms and homes instead of utilizing the infrastructure and technology left by the Israelis, Ganei Tal Moshav became the only one of the 21 Gush Katif communities to stay together as a group.
The rest are dispersed throughout the country, still living in temporary homes.
Moti and Ilan, and the other Ganei Tal families left large 300 sq. meter homes for 20 sq. meter motel rooms on Kibbutz Hafetz Haim in the center of Israel. For 2 1/2 months their entire families squeezed into one small room and bathroom in buildings with tin roofs painted to look like red tiles. They had to eat their meals in the Kibbutz communal dining room.
Then they moved to temporary caravan housing in Yad Binyamin.
A caravan is a trailer, not even the size of a small mobile home. Yet, the community stayed together as a family.
Although they were expelled from their homes, lost their livelihoods, and at their ages have no prospects for new professions, this community never gave up hope — hatikva.
They have prayed to Hashem (G-d), worked together, cried together, and emotionally supported each other for the last 4 years. Some have rented land from the Kibbutz for farming. Some pursued new endeavors. Some returned to school. But all kept their dream of rebuilding their community.
Then in 2009, the Israeli government finally entered into an agreement to allow them to re-build a new Moshav Ganei Tal on land adjacent to Kibbutz Hafetz Haim.
Industriousness, faith, heart, soul, and a good sense of humor gave the community hope. Moti's sense of humor was evident when he invited me to be the first American to see his new living room .
He stopped his truck on a flat, but parched, piece of land that will soon, G-d willing, become his permanent home.
As he gave me a tour of the new Ganei Tal, I observed several large yellow tractors at work leveling much of the deep brown, gravelly, parched earth that once grew cotton. Plots have been marked off, sewage and drainage, electricity and water infra-structure is in, and plans for construction of homes have been prepared.
The community plans to build a synagogue, park, youth clubs, schools, etc. In fact, they have already started construction of a kindergarten. I saw impressive blueprints of the entire area. See the accompanying photos.
Unfortunately, financing of the public buildings is dependent upon the Israeli government budget, monies allocated for the project from members of the community, but mostly from tax-deductible contributions from private sources.
The great sage Maimonides describes 8 different levels of charity. The most meritorious level is helping someone to be self-supporting.
The members of the Ganei Tal community have proved themselves time and again that they can be miracle workers in turning the desert into a blooming place. Most are no longer young men.
But all they ask for is the opportunity to be like the rest of Israelis, to be productive citizens, to work the land, to have a permanent home, to rebuild their once thriving community.
If you plan on being in Israel and would like a tour of the future Ganei Tal Moshav to get a first hand view of the progress being made toward its development, or for more information about the project, you can contact Moti at moti@katif.net.
L'hitraot. Shachar.
Shachar is the Hebrew name of a California-based attorney and former Los Angeles County deputy sheriff who moved to Israel two years ago.
