Signs of the wildfires that blazed around Haifa in November can still be plainly seen in the woodlands on the outskirts of the city. Nonetheless, a little green has begun to creep back into the damaged areas, thanks to the planting events in celebration of Tu BiShvat. Hundreds of local children joined the President of Israel, KKL-JNF’s World Chairman and the Mayor of Haifa in planting trees in the city’s Ramat Sapir neighborhood.
“There is no more appropriate a place to celebrate Tu BiShvat than here in Haifa,” declared President Reuven Rivlin. “The spate of fires caused damage all over the country, but Haifa suffered the most. We need a great deal of strength to set out and build things up all over again. But by planting trees we have helped nature, in all its wondrous variety, to begin to renew itself.”
KKL-JNF World Chairman Danny Atar told those present how KKL-JNF’s firefighting teams had battled to save the forests and the diverse wildlife that lives in them, and had fought to rescue every possible tree. “KKL-JNF will continue to stand by you and help you,” he promised the residents of Haifa. “We shall paint Mount Carmel green once more, and the brown burnt areas from the fire will disappear. And we shall do this everywhere, all over the country.”
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav recalled how, when the fires were still raging and the emergency services were busy evacuating local residents from their homes and battling the flames, he decided that rehabilitation would begin immediately after the fires had been put out. “Today we’re making the city green again,” he said.
KKL-JNF Fundraising Director Zeev Kedem, who presided over the ceremony, told participants: “After a forest burns, a new woodland arises out of the blackened ground, bringing with it fresh possibilities that did not exist before. This ceremony forms part of the process of renewal that Haifa and all residents of Israel, are now experiencing.”
Danny Atar praised Haifa as a city of coexistence where Jews and Arabs daily prove that it is possible to live together in Israel. “Haifa sends us a message of optimism on every day of the year,” he said. In celebration of this coexistence, musicians Maryam Toukan and Ido Toledano took the stage together during the ceremony to perform a love song to Haifa in Arabic and Hebrew.
Jewish and Arab schoolchildren from all over the city came to take part in the planting event, side by side. Among them were Shahar Zechariah, an eighth-grader from Haifa’s Leo Baeck School, and Malbus Shimberi, from Al-Hiwar School, whose name means “Dialogue” in Arabic.
“Tu BiShvat symbolizes our love for the land and our connection to nature,” explained Shahar. “Our city can serve as a beacon of hope for the rest of the country. We children have the strength to build bridges between all the different sections of society, without politics.”
Malbus shared the emotions she had experienced when she saw her hometown going up in flames: “My heart was sore, and I couldn’t understand how it was possible to burn such a beautiful forest so cruelly. Today we’re overcoming our difficulties and encouraging new growth,” she said.
Among those attending the ceremony was a delegation from Germany that is currently visiting Israel under the auspices of MP Volker Beck, Chairman of the Germany-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group. Sarah Singer, President of JNF-KKL Germany, and German Ambassador to Israel Dr. Clemens von Goetze also took part in the event. “We’re planting trees in order to express our solidarity and friendship with the people of Israel and the State of Israel,” explained Volker Beck. “These trees will grow, stand tall and symbolize strength and hope.”
Rabbi Dr. Daniel Hershkowitz read the Planter’s Prayer, and everyone, from President Rivlin and the other guests of honor to the smallest of the schoolchildren, set out to start planting. By the time their task was complete, green had returned to the area, and new, young green trees could be seen peeping out among the scorched trunks of the old ones.
President Rivlin had warm good wishes for the children as he took his leave of them: “When you get to my age, I hope you will take an enjoyable walk through here with your grandchildren. They will look at the tall trees and you will tell them how you planted them yourselves, with your own hands.”