KKL-JNF supports outlying communities all over Israel, and a recent tour reviewed a number of projects slated for development: the Friendship House in Kiryat Bialik, the pre-military preparation program at Kibbutz Hannaton, the Yad LaBanim Druze memorial house in Daliyat al-Karmel and the Horn of Carmel Recreation Area in Mount Carmel Forest.
Discussing plans for the landscaping project at the Druze Yad LaBanim Center. Photo: Lilah Weiss
Israel’s northern region is one of the country’s greenest and most beautiful areas. KKL-JNF, with the help of its Friends worldwide, has for many years striven to develop it for the benefit of local residents and visitors alike, to boost it economically and socially and to enhance its tourist appeal. On August 9th KKL-JNF’s Fundraising Division embarked upon a tour of projects on the verge of implementation, each of which touches upon a different aspect of life in the region. Their common denominator is the promotion of a pluralistic, egalitarian and values-based society.
The Friendship House in Kiryat Bialik
In Kiryat Bialik’s Tzur Shalom neighborhood, construction of a new community center that will serve Ethiopian-Israeli residents, the city and its environs as a social hub and venue for cultural activities is almost complete. This shared initiative has been implemented jointly by a number of organizations including KKL-JNF, the United Jewish Israel Appeal in Britain, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the Israel Lands Administration and the Kiryat Bialik Municipality.
Working in conjunction with the municipality, KKL-JNF will carry out landscaping and development work around this new community center, whose design is inspired by the traditional Ethiopian tukul. Landscaping will include tree planting, the provision of paths and seating areas and, at local residents’ request, infrastructure for a community garden. This environmental development will enable the city and its community to hold open-air events and extend local residents’ knowledge of Israeli and Ethiopian heritage and culture.
The new structure will provide space for the activities of the nearby absorption services bureau, which was established four years ago and is managed today by Ora Tessema, who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia at the age of ten. For her, this is the closing of a circle: “Back then, when we arrived here, no one had immigrated before us, and it was very hard for us linguistically. Today the absorption services bureau is open to the public: people come along every day and receive all the services they need – the ministry of housing, the ministry of absorption, and interpreting services – and the social welfare ministry sends us people, too. We serve as a bridge to all the government institutions, and they turn to us for help on all kinds of subjects.”
Apart from bureaucratic services, the center is also involved in social activities that include classes for adults, a Hebrew ulpan, a theater troupe, a community garden, community gatherings over the Jewish holidays and family events. Kiryat Bialik’s Ethiopian community is growing constantly, and the current communal space is too small to cope with its increasing needs. Today the Ethiopian-Israeli community comprises two thousand people, of whom four hundred are children and half immigrated in recent years. The remainder arrived in Israel during the previous wave of immigration about a decade ago.
“We regard this new structure as providing an opportunity to bring Ethiopians into the local community and enable them to work together with it to create a shared society,” explained Kiryat Bialik Municipality’s head Ezra Hacham. “As it is situated in a public compound that includes a park, sports facilities and a community center, this new building, too, will serve all residents of the neighborhood and the area.”
The Kiryat Bialik Municipality regards the Ethiopian immigrant families’ integration into the community as an important issue, and, apart from the absorption bureau, it provides schools, parks and religious institutions. Integration of families who arrived in the first wave of aliyah is considered by the municipality to be especially successful. One example of this is the high percentage of schoolchildren of Ethiopian origin who regularly figure in the outstanding pupils’ ceremony at the end of each school year.
The pre-military program at Hannaton
Kibbutz Hannaton in the Jezreel Valley is home to the Hannaton Pre-Military Preparation (mechina) Program, which forms part of the community’s education center. The program was established in 2012 by kibbutz resident Rabbi Yoav Ende in order to bring together different sectors of Israeli society within a pluralistic framework. The program’s campus is now about to undergo a major renovation that will improve living conditions for students. Today the program has an allocation of six rooms to accommodate forty-five students from a variety of different backgrounds for ten months of the year, and this situation is clearly challenging in terms of space and privacy.
Now an additional residential storey is to be added, classrooms and accommodation facilities will be renovated and there is also a plan to upgrade the entire area around the educational center. As the pre-military program facilities are located adjacent to the kibbutz, it has been necessary to situate the members’ quarters and the program buildings on different levels and to provide the latter with an accessible path into the kibbutz itself. The students need kibbutz access as they engage in a number of activities there, such as personal mentoring, volunteering, and contributing to the community.
As part of its principle of supporting pre-military programs in Israel, KKL-JNF plans to carry out extensive landscaping work on the areas around the program site and to provide sports facilities for the benefit of both students and staff. This environmental development will transform the campus into a well-tended green area that will include pleasant shady corners for outdoor lessons and other activities.
“The pluralistic atmosphere in which Jewish secular, orthodox and reform students all live together is what makes this educational center unique. There’s a place for everyone,” says Idan Bar-On, who has directed the center for the past year and a half. “On Rosh HaShana we hosted a Haredi group here and a group of young gay people, and it was an amazing experience with lots of mutual respect. Shabbat is observed in the public space, but in your own room you can do as you like. A lot of work goes into ensuring that everyone accepts everyone else.”
Apart from the pre-military program, the education center also hosts other projects such as the activities of Noam, the Masorti youth movement, which is currently assembling its garin (core group) here; a program for rabbis who come from the USA to study and tour Israel; and a variety of seminars for schoolchildren who attend lectures delivered by local instructors. All of these activities are based upon the education center’s pluralistic approach, which attempts to create equality, provide an opportunity to get to know “the other,” bring everyone together and show that things can be done differently. “There’s no coercion here, there’s only the desire to experience something different and move forward with it. The programs are designed to transform Israel into a more egalitarian and respectful society in the future,” concluded Bar-On.
The renovation project extends into the kibbutz itself, where a variety of sports facilities will be provided for the community’s children, together with an amphitheater that will serve the kibbutz and the Jezreel Valley Regional Council as a venue for events, performances, and more.
Yad LaBanim memorial to fallen Druze soldiers
In 1980 former Knesset member and bereaved father Amal Nasr al-Din founded the Druze Yad LaBanim association in memory of Druze soldiers who had fallen while serving in the IDF. One year later he transformed Daliyat al-Karmel’s long abandoned and neglected Oliphant House into a unique Druze community memorial and heritage site unparalleled anywhere else in Israel. Oliphant House was renovated in 2014, and now KKL-JNF is planning to take this project another step forward and upgrade the entire external compound. The plan is to transform the area around Yad LaBanim into a major park that will include a large amphitheater for events, ceremonies and external use.
“Together with the guys at KKL-JNF I’m trying to do something different from other places. This is a very, very serious project, and a very interesting one,” explains Amal Nasr al-Din. He views the site as not only a memorial to the community’s fallen soldiers but also as an embodiment of the profound connection between the Druze, the Jews and the State of Israel. “The Druze forged an alliance with the Jewish People even before the State was founded,” he said. “We are brothers not only in word, but also in deed. We have stood beside the Jewish People, we have done what needed to be done, and we love the State. We founded this state together. Today we receive fifty thousand visitors each year and we explain to them that we are brothers, comrades. We want to reach one hundred thousand.”
Today the site, which offers explanations in three languages, hosts Sunday military excursions, schoolchildren and pensioners and shows them the Druze community’s culture and heritage. Currently, the site is not accessible to people with disabilities nor by public transport, and, as its content is limited, it is hard to promote. Memorial Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers is the main focus for much of the activity at the site, and a large portion of the development project will be dedicated to providing space for the thousands of people who attend the ceremony.
“We want to link the entire space in a system of terraces where groups of people can gather. The names of the fallen and their personal stories will be inscribed on boulders in order to create a more intimate atmosphere and facilitate individual visits,” said landscape architect Tal Friedmann Ruadnitz as she explained her plans for renovating the site. “The Rabin building will become the main memorial center, and this will mean that the whole memorial issue will be expressed in much greater depth, as there will be room for a much more personal focus on each of the fallen soldiers.”
The Druze Yad LaBanim also hosts a pre-military preparation program, which opened in 2007. At first participation was limited to the Druze, then later, in response to requests, it accepted Jews, too. The first year of the mixed intake went well, and Amal relates that the youngsters were pleased. So far the program has sent about 250 soldiers to elite military units.
The Horn of Carmel (Keren HaCarmel), a popular recreation area
The Horn of Carmel Recreation Area, which is situated near the Elyakim Interchange, is the southernmost recreation area on Mount Carmel, and one of the most popular in northern Israel. Its location allows visitors to stop en route, and it also serves as a departure point for brief and enjoyable excursions into the forest.
It is situated between Daliyat al-Karmel and Yokneam, and an increase in the number of people who visit it will offer a boost to the local economy.
As the recreation area was not damaged in the great Mount Carmel fire of 2010, KKL-JNF has chosen to invest in Keren HaKarmel and to continue to develop the recreation area for the benefit of visitors, until the burned areas regenerate and can be opened to the public.
This project includes improvements to the entrance to the recreation area: among other things, seating areas will be added, new paths will be rendered disabled-accessible, and a campfire site will be provided. Deeper in the forest there is another entrance that will serve as a departure point for brief local excursions. This entry point will include a parking lot for buses and a square that displays pictures and maps of local woodland attractions. This square provides access to the lower cyclamen trail, which leads to ancient burial caves; an upper route that also leads to a cave system; a pinecone corner; the Carmelite monastery known as Deir al-Muhraka; and links to other recreation areas of the Carmel Forest.
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