Sheva Local
15/12/2016
KKL-JNF Continues Activities for Community Welfare
Last month, the KKL-JNF Negev Mountain and
Arava Region Community and
Forest Department joined forces with
Maof, which is directed by Ruth Rahamim,
Maof representative in the KKL-JNF Education Department. Along with the many and diverse activities that are currently taking place or that will take place in the future with youth communities, Beersheva seniors, soldiers, and more, we took a peek at the one of the activities that took place this week at the Bet Eshel lookout.
Seniors from the Shalom Day Center in Beersheva’s Schuna Gimmel neighborhood arrived at the site, where a guide told them about Zionism and the settlement enterprise carried out by KKL-JNF in the years before the founding of the state, including the Bet Eshel lookout, which was established as an experimental farm in 1943 with twelve members. It continued as a small compound with 120 members, including 12 children. The guide also spoke about the successful settling of the Negev, relating to the surroundings, the conditions that existed until the community’s determined stance against the attacks that began on November 29, and the heavy artillery shelling by the Egyptian army during the War of Independence.
Maof Director Ruth Rahamim added: “The youth communities and seniors who came to the lookout were very moved by the stories of settling the Negev. The Bet Eshel lookout is an important settlement model for the existence of the state of Israel. The seniors who participated in the visit felt that they took part in the settlement enterprise in Israel and promised to come back again and visit with their families.”