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09.29.26 Nosh & Learn with Noa Zer
09.29.26 Nosh & Learn with Noa Zer
Jewish National Fund-USA
86 views • 3 likes
3 weeks ago • 40:47 min
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Transcript
[00:00]
So I think uh we are ready to get
[00:03]
started. Um we have muted uh everyone.
[00:08]
Uh welcome to our lunch and learn
[00:11]
series. I am Hedi Tube. I'm the
[00:13]
executive director in greater Atlanta.
[00:16]
I've had the pleasure of meeting Noah
[00:20]
uh here in July and it was amazing. Um,
[00:23]
just as a reminder, we do our lunch and
[00:25]
learn series every other week and they
[00:28]
highlight a different program and
[00:29]
affiliate that uh we work with in
[00:32]
Israel. So that it's really lovely. So
[00:35]
be sure to tune in and register.
[00:39]
Uh, and without further ado, I'd love to
[00:44]
introduce uh Miss Robin Feldman. She's a
[00:47]
board of directors member here in
[00:50]
Atlanta, a very active donor um and
[00:54]
truly uh really takes
[00:58]
a big role in leadership and all our
[01:03]
amazing programs and one of her favorite
[01:08]
uh projects is Adam that she is very
[01:12]
passionate about. Um, so Robin, the
[01:16]
floor is yours.
[01:17]
>> Thanks Eddie. Good good afternoon
[01:20]
everybody from Atlanta, Georgia. And
[01:23]
it's my absolute pleasure to introduce
[01:25]
Noah Zir, vice president of resource
[01:29]
development for Adam Viodama program in
[01:32]
Israel. Noah is a farm gal. She grew up
[01:37]
on a farm. She lives in a on a farm in
[01:40]
the Arava. and through her leadership
[01:44]
with JNF USA, she works on the front
[01:47]
lines of building community resilience,
[01:50]
developing Israel's vital desert
[01:52]
regions, and nurturing the country's
[01:56]
next generation. I'm particularly
[02:00]
delighted to have her with us today
[02:02]
because of my deep affinity for this
[02:04]
program. Adam Viadama means man and
[02:08]
land. I just exited a 40-year career in
[02:12]
food service sales last year. So, this
[02:16]
initiative is extraordinary. It bridges
[02:19]
youth programming,
[02:21]
youth empowerment, border security, food
[02:24]
sustainability, and it gives the next
[02:27]
generation
[02:29]
in Israel hands-on agricultural
[02:32]
training, cultivating their leadership,
[02:34]
resilience, and a profound practical
[02:36]
connection to the land of Israel, right
[02:39]
where it's needed most, and to our
[02:42]
hearts and our stomachs. So without
[02:44]
further ado, I'm going to turn this over
[02:47]
to Noah to share with us this incredible
[02:50]
program. Thank you, Noah.
[02:53]
>> Thank you, Robin. You're being too kind.
[02:56]
And really, shout out to Robin for being
[02:58]
such a great supporter of Adam Vadma. I
[03:02]
see many faces that I've known for many
[03:04]
years and some that are new. So, thank
[03:07]
you for this lovely introduction. As
[03:09]
Robin mentioned, my name is Noazelle. I
[03:12]
live in the Arva desert. Uh this is not
[03:16]
the terrain that I farm in. This is way
[03:20]
more easy to farm in the Gaza envelope.
[03:23]
This is where one of our schools are at.
[03:25]
And I want to share with you the story
[03:27]
of Adam Vadama, a special network of
[03:30]
schools. But I want to start with a
[03:32]
story before I go to my presentation. Um
[03:36]
just before Sukkot I got uh an
[03:41]
the most amazing news um
[03:44]
Gaia who's one of our graduates and I'll
[03:48]
tell you more about Adam Vadama as a
[03:50]
high school program
[03:53]
is a girl that has lived in the Gaza
[03:56]
envelope for her entire life. uh she's
[03:59]
lived through the October 7th and lost
[04:03]
her family members and lost friends in
[04:07]
the Gaza envelope. She and her mom were
[04:10]
isolated in the shelter crying out for
[04:12]
help and really went through
[04:16]
the most horrific stories. As we are
[04:18]
getting closer to October 7th, we'll
[04:20]
hear more about the stories, but Gaia
[04:23]
called to tell us that she has decided
[04:27]
to uh restart the family farm that was
[04:31]
destroyed on October 7th. This was her
[04:34]
grandfather's farm and Gaia chose to do
[04:38]
it not only to restart it, but build it
[04:41]
better and bigger. and she's doing it
[04:44]
with her husband who she met on one of
[04:47]
our programs. So going uh towards
[04:51]
October 7th, I think we need to hear not
[04:53]
just terrible stories but also stories
[04:56]
of resilience and to know that a young
[04:59]
woman is restoring her family farm with
[05:02]
the knowledge that she gained in our
[05:03]
schools uh and also found love in one of
[05:06]
our schools. I think that's a very good
[05:09]
way to to see that we can grow even even
[05:13]
from the most um from the depth of
[05:17]
despair to grow and to revive. So I want
[05:22]
to start sharing a presentation about
[05:24]
who we are. Just for those of you who
[05:27]
are not familiar with the program and
[05:29]
also for those of you who are familiar
[05:31]
with the program and I hope you can see
[05:33]
my screen
[05:35]
um give you some updates about what we
[05:37]
do. Uh hed everybody can see the screen.
[05:40]
>> Yes.
[05:41]
>> Hopefully
[05:42]
>> good.
[05:43]
>> Yes.
[05:43]
>> Okay. So who we are? Adam Vadama is a
[05:47]
network of eight agricultural high
[05:49]
schools that you can see here in the map
[05:52]
that are spread all across Israel's
[05:54]
borders. Why Israel's borders? Well,
[05:57]
actually when the first pioneers came to
[05:59]
Israel in the 20s, not this century's
[06:02]
20s, but the 1920s,
[06:05]
they wanted to um form uh communities
[06:09]
along the borders that were not then
[06:11]
borders and they wanted to take hold of
[06:14]
the land. So they started a small
[06:16]
community and immediately they started
[06:18]
to farm because to farm the land is to
[06:21]
take hold of the land until today
[06:24]
Israel's main agriculture regions are
[06:26]
found in the borders of Israel. So as
[06:29]
you can see all the way from the Arava
[06:31]
and the Negv to the Golan heights and
[06:33]
the Galilee this is where the main
[06:35]
agricultural regions of Israel are at
[06:38]
and this is where where our schools are
[06:40]
active. We are ha we have um about uh
[06:45]
450 students high school students from
[06:48]
the 9th till the 12th grade that are
[06:51]
waking up every morning with one mission
[06:54]
to get connected to the land.
[06:58]
The reason we formed the network is
[07:00]
because of two main challenges that we
[07:02]
were experiencing. The first one uh is
[07:05]
something that I think uh is not just
[07:08]
common for Israel but for all the
[07:10]
western world. We notice that our youth
[07:12]
are getting addicted to the screens not
[07:15]
connected not only to the land but to
[07:17]
each other and we see a lot of uh
[07:20]
stories of depression and risk behaviors
[07:23]
among kids that and teenagers that
[07:26]
really live a life with not a lot of
[07:28]
meaning. So they are glued to screen and
[07:31]
in search of meanings, but they don't
[07:33]
have something that really motivates
[07:37]
them. On the other hand, in Israel,
[07:39]
we've noticed a slow but steady decline
[07:42]
in the number of farmers that are
[07:44]
farming in Israel. When the country was
[07:47]
started, everybody was almost farming in
[07:50]
Israel and the minority was living in
[07:52]
cities. Now we have the opposite trend
[07:57]
where from being uh a majority of
[08:00]
farmers or even
[08:03]
50,000 farmers 50 years ago there are
[08:06]
only 500 farms or 7 I'm sorry 7,000
[08:12]
farms that are left in Israel today. If
[08:14]
you'll think about it this is a country
[08:17]
of 10 million people. 7,000 farmers. And
[08:22]
when you think about farming, it's not
[08:24]
just about the food production, it's
[08:26]
about food security. And if you think
[08:29]
about the fact, and I'll go back to the
[08:31]
map,
[08:33]
that most of our food are actually being
[08:36]
uh produced in the borders, you'll
[08:39]
understand that food security and
[08:41]
national security in Israel has always
[08:43]
been linked ever since the establishment
[08:45]
of the country. So those farming
[08:48]
communities are not just protecting the
[08:50]
borders of Israel, they're also
[08:52]
providing Israel food food. And as we
[08:54]
saw loud and clear on October 7th,
[08:58]
to be with no food supply, that's a
[09:01]
major problem to a country like Israel
[09:04]
that has, let's just say, not the most
[09:06]
friendly neighbors. And there was a real
[09:09]
actually scare on October 7th that the
[09:12]
borders of Israel will be closed and we
[09:15]
will need to provide our own food. I'm
[09:18]
very proud to be part of this farming
[09:20]
community in Israel but I have to tell
[09:22]
you that the not just the number of
[09:24]
farmers is getting decreased but also
[09:27]
the age is getting higher. The average
[09:31]
farmer today in Israel is about 65. So
[09:35]
we have an aging population of farmers
[09:37]
that are living in the borders and not a
[09:40]
lot of them are left. So it leaves us
[09:42]
with two major issues. One is the youth
[09:46]
that is not as connected to the land as
[09:48]
it once was and experiencing all kinds
[09:52]
of um behaviors due to the fact that
[09:55]
they don't have a real motivation. And
[09:57]
on the other hand, we have the farming
[10:00]
um industry that is losing its people
[10:04]
and the farmers are getting olders and
[10:07]
we don't have any uh any uh people that
[10:10]
we will praise them. And then we started
[10:13]
thinking about the early days of Israel
[10:15]
where our leaders came from the
[10:17]
agricultural high schools. They came
[10:19]
from agriculture. People like it, like
[10:22]
Shimon Perez, like Ialon and so many
[10:26]
others that got connected to the land
[10:29]
through agriculture. And that's where
[10:30]
the idea of actually forming a school
[10:35]
that will take high school kids that are
[10:37]
just, you know, in those ages that they
[10:39]
are shaping the way they see the world.
[10:42]
They're getting to get their values.
[10:44]
They are starting to understand who they
[10:46]
are as a pe as people and to bring them
[10:49]
to a school that combines agricultural
[10:53]
work during the day, helping the farmers
[10:56]
and learning how to farm. Together we do
[10:59]
values and high school studies and
[11:02]
really gives them that connection to the
[11:04]
land and that motivation to wake up in
[11:07]
the morning and do amazing things for
[11:10]
the state of Israel. And that's the
[11:13]
story of Adam Vadama. Getting the Adam,
[11:15]
the people to get connected to the land
[11:17]
and getting the young generation just to
[11:20]
not just cultivate them to become the
[11:22]
farmers of tomorrow, but also to become
[11:25]
the leaders of tomorrow. If you'll think
[11:28]
about it, there's a lot of things in
[11:29]
agriculture that cultivates leadership.
[11:32]
It's hard work. It's to follow something
[11:35]
through. It's perseverance. It's to fail
[11:39]
and retry. a lot of a lot of things that
[11:43]
can we can really see uh in future
[11:46]
leaders.
[11:47]
So right now Adamava dema grew over the
[11:50]
over the last 10 years to a network of
[11:54]
eight schools not we just opened the
[11:56]
eighth one almost 450 students and more
[12:01]
than four 400 farmers that we are
[12:04]
helping throughout the country. This is
[12:07]
uh just a a work in progress because our
[12:11]
aim is to grow to 14 schools to double
[12:15]
the network and work in more agriculture
[12:17]
regions that really needs our help.
[12:21]
We believe in three pillars as a
[12:23]
network. First, we are an educational
[12:27]
organization. We educate young people,
[12:31]
high school teenagers, and we promote
[12:33]
Zionist education and youth leadership.
[12:36]
As I mentioned before, through
[12:37]
agriculture, we install values and uh a
[12:42]
lot of attributes that we want to see in
[12:45]
the next generation. They get to know
[12:47]
the land. They get connected to the
[12:49]
land. There's nothing like working the
[12:51]
land to get the love for the land of
[12:53]
Israel. The second thing is to support
[12:56]
agriculture. We have 450 students that
[13:00]
are waking up every morning to help more
[13:03]
than 400 farmers. That's a lot of help
[13:05]
to farmers in Israel that are living in
[13:08]
small communities along the border
[13:10]
depend mainly on foreign workers. Most
[13:13]
of the workforce in Israel are foreign
[13:15]
workers and really help the farmers
[13:18]
every day. But not it's not just helping
[13:20]
the farmers today but to cultivate the
[13:23]
next generation of farmers in the
[13:25]
future. uh as a farmer myself, I can
[13:27]
tell you that nobody wakes up at the age
[13:30]
of 25 after graduating college and
[13:34]
decides to be a farmer. It's not let's
[13:37]
say the uh the dream or the aspiration
[13:39]
of the average Jewish mom to her
[13:42]
daughter or to her or to her son. There
[13:45]
are two things that we need to teach the
[13:47]
kids. First, we need to teach them that
[13:50]
agriculture is an important job. And
[13:54]
second, that agriculture today and
[13:56]
farming today, it's not the farming that
[13:58]
we have in mind. It's not just working
[14:01]
with your hands. It's also working with
[14:03]
your minds. Um, in our farm, my husband
[14:07]
is a second generation farmer. In our
[14:09]
farm, everything is computerized.
[14:13]
Everything is being uh
[14:16]
exported all the knowledge to Excel
[14:18]
charts. My husband is ba is basing all
[14:21]
of his uh commercial knowledge on
[14:25]
calculations from the global markets and
[14:28]
exchange rates of different currency uh
[14:33]
rates according to what who do we export
[14:37]
to and to the Israeli market. Today's
[14:40]
farmer is a business person is a also a
[14:44]
researcher is also an entrepreneur. It's
[14:47]
really all about agotech and not just a
[14:50]
agriculture. So we want to instill in
[14:53]
these young people the understanding
[14:55]
that food
[14:57]
will be so important in years to come
[15:00]
especially in Israel and it's all about
[15:02]
tech. We might not we might not have
[15:05]
high-tech but we have agreite tech which
[15:07]
is not less important because in the
[15:09]
future we will need to eat and not
[15:12]
everybody can eat their cell phones. So
[15:14]
we will need to make sure that we have
[15:17]
uh a far and strong farming community in
[15:19]
Israel. And the third thing is community
[15:22]
development. We saw all those dots in
[15:25]
the map of our campuses in those small
[15:28]
communities along the border. If we will
[15:30]
not make sure that these are we call
[15:32]
these communities will have new people,
[15:35]
new farmers that will come enjoy them,
[15:38]
we will not have people that are living
[15:40]
along the borders. We need to strengthen
[15:43]
those communities to make sure that
[15:45]
Israel is strong. That correlates
[15:47]
directly to JNF's mission of not just
[15:50]
promoting Zionist education but also
[15:53]
promoting community development in the
[15:55]
negative and in the Galilee. It's all
[15:57]
about circles of impact. You help a
[16:00]
student, you help a family, you help a
[16:03]
farm, you help a community. How do we do
[16:06]
it? Well, it's very simply. All you need
[16:09]
to do is to wake up 450 teens at 5:30 in
[16:13]
the morning and let them work in the
[16:16]
fields with farmers that are living
[16:19]
along their near their campuses. Uh, I
[16:21]
don't know how many of you still
[16:23]
remember how they were teenagers or or
[16:25]
if you had teenagers at home or you
[16:27]
still do. I have a teenager at home.
[16:30]
It's not an easy task. And to know that
[16:32]
there are 400 kids that are waking
[16:35]
themselves up every morning to work hard
[16:37]
in the fields from 6:00 in the morning
[16:40]
to till noon time. That's a miracle. And
[16:44]
they don't do it because they need
[16:46]
money. They do it because they
[16:47]
understand that it's important. after
[16:50]
they're finished they're finishing off
[16:52]
their work day which is five very hard
[16:56]
demanding labor hours then they they
[17:00]
start their school day. So by 100 p.m.
[17:04]
when most of their peers in Israel are
[17:07]
getting back home from high school,
[17:09]
they're starting their studies and
[17:12]
they'll need to study just as hard as
[17:14]
any other student and core metriculum
[17:18]
and just as any other student, but
[17:20]
they'll need to do it in five hours. So
[17:22]
they need really to focus on their
[17:25]
studies because they need to keep up
[17:28]
with what their their other friends are
[17:31]
learning, but they don't finish their
[17:34]
day there because at night they have a
[17:36]
value-based afternoon after school
[17:39]
program where we teach them Judaism and
[17:42]
philosophy and Zionism and Israel
[17:45]
studies and physical fitness for the
[17:47]
army. everything that they need uh in
[17:50]
order to become a better adult because
[17:53]
we believe that one should be a better
[17:55]
citizen and need to know how to
[17:57]
contribute to society. So those are
[17:59]
actually life skills that we believe
[18:02]
that we need to instill in our program
[18:04]
in our kids. That's a very hectic day
[18:07]
for a teenager for a 14 and 15 year old
[18:10]
boy or girl but they're tough. They're
[18:14]
tough and they're amazing. And the
[18:16]
impact
[18:18]
it goes beyond the kids that we see as
[18:22]
the future leaders and farmers. First of
[18:24]
all, as we as I told you before, we are
[18:27]
helping agriculture industry today, but
[18:30]
also tomorrow. Second, we are blending
[18:34]
kids from different parts of the Israeli
[18:37]
society together, and we'll learn about
[18:39]
it in a minute. So, we are building
[18:41]
social cohesion. that is so important to
[18:44]
the way our country uh is right now and
[18:49]
also promoting regional expansion and
[18:52]
regional pro de development and also
[18:55]
national
[18:57]
impact.
[18:58]
We'll talk about it in the minute just
[19:01]
to give you an understanding of where we
[19:03]
are. Here is a zoom in on Israel's
[19:07]
southern borders. You can see clearly
[19:10]
where Egypt is at, where Jordan is at.
[19:13]
By the way, I live in the Arava near the
[19:16]
Jordan uh near the Jordan border. For
[19:19]
those of you who haven't been to the
[19:20]
Arava, there is no border between Jordan
[19:23]
and Israel. The communities, the
[19:25]
farmers, they are the borders and our
[19:28]
students here in the Arava in Kativa,
[19:31]
less than half a mile from the Jordanian
[19:35]
border. Also here in Ramat Negiv right
[19:38]
on the border with Egypt and also with
[19:41]
Gaza in Ashkall at the Gaza envelope
[19:44]
where after October 7th we have decided
[19:47]
not just to help the farmers but to
[19:50]
build a school as a response to what
[19:53]
have happened to us. So really to see
[19:56]
all those campuses in the negv you can
[19:59]
really see the impact
[20:01]
at the Gaza envelope there is a special
[20:04]
school. Robin and Hedi had the privilege
[20:07]
of meeting the director of the school
[20:09]
when we visited the Atlanta. He has an
[20:11]
amazing story to tell. The school in in
[20:15]
the Gaza envelope is the direct result
[20:18]
and answer to what have happened us on
[20:20]
October 7th. We sent our students to the
[20:23]
farms in Eshkol, which is one of
[20:25]
Israel's major agricultural regions to
[20:29]
help the farmers. I still remember those
[20:31]
delegations and missions of volunteers,
[20:34]
including JNF volunteers, and I'm sure
[20:37]
you remember too, that came to pick
[20:39]
oranges and pick tomatoes and help the
[20:42]
farmers because all the workers have
[20:44]
fled.
[20:46]
All the all the foreign workers have
[20:48]
fled and it gives us a real realization
[20:52]
of what will happen to Israel if it will
[20:54]
depend only on foreign labor and not
[20:58]
promote its own Israeli
[21:01]
young generation that is all about
[21:04]
farming.
[21:06]
Eshko region is in the heart of the Gaza
[21:09]
envelope really so close to Gaza that
[21:12]
you can even see Gaza from the school
[21:16]
and there we decided less than one year
[21:19]
after the October 7th massac massacre
[21:22]
together with Jewish National Fund to
[21:24]
open a school. Today in the school there
[21:26]
are 50 students that are studying and
[21:29]
helping the farmers of Ishkol. not just
[21:32]
helping them with farmers with farming
[21:35]
but also with the understanding that
[21:38]
families from all over Israel are
[21:40]
sending their kids to the school to with
[21:43]
to be with the people of Ishko to stand
[21:46]
along besides them and to tell them we
[21:49]
are there with you and that's something
[21:52]
amazing that is helping not just the
[21:54]
foreign but also the spirit of the
[21:56]
region um an amazing an amazing uh
[22:02]
progress is happening also not just uh
[22:05]
in the Gaza envelope and in the negative
[22:07]
but also in the upper in the ne in the
[22:09]
Galilee. This is a map of the northern
[22:13]
part of Israel, the part of the Galilee
[22:17]
that was most attacked by all the
[22:20]
rockets that came from Lebanon.
[22:23]
You can see that there are three
[22:25]
campuses that were established
[22:28]
in the last three years in the gal. One
[22:32]
in the upper Galilee, one in the western
[22:35]
Galilee and our most established one in
[22:37]
the lower Galilee. The school in Iran
[22:40]
was established two years ago. This is
[22:42]
its second year. This is one of the most
[22:45]
targeted regions in Israel, less than
[22:47]
two miles from Lebanon. When you are in
[22:50]
our school, you can actually see where
[22:53]
was firing rockets at Kibutilon.
[22:57]
And through the war, in the middle of
[22:59]
the war, we brought their students, of
[23:01]
course, sheltered as a statement to the
[23:03]
kibuts, maybe all the kibuts was
[23:06]
evacuated, but we are there to help the
[23:10]
farmers that stay put on the ground and
[23:12]
hold all the uh agriculture and the
[23:15]
farms of the upper Galilee. But it
[23:18]
wasn't enough because upper Galilee is
[23:21]
very far away from the western Galilee,
[23:23]
another region that was heavily bombed
[23:25]
by. And we said if we can see the impact
[23:29]
of our students in the Galilee, we have
[23:32]
to go to the Western Galilee people and
[23:35]
open another school there to help the
[23:37]
farms. So just in September, less than a
[23:40]
month ago, we started a school there, 25
[23:43]
kids that did all the admission program
[23:46]
while the rockets was firing at the
[23:49]
place they're going to call home for the
[23:51]
next four years. If that's not
[23:53]
resilience, I don't know what is. If
[23:56]
that's not hope and that's not uh
[23:58]
believing in the next generation and how
[24:01]
fierce they are, this is the entire
[24:04]
story of the state of Israel and this is
[24:05]
how amazing our students are. By the
[24:08]
way, I think the parents are even more
[24:10]
amazing than the students. as a mother
[24:11]
myself to send your kid over to a
[24:15]
program that is so near the border and
[24:16]
to know that your kids are the pioneers
[24:20]
of this time.
[24:23]
It makes you both proud but also
[24:25]
terrified. So it's a mixture of feelings
[24:28]
but the kids that are growing with that
[24:30]
sense of mission are amazing. So just um
[24:34]
a glimpse of the students from the upper
[24:37]
Galilee campus which we are building
[24:38]
together again with Jewish National Fund
[24:41]
in order to attract more kids to the
[24:45]
campus and bring more kids so the impact
[24:48]
will grow. By the way I haven't
[24:50]
mentioned the fact that each school is
[24:53]
also providing jobs in regions where
[24:56]
jobs are hard to find. Each school is
[25:00]
bringing young families to these
[25:03]
regions. Two of her students from the
[25:05]
upper Galilee brought their families
[25:07]
over to leave. One in Kiracha
[25:10]
and one in the kibbutim in the upper
[25:12]
Galilee. One came from and one came from
[25:16]
Jerusalem in the middle of the war. So
[25:18]
just to see that the kids are bringing
[25:20]
their parents to become pioneers as
[25:23]
well, it's an amazing accomplishment.
[25:25]
And shout out to these young kids that
[25:27]
are not being the pioneers but also
[25:30]
spreading it to the entire family.
[25:33]
Um, by the way, that you can see here
[25:36]
picking avocado avocados is uh one is
[25:41]
one of our students that brought her
[25:42]
family from Jerusalem to Kibbutio to
[25:46]
Kiryakuna and now they're helping to re
[25:49]
uh establish and renew Kirchimuna. And
[25:52]
when I met for the first time, she would
[25:55]
with her grandfather. Her grandfather
[25:57]
used to be a farmer near Jerusalem.
[26:00]
And her parents moved to Jerusalem and
[26:02]
became a s city boys and girls and
[26:05]
forsaken agriculture. But it was her
[26:08]
grandfather that she brought to this for
[26:11]
the school for the first time. And he
[26:13]
was so proud of her. You can see the
[26:15]
spark in his eyes seeing that his
[26:17]
granddaughter is continuing on his
[26:19]
pioneering mission and doing it in the
[26:22]
place that it matters the most. So just
[26:24]
one of the many stories that you can
[26:26]
find here in Adam Vadma. The second
[26:29]
school that we just opened in Western
[26:31]
Gali again together with Jewish National
[26:33]
Fund is two miles from the border.
[26:37]
Really all about uh bringing kids from
[26:40]
all the different parts of the Israeli
[26:43]
society together to rebuild and
[26:45]
reinforce the Galilee in all of the
[26:48]
network. We have kids that are coming
[26:51]
from secular families and we have kids
[26:54]
that are coming from religious families.
[26:56]
We have boys and we have girls. We have
[26:59]
kids that are coming from Tel Aviv and
[27:01]
kids that are coming from Judah and
[27:03]
Samaria. Kids from the cities and kids
[27:06]
from the Kimutim and Mushim. And they
[27:08]
all blend and work together towards one
[27:11]
goal to work the land to help the
[27:15]
farmers to restore what was lost
[27:19]
and to be together to make sure that
[27:22]
Israel will stay strong. What a mission
[27:25]
for a 14 and 15 year old boys and girls
[27:29]
and what
[27:31]
generation is growing here if this is
[27:34]
what they're doing when they're
[27:35]
teenagers.
[27:36]
So
[27:38]
food security, protecting the borders,
[27:42]
building communities, helping the
[27:44]
farmers, this is all this all amazing
[27:48]
missions can be found in the schools of
[27:50]
Adam Vadma that was started by the way
[27:53]
with one vision of two people. our CEO,
[27:57]
a farmer from the Arava who brought
[28:00]
Russell Robinson, the CEO of a Jewish
[28:02]
national fund to a hill in the desert
[28:05]
and told him, "I'm going to open a
[28:07]
school here to bring teenagers to work
[28:10]
the land and become the farmers and
[28:12]
leaders of tomorrow." And Russell looked
[28:14]
at him and said, "You know what? That
[28:17]
sounds amazing." And the network grew
[28:20]
from this visionaries to eight schools
[28:23]
all around Israel that are really
[28:26]
changing the way that we see the Galilee
[28:29]
and the negative. So I want to leave
[28:32]
enough time for questions but I want to
[28:36]
end by saying that we are very proud of
[28:39]
our partnership with Jewish National
[28:41]
Fund. This is a way of looking in
[28:44]
agriculture in a different from a
[28:47]
different perspective, how it really
[28:49]
connects to the future of Israel and to
[28:52]
the growth of Israel and bringing
[28:55]
together that uh amazing group of young
[28:58]
people with a vision to increase the
[29:01]
impact to more and more families, to
[29:03]
more and more students, to more and more
[29:06]
regions to make sure that this beautiful
[29:09]
land that was formed on agriculture will
[29:12]
still carry on that torch and protect
[29:15]
the land and be connected to the land.
[29:18]
I'll end by saying that we want to share
[29:20]
this vision not just with our schools
[29:23]
but we are inviting high school could
[29:25]
high school kids from the Alexander Mos
[29:28]
High School to be part of this program.
[29:32]
Two weeks from now, there will be uh the
[29:34]
first group from Alexander Mos that will
[29:36]
join our students in a volunteering day
[29:38]
to get connected to the land, to get
[29:40]
connected to young people from our
[29:43]
schools that are really doing that hard
[29:45]
work. And we hope that this can build a
[29:48]
bridge between young kids from the
[29:50]
diaspora and kids from Israel through
[29:53]
that common love of the land because we
[29:56]
need that bridge for the future of not
[30:00]
just Israel but also the Jewish
[30:02]
community
[30:03]
around the world because if we will stay
[30:06]
together we will stay strong. So really
[30:08]
sewing seeds of hope and uh seeds of
[30:12]
connection. And we invite all of you to
[30:15]
come and volunteer with us next time
[30:17]
you're in Israel. There's nothing like
[30:20]
touching the land, doing the work,
[30:22]
meeting these amazing young kids, and
[30:25]
meeting the farmers that are talking
[30:27]
with sparkle in their eyes on that
[30:29]
amazing generation that is taking over
[30:32]
and following in the in the footsteps of
[30:35]
the first pioneers of Israel.
[30:38]
I'm so excited about it because I see it
[30:41]
in my farm as well with the students
[30:43]
that are helping us. So as a farmer
[30:46]
myself,
[30:47]
this is the best help that you can get
[30:49]
for your spirit and for the land. So
[30:51]
thank you for being part of this amazing
[30:53]
organization that is called Jewish
[30:55]
National Fund and uh join one of the
[30:58]
missions that you can see the kids and I
[31:01]
hope I'll see you at the JANF conference
[31:03]
in November when you can learn more
[31:05]
about the work that we do but also other
[31:07]
amazing affiliates that are joining us
[31:10]
in that amazing mission.
[31:11]
>> Thank you Noah. Um thank you everyone.
[31:14]
We're going to start with a few
[31:15]
questions just out of respect for
[31:17]
everyone's time. So, Rosalyn, would you
[31:19]
like to go ahead first?
[31:22]
>> Sure. I'm Ros Baron from Springfield,
[31:26]
Massachusetts, previously Boston, and
[31:28]
I've been a JNF donor for years. And I
[31:30]
learned this past year I became an Adam
[31:32]
Adama donor. And I learned that you
[31:35]
don't and I feel great about it because
[31:37]
it's really going back to our roots. But
[31:40]
it's not. And I learned that you don't
[31:42]
have to make your whole donation to one
[31:44]
thing. It's the first year I learned I
[31:46]
can give to kaluta, which I love. I can
[31:49]
give to nephesh to nephesh to bring
[31:50]
people to Israel, which I never did
[31:52]
before. And I said, why not? And so I am
[31:57]
thrilled to be able to participate in
[31:59]
this rebirth of the Jewish farmer and
[32:02]
and and in the B and protecting the
[32:04]
borders and really connecting with the
[32:07]
land and bringing kids together from all
[32:09]
backgrounds. That's how we build a a
[32:12]
country and I'm so proud of you. Thank
[32:14]
you so much for doing this. Thank you.
[32:16]
Everybody can give to this. You can give
[32:18]
whatever you want to give and give to
[32:19]
this too. You know, just make make it
[32:21]
part of the priorities. Thank you.
[32:24]
>> Thank you. I I just want to tell you
[32:25]
that we just worked with Nephes Benesh
[32:28]
because one of our students is a young
[32:31]
Ole. He's 14 years old. He h went for a
[32:34]
visit in the summer and decided to stay
[32:38]
and wanted to join one of our schools
[32:40]
and we are working together with Nefish
[32:42]
to make sure that all his certificates
[32:44]
and all the bureaucracy is settled and
[32:47]
we're working with the farmers of Kaluta
[32:49]
to see how can we help them with our
[32:51]
students. So all the affiliates are
[32:53]
working together and it that's the
[32:56]
impact that we bring to the table. So
[32:59]
thank you for those amazing words.
[33:01]
>> Thank you Rod. Um Jessica you had a
[33:04]
question.
[33:04]
>> Yeah I mean I just really this has been
[33:07]
totally amazing. Um Jason Rose invited
[33:10]
we're from Minnesota motans to join this
[33:12]
call and I just was available. So I'm so
[33:14]
glad I did. I was a volunteer in
[33:16]
kibbutafiim in the ema yarden like back
[33:19]
in the late 90s early 2000s and you know
[33:22]
seeing the decline of the volunteer
[33:24]
program in the kibbutim has really been
[33:26]
a big impact on the diaspora of of not
[33:30]
just Jews but people around the world
[33:31]
there were actually only one other
[33:33]
Jewish person in my cohort on and on
[33:36]
that day and it was an amazing way for
[33:38]
people from around the world to fall in
[33:40]
love with Israel um so it's a you know I
[33:43]
love these creative ways of bringing
[33:44]
people from around the world to Israel,
[33:46]
especially my son is 19. He's on Arvar
[33:49]
Israel program at the moment and um they
[33:52]
were just in Msada this morning at the
[33:53]
beautiful sunrise. Um but I just and I
[33:57]
guess my question was answered because
[33:58]
you talked about Alexander Moss. um how
[34:01]
can we increase the connection between
[34:04]
American teens or diaspora Jewish teens
[34:06]
around the world and the Israeli teens
[34:09]
and do like English language exchange as
[34:11]
they're learning agriculture but also
[34:13]
helping the kids learn English and um
[34:16]
all of that just like more and more of
[34:18]
that. I just think this is an amazing
[34:20]
program and I'm just glad to be on this.
[34:22]
I don't know if I really have a
[34:23]
question. I just wanted to say thank
[34:24]
you.
[34:25]
>> Thank you for the statement. And also,
[34:27]
by the way, we've had volunteers uh that
[34:30]
came after they graduated uh you know,
[34:33]
their high school before college and
[34:35]
spent time with us and worked and farmed
[34:38]
with the kids and teach taught them
[34:40]
English. We just had a volunteer from
[34:42]
Miami. I'm going to have a going to have
[34:44]
a volunteer from New Jersey. So, if any
[34:46]
of you have any um young people that you
[34:50]
know or family members that are
[34:52]
interested in volunteering,
[34:55]
I'm sure that uh I'm sure that we'll be
[34:57]
more than happy to have them. And also
[35:00]
young teenagers that wants to do a
[35:01]
summer program and come and volunteer or
[35:04]
through the Alexander Moss. There are so
[35:05]
many opportunities and JNF is the
[35:08]
address for those kind of connection.
[35:10]
That's what we need.
[35:12]
>> Okay, great. Thank you. We had a couple
[35:14]
questions in the chat by um Debbie um if
[35:18]
there's a task force on agriculture. I
[35:21]
believe that yes um there is and it
[35:24]
bundles with a couple other programs
[35:27]
that we have as well. So um uh you may
[35:30]
email and we will get you connected with
[35:32]
that task force for sure. Um, and in
[35:35]
addition, the question from Dab Dabbie
[35:38]
was, "How do you handle the schmita
[35:41]
year?"
[35:43]
>> It's a good question for for farmers in
[35:46]
the Alva. Actually, um, we're not we're
[35:49]
not part of the ancient land of Israel.
[35:52]
The Israelites were so smart because
[35:54]
when they walk through the Alva, it's so
[35:55]
hard to live in the Alva, it's so hot.
[35:57]
So, they actually keep kept on going
[36:01]
till they went to better real estate
[36:03]
areas. So in this Arava we don't have
[36:05]
shmita we don't need to do shmita we are
[36:08]
excluded but in other parts of Israel
[36:10]
there are laws uh that the ministry of
[36:12]
agriculture help uh to imply and uh you
[36:17]
have your guidelines by the ministry of
[36:20]
education of how to do schmita and you
[36:23]
follow that guidelines
[36:28]
>> great um thank you for that Adam you had
[36:32]
a
[36:36]
Uh, shalom. It's so lovely to see you. I
[36:39]
look forward to you in November uh here
[36:42]
in New York and then at conference and
[36:44]
then hello to everyone else. My name is
[36:46]
Adam. I'm on the JNF future board here
[36:48]
in New York City as well as uh a member
[36:51]
of the ARVA task force with a lot of
[36:53]
RUA. And Noah, my question to you is so
[36:57]
much of JNF's work is obviously uh
[37:01]
moving the population away from the
[37:03]
center from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and
[37:06]
of course you're not moving the Autumn
[37:08]
Vata is not moving the population but
[37:10]
how are you recruiting students from
[37:13]
those cosmopolitan centers and how are
[37:16]
you convincing their parents to send
[37:19]
them to work in the dirt?
[37:21]
>> It's a good question. Um
[37:25]
first of all uh thank God for social
[37:28]
media and for our students who are doing
[37:30]
a lot of word to mouth and Tik Tok and
[37:33]
Instagram and Facebook and they are
[37:35]
actually the engine behind recruiting
[37:38]
new students because they can tell what
[37:41]
it does to them the program and how it
[37:43]
benefited them better than others. the
[37:46]
parents of our students are also doing
[37:48]
amazing work in recruiting other parents
[37:50]
and to tell them exactly uh what this
[37:53]
experience means to kids. I think that a
[37:55]
lot of young people and their parents
[37:58]
are looking for meaning and
[38:01]
unfortunately the education system
[38:03]
hasn't um they didn't it didn't caught
[38:06]
up with the way kids needs to be taught
[38:09]
today and how they need to be engaged
[38:11]
and motivated. So a lot of young people
[38:13]
are looking for an alternative and
[38:15]
Adamama answers that need in a very
[38:19]
beautiful way. Um surprisingly Zionism
[38:22]
is not a is not a deserted word in
[38:25]
Israel and especially we saw after
[38:28]
October 7th that the teens saw all of Am
[38:31]
is and the Jewish diaspora volunteering
[38:34]
and wanted to help and they want to be
[38:35]
part of that also. They're looking for
[38:37]
ways to contribute and in this in our
[38:41]
schools they can really contribute and
[38:43]
see one of the students told me I go to
[38:45]
sleep every day knowing that I've done
[38:48]
something for my country today even if
[38:51]
it's helping one farmer I've made an
[38:53]
impact. So word of mouth, social media,
[38:57]
um good PR working with Jewish National
[39:00]
Fund and their network in Israel which
[39:02]
is amazing and uh people are getting to
[39:05]
know us and people are seeing what we
[39:07]
are doing and also the the communities
[39:09]
that we we are located in are doing a
[39:11]
lot of advertisement as well. It's not
[39:14]
easy, but we are growing uh and really
[39:18]
an amazing rate a 10 year old network
[39:21]
with next year we're going to be 500
[39:24]
students.
[39:26]
That's um it's a big thing.
[39:30]
>> Thank you so much, Noah. Um does anyone
[39:32]
else have any additional questions for
[39:35]
Noah?
[39:38]
>> No. All right. Well, that is uh our the
[39:43]
end of our lunch and learn series.
[39:45]
Again, a few reminders. Please do share
[39:49]
um with your fellow JNFers
[39:52]
um to join uh our uh by monthly series.
[39:59]
Uh we have a lot of great um speakers
[40:02]
coming up and programs. So, we'd love to
[40:05]
see you all. Robin Feltman, thank you so
[40:08]
much for your passion, your dedication
[40:11]
to Adamava Adama and to Jewish National
[40:14]
Fund. Uh Noah, we love you. Please give
[40:18]
our best uh to Asher and the entire
[40:21]
team. Thank you all for being here
[40:23]
today.
[40:25]
>> Everybody,
[40:30]
>> bye.
[40:30]
>> Thank you.
[40:31]
>> Bye.
[40:32]
>> And thank you so much. See you at the
[40:35]
conference.
[40:36]
>> See you, Noah. We love you. Miss you.
[40:39]
>> Love you, too.
[40:41]
See you soon. Yeah.
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