Si3 by UJIA
Kibbutz Bar’am sits directly beside Israel’s border with Lebanon. Before the war it cultivated 370 acres of orchards, growing apples, nectarines, plums and kiwis, producing approximately 6,000 tonnes of fruit and generating an estimated £15m in sales annually. By the end of the war, two-thirds of those orchards had been destroyed.
Join the Trailblazers leading the recovery of Israel’s north.
Three years after 7th October, farmers, teachers and community-builders are rebuilding lives and communities. They’re restoring agriculture, closing educational gaps and helping Israel’s north grow stronger for the future.
When fire destroyed the orchards of Kibbutz Bar’am, Paul Stahl chose to rebuild. Today, thousands of new saplings are already taking root, not just replacing what was lost but creating something stronger than what went before.
“This is who I am. We are connected to the land. I can’t imagine any alternative but to rebuild. We have nowhere else we would rather be.”
Paul’s plan wasn’t simply to replace what was lost. It was to build something more robust: new trellising, new protective netting, orchards designed to survive whatever the border still has in store.
Paul is a Trailblazer, one of Israel’s new pioneers writing the next chapter of the Zionist story. He stands alongside teachers, students and young leaders across Israel who refuse to let their communities be defined by what they’ve lost.
This Kol Nidre we ask you to join UJIA in standing with them. Not in sympathy, but in partnership. So that we can provide the tools, the investment and the belief that the north can come back stronger than ever before. Every pound helps turn defiance into an orchard and an orchard into a future. UJIA has already supported Paul in replanting a 14-acre plot containing 16,500 apple trees. There is a lot more work still to be done.
ReGrow
UJIA is proud to support ReGrow Israel’s two-year initiative to accelerate replanting and help farmers adopt stronger, more resilient growing practices. The programme is designed both to restore lost acreage and to enable farmers to adopt innovative cultivation methods, including improved trellising systems and protective netting that strengthen long-term resilience.
“Without securing agriculture, there is no foundation upon which Israel can rebuild the north. These communities are agricultural at their core. Replanting is not just about crops. It’s about fortifying the livelihoods of the entire region. Our goal is to help communities return home and rebuild a north that is stronger, more vibrant and resilient than ever.”
Danielle Abraham, Executive Director of ReGrow
ReGrow’s initiative is intended to accelerate recovery and reduce the economic pressure on individual farmers and farming communities that have already absorbed significant losses, particularly given the multi-year cycle required before newly planted orchards return to full productivity.
For many across the entire north of the country planting again is more than restoring their farms to full strength, it is a step toward rebuilding their lives and sustaining the communities that hold the border.