For nearly 15 years, our Greater MetroWest Federation has had a powerful connection and partnership with Kibbutz Erez, a community of approximately 500 residents in the northern Negev facing the Gaza Strip border. Due to its location, the Kibbutz has been a target of terrorist and rocket attacks since the Second Intifada. So what better place to envision and make a reality an oasis in the desert?

We officially started our partnership with Kibbutz Erez on a very historic day: September 11, 2001. A group from Greater MetroWest was on a solidarity mission to show our support to Israel. We were on our way from Erez to Ofakim immediately following the festive ceremony that inaugurated our partnership with Erez when we received a telephone call about the attacks. Our friends in Erez urged us to make a u turn: “You are now our family, come stay with us,” they said.

After such a formative experience, it felt natural for us to adopt each other as family members, and the many connections, projects, and relationships that have developed over the years are telling the story. Our Greater MetroWest community has dedicated many resources to help improve the living conditions for the residents there and many of our families have adopted Erez as a second home. Our latest project, creating a park-like environment by planting a grove of trees seemed like a natural (literally) fit.

And the fact that the park will be facing Gaza on one side and the young, new families of the kibbutz on the other side, tells the story of our Global Connections and of our dream for a civil, peaceful society.

If you would like to be a part of this incredible new project which will provide our friends and family in Erez with a place of serenity, of recreation, of a beautiful reminder of our partnership with them, please consider purchasing one or more trees. Plus, it would be a great way to commemorate a simcha or in memory of a loved one.

For more information or to purchase trees, click here.