Do you want to go back into time and see, or even relive, the way Israel was built — to witness how its early pioneers changed the land from wilderness to settled and prosperous communities?
Chalutza is a region of Israel’s Negev Desert, about five miles from the Gaza Strip and close to the border with Egypt. Before about five years ago, that region contained “nothing but sand,” according to Israeli Moshe Berniker.
In fact, as Berniker asserted to the some 80 people attending an event sponsored by the Jewish National Fund-Wisconsin Region at the Charles Allis Art Museum on June 27, “nothing happened” in the Chalutza region “since the creation of the world. The Torah was never there.”
Today, because of both the work of the people there and the help they received from JNF, some 200 families “with an average of eight children per family” now live in two communities, Naveh and Bnei Netzarim; and a third, Shlomit, is being planned that will eventually house 1,500 families, Berniker said.
In addition, the people have put into cultivation some 3,000 acres of land; and 95 percent of the vegetables grown there — mostly potatoes and carrots, Berniker said — are exported to Europe, making what Berniker called “a $50 million business” that started “out of nothing.”
In fact, Berniker, who works in public affairs and fundraising for these communities, said farmers in these communities get angry with him when he refers to the soil of the area as sand. “The farmers say, ‘This is not sand; this is gold,’” he said.
Moreover, the area now has a waiting list “of more than 100 families, who want to move there tomorrow,” Berniker said.
All in all, the development of this region is “the most beautiful, magical thing that is happening,” said Berniker.
See the full version of this story in the August issue.
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