"SALT OF THE EARTH"

 

 

                                                                                    

A short while ago, Arab terrorists set fire to the Havat Gilad farm in northern Samaria, forcing 100 families to evacuate. Nir Amitai, from kibbutz Lahav in the Negev, cancelled his entire schedule, loaded his car with produce from his farm – honey, olive oil and fresh vegetables – and rushed to help.

Nir met a mother with 10 children who had no idea where they would sleep that night. Saw the home of Yael Shevach who had lost her husband in a terror attack, and now also all her memories that went up in flames. But he also saw a spark of hope. A man who lost his home told him that he's already telling his children to look ahead – and they're starting right away to plan the new home.

Nir added "I left this visit in awe. There was a moment there that, to me, contained 3,800 years of a people's existence. That people burn down, time and again, and blossom anew. Together." We have an amazing people and an amazing country, in every corner, from every sector, in every part of the land. If only we'd learn to love and accept one another."

Born and raised in Kibbutz Lahav. Nir is the CEO of Rimon farm's NPO (non-profit organizations). At the end of 2020, he had completed 17 years of service as an officer and commander in the IDF, with the rank of major.

Rimon Farm Association was established in 2020 and founded two projects: "Rimon Farm" to advance youth at risk, and "Lahav Farm" to advance veteran soldiers with PTSD. The association collaborates with various governmental, semi-governmental, and other institutions.

Nir’s journey with the Lahav Farm is deeply personal. His work is linked with his own healing process, from a traumatic experience he experienced ten years ago. In 2016 two of his friends sitting on either side of him were killed and several badly wounded, in a terrorist attack. Haunted for years by the event, particularly the helplessness of not having been able to save his friends, Nir concluded that he had been “skipped over” by the terrorist’s bullets for a reason. As a result, he pivoted from his military career and environmental activism to a life-mission of healing trauma. 

A treatment model was developed (with the help of relevant mental health professionals), which fuses sustainability (“healing the earth”); community, personal empowerment and self-regulation (“healing the person”); and creating a positive enterprise across Israel’s often lawless South.  Nir Amitai’s farm network has at its core that most Israeli quality of all: traumatic growth, his own included.

The trauma treatment program at Lahav Farm is noted for its innovative and adaptive approach. A return to the earth is one such example — seen as both a national duty, and a tool for facing our many challenges. The rising dominance of Israeli agriculture — particularly in education and in healing the trauma wrought by war — is a window into the DNA of the Israeli national ethos: resilience, innovation, and community. 

A visionary, Nir has not rested for a moment. While still developing Lahav Farm, he already has two similar farms underway in the Gaza border region. Each farm aims to reach specific target groups, such as survivors of the Nova music festival massacre; kibbutz terror assaults; emergency first-responders; security personnel experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder following their heroic actions on, and since, October 7.

Yair W. is a Battalion Medical Officer who has spent much of the last year in Gaza. He recently participated, with other members of medical combat teams, in a healing retreat at Lahav Farm, part of the Rimon Farm network, for people who saw things – "like friends dying in your arms.” 

As these farms continue to grow and evolve, the vision is clear: to create enduring places of all-inclusive trauma treatment, that can serve as models for the healing of Israelis, greatly impacted by war and terror.