Three years ago, the plot of land in Ayyir Hashachar was bare, sun-scorched soil. No shade, no canopy, nothing growing. Ayyir Hashachar is a young Jewish community putting down roots in the hills of Judea, the biblical heartland where the patriarchs walked. Israel365 partnered with permaculture expert Baruch Kogan to plant 10,000 trees on this 12-dunam plot using the Miyawaki method, a high-density approach that rebuilds depleted soil and creates a self-sustaining ecosystem in years rather than decades.
Thank you for being the reason this exists.
In the summer of 2024, while Baruch was serving in reserve duty in Gaza, the temporary irrigation line failed under pressure and the first round of seedlings didn’t survive the heat. Most projects don’t recover from that. This one did because of you. Your donations funded a permanent underground water supply line, engineered for Israel’s dry summers, delivering reliable pressure to all 10,000 irrigation drippers across the plot. When the situation was at its most discouraging, your generosity turned a painful setback into a permanent foundation.
Between March 18 and 22, Baruch deployed another 17,700 seeds: date palm, moringa, pomegranate, lead tree, jujube, fig, mulberry, and Judas tree. Baruch and his team prepared each as a nutrient-rich seed ball and placed them along irrigation lines. Combined with earlier rounds, more than 39,000 seeds are now in the ground.
Your support is what allows Baruch to do this incredible work.
No germination yet. Baruch expects the first signs in three to eight weeks. After a dry stretch last month, heavy rain has returned, and the volunteer plants spreading naturally across the plot are creating the moist, sheltered conditions the seeds need to root.
The prophet Ezekiel spoke directly to this land: “But you, mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home.” (Ezekiel 36:8). When those first seedlings emerge from the hills of Judea, they’ll be growing in soil you restored, through a project you refused to let fail.
If you’d like to keep this forest growing, your gift today funds the next round of seeds and helps secure the perimeter fence protecting everything already in the ground.