Israel Study Trip on the topic of Community Resilience (2024)

(In the context of our network program G17 for Resilience)

In cooperation with an Israeli expert on community resilience, who had accompanied countless projects and initiatives in the field, we developed an engaging program for the trip. A group of professional women from Germany, all working in the fields of trauma and resilience, were given the opportunity to experience and examine the impressive efforts of communities and organizations engaged intensively in the creation of community resilience.

The program included meetings with representatives from various Israeli communities: Jewish Israelis, residents of mixed Arab-Jewish localities, and Israeli Bedouins. It included a visit to the project “Neighbor Communities”, an initiative by Kibbutz Hazerim in the Negev, which founded a temporary replacement kibbutz for the members of Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the villages most horribly affected by the events of October 7. In addition, we got together with the project “Gishurim” (“Bridging”) in the Jewish-Arab city of Lod, which promotes dialogue in mixed cities, and met with both project directors and activists in the field. We also got to know the unique community of the mixed Jewish-Arab village Neve Shalom (Wahat al-Salam in Arabic) and talked about the new challenges it has faced, since October 7. In the Bedouin village of Segev Shalom (Shakiv al-Salam in Arabic) we learned about a local project for community resilience, initiated and led by the local population.

Another focal point of the program was the developmental axis trauma-resilience-growth. In this context, the group got to know “Ohel Avraham” (“Abraham’s Tent”), a grief coping program for young people founded after October 7 and the following war. We visited the “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv and spoke with the community builder within the Hostages’ Families Forum. We also got to hear the story of a musician survivor of the Nova festival massacre who told us about the torturous process of trying to return to life after nightmarish events.

Representatives of IsraAid reported on the mobilization of this internationally active organization for the local communities and about “Nitzanei Ofir”, a scholarship program aimed at returning young people to the kibbutzim and towns of the Gaza envelope. We were also introduced to “Orek”, an organization building communities for people without family networks. We were delighted to cooperate once more with “Etgarim”, an organization which ordinarily organizes extreme sport activities for people with disabilities, but since October 7 has also turned into an important actor in the creation of community resilience among the evacuated communities.  

A survey conducted after the trip revealed that the group from Germany drew much value from the journey, both professionally and personally. It is important to emphasize that without exception everyone who met the group in Israel expressed gratefulness at conducting a trip during these times and interpreted it as an act of solidarity.