Second Study Trip to Israel on Community Resilience (2025)

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

In March 2025, a second group of professionals from Germany working in the fields of trauma and community resilience travelled to Israel as part of the G17 for Resilience program.

The ceasefire was broken shortly before our departure. Nevertheless, it was still possible to visit regions we had not reached on our first trip, in November 2024, both in the country’s north and south.

We met people and communities facing immense challenges — and continuing to act, care, and (re-)build. Each visit offered a different lens on resilience:

• We learned how the Kibbutz Movement has continuously led a large-scale, coordinated response to the crisis.
• The team at Menashe Regional Council gave us insight into community work in a diverse regional environment.
• In Rahat, we met social entrepreneurs who spoke about the challenges of the Bedouin community.
• In Ofakim, we experienced a city reshaping life after trauma.
• At Ma'ale Yosef Regional Council, we learned about the realities of internal displacement in Israel’s northern communities.
• The local team in Akko showed us what it means to work together in a complex and diverse city.
• In Tel Aviv, we learned how the Environmental and Social Nature School became a home for children from Kibbutz Re’im.
• In the Hostages Square, the only site we revisited from the first trip, we witnessed the continued presence of civil society in the face of unresolved pain.
• Soul-Key, a music-based trauma recovery program, closed our journey with voices of healing.

For those who took part, the journey left a lasting impression. As one participant put it:

“An emotionally intense, eye-opening, and deeply motivating experience that will stay with me personally and professionally.”