Over five years ago, Ayelet Hashachar (“AH”) began working in Kibbutz Sde Nechemia, one of the various Kibbutzim in Emek HaHula (Hula Valley). 

It all started with a phone call from a resident looking for a place to daven. “I’m davening under a street lamp by myself,” he explained. Two weeks later he called back and said, “I put a sign on the lamppost “mechakim l’tisha” (waiting for nine)!  Erev Pesach, he asked “what will I do on Pesach”?  

Two months later sparks ignited: Ten members of the Kibbutz agreed to daven together every week. Seeing the commitment of its residents, the Kibbutz agreed to provide them with a place to daven. AH provided furniture and a Sefer Torah. Slowly, the davening “circle” widened and the Kibbutz understood that it was time to build a synagogue in the center of the Kibbutz. The Kibbutz was expanding and accepting new members from all over, including traditional Jews who needed a synagogue. 

AH thought it fitting to dedicate the new synagogue in memory of Tamar Ariel, A”H, the first religious female navigator in the Israeli Air Force, since the Chief of the Air Force Base where she had been stationed came from that Kibbutz, and the Kibbutz wanted to memorialize her. 

AH together with the Israeli Government has raised 80% of the costs to break ground (close to 1,000,000 NIS). But AH can’t break ground until it raises the remaining 300,000 NIS. If you would like to be part of this project or hear more about it, please contact Rav Shlomo Raanan at [email protected] or [email protected] and mention “Sde Nechemia.”