Kiryat Shemona / Manara / Tiberias / Hatzor HaGlilit / Safed / Nof Hagalil / Katzrin / Lod / Bnei Brak / Jerusalem / Sderot / Nir Am / Netivot / Rahat / Kiryat Malakhi / Dimona / Hura
From Desolation to Rebuilding
Looking Back at 2025
Dear Friends and Partners,
2025 has been a whirlwind of activity and we at Tozeret Haaretz are incredibly proud that, even under the most difficult of circumstances, our 45 young communities in 16 locations across Israel are thriving. A main example of this is our work in Kiryat Shemona. Tozeret Haaretz has been active in Kiryat Shemona for ten years via our principal channels of activity – communities of students studying at Tel Hai Academic College, and local young adults, together with alumni, who want to make the city a better place for all. On the eve of October 7th, 200 Tozeret Haaretz members were living in Kiryat Shemona and all were displaced to other areas of the country, where they continued activity from afar until they began to return to the city – around 50 of them in 2025. In order to support Kiryat Shemona’s return to being a city full of activity in which people want to live, especially young adults, Tozeret Haaretz is not only endeavoring to return to previous levels of activity in the city but also to expand it, inspired by the concept of “build back better.” In addition to restoring our existing communities and creating new student communities, including 40 students who are new to Kiryat Shemona, Tozeret Haaretz is launching a new pioneer community of newcomers, with a focus on entrepreneurship. For us, returning to Kiryat Shemona and bringing new young people to live there is exceptionally gratifying and it testifies to the importance of a strong, experienced young communities movement. Kiryat Shemona is the central town in the Upper Galilee region and, as such, serves for us as the measurement of all of our critical rebuilding work in the North.
Even as we focus on Kiryat Shemona, Tozeret Haaretz has chosen, at this critical moment in Israeli history, to make the strategic decision to use our expertise and experience in community building to create and implement the Northern Spirit and Southern Spirit projects to strengthen and build communities in the border areas of the north and south, where communities need new residents to strengthen them, young people who are committed to a process of connection, acclimation and setting down new roots. Tozeret Haaretz is creating pioneering communities made up of newcomers from across the country interested in relocating to the north/south and who require a framework to connect them to one another and to local communities, including assistance in finding places to live and work. We are working with local and regional partners to help them integrate successfully, providing them with the anchors they need to stay. We are happy to announce that they are well underway and have received initial funding commitments! Please see below for a comprehensive update on these innovative and exciting projects.
Thank you, as always, for being our partners in everything that we do. We are pleased to present a summary of our work in 2025.
With pride and gratitude,
Sharon Avis & Shay Ilan
Co-CEOs, Tozeret Haaretz
From Co-CEOs
Shay Ilan
Sharon Avis
At a critical moment in Israeli history, we chose to use community-building expertise to rebuild and strengthen border regions.
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Returning to Kiryat Shemona and bringing new young people to live there testifies to the power of strong young communities.
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1,189
young people active in Tozeret Haaretz communitie
throughout the country
749
participants in Tozeret Haaretz student communities
440
active members in Tozeret Haaretz young communal networks
3
new pioneer communities established
along the Gaza and northern borders
3,500
young people have joined Tozeret Haaretz communities
since its establishment
89,880
hours dedicated this year to community building activity
119,840
hours dedicated this year to volunteer activity
Sustainable Impact
Tozeret Haaretz participants build the communities that are ideal for them as young people and contribute to the community-at-large. As members of Tozeret Haaretz communities, they commit to weekly community-building activities and participation in volunteer initiatives that they themselves create in order to improve life for young people in the community. In this way, conditions are created by the young people themselves to attract others to join, ensuring vibrant young communal life for years to come.
Anchoring Young Adults
In 2025, students studying in 15 academic institutions participated in student communities countrywide, including a new pioneering student community in Kibbutz Nir Am in the Gaza Envelope region. Our work creates connections between the students and with the communities in which they live, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will choose to remain following the two-year program commitment and build their lives there – and many do.
Our young adult communities offer alumni of our student communities, native local residents and other young people who have chosen to move to the places in which we are active a way to work together to contribute to the quality of life in their communities for the benefit of young people and the community-at-large. Joining our network of young adult communities in 2025 is the new model of pioneering newcomer communities along the northern and southern (Gaza) borders.
Resilience in Crisis
For us, despite two years of devastating and destructive war, mass displacement, extended reserve duty for many young people at an unprecedented level, cost to livelihoods, injury and loss of friends and family members, Tozeret Haaretz communities have continued to thrive. The Pub-lic initiative active in Lod, Kiryat Malachi, Netivot and Tzfat has continued to bring together hundreds of students and young adults on a weekly basis to strengthen young communal life. The nursery schools and kindergartens in Netivot, initiatives of motivated and energetic young parent communities, continue to grow. All of this is an incredible achievement and a testament to the tremendous need for strong communities in Israel.
OUR IMPACT
in 2025
Significant Projects in 2025
Northern Spirit and Southern Spirit
The first pioneering newcomer communities are currently being established in the north in Kibbutz Manara, Mevo’ot HaHermon, Kiryat Shemona and Kibbutz Malkia, and in the south in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Tozeret Haaretz has fine-tuned a model to maximize their success. The “couples’ model” is based on the premise that while single young adults are most likely to jump onboard a project that includes immediate relocation, they are also the most likely to move on if another significant opportunity comes their way. On the flip side, young families are more challenging to recruit for immediate relocation because of more complex needs and also higher concerns about the security situation, which still remains precarious, but they are also the most likely to stay for the long term. Between these two groups are young couples who do not yet have children or are just beginning a family. Much like singles, they are more likely to join a relocation project relatively quickly and easily, but, like young families, are more likely to commit for the long term as soon as children come into the picture. The couples’ model is being implemented in Mevo’ot HaHermon and Kibbutz Manara and the Kibbutz Movement is supported the replication of the same model in other kibbutz border communities, starting with Kibbutz Malkia and Kibbutz Nahal Oz in first half of 2026.
Also part of Northern Spirit and Southern Spirit, a new student community in Kibbutz Nir Am in the Gaza Envelope region was established in early 2025 with the current participation of 17 students.
We are grateful that Northern Spirit has been granted funding from Chevron, the Habayta Foundation, the Kibbutz Movement and a special funding partnership of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and the Jewish Funders Network. The Kibbutz Movement is the initial funding partner of Southern Spirit and we are exploring new partnerships to support the development and success of pioneering newcomer communities in the Gaza Envelope region.
Project Horizon Update
As we mentioned in our last report, in January 2024, Tozeret Haaretz was tapped by UJA-Federation of New York and the Israeli Business Alliance to support the coordination of Project Horizon to rehabilitate and strengthen the Gaza Envelope region communities. Project Horizon is an innovative funding model that supports critical projects in the areas of community resilience, mental health, informal education and employment, as well as the communities’ capacity building efforts by funding needed positions and leadership roles during this critical period. The project is professionally coordinated by a Tozeret Haaretz in-house team that is in regular contact with these communities.
Stage One of Project Horizon focused on the 8 “intensive care communities” most affected by the events of October 7th and Stage Two added 12 more communities with the support of two additional funding partners, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston. Stage Three, which began activity in 2025, provides support to the 26 remaining communities within 7 km from the Gaza border fence and 8 communities beyond the 7-km mark in need of support for various reasons. In September 2025, an additional grant was approved by UJA for continued support of Stage One and Two communities.
Currently, many of the Stage One and Stage Two projects have already been completed or will be completed in the first quarter of 2026. Some Stage Three projects are well underway while others have recently been approved and begun activity. Besides capacity building, some of the most meaningful projects have been community-specific memorial projects and hostage activism support, summer camps for children and youth, community placemaking in temporary locations where displaced communities have been housed to provide much-needed shared activity and connection, and innovative group therapy/resilience initiatives for different age groups, such as therapeutic guided surfing, phototherapy and process-based support groups. In response to the particular need among moshavim for support in community processes and resilience, Project Horizon is utilizing the particular expertise of Tozeret Haaretz in the Moshav-Kehila program, which provides individualized guidance and support.
Income Sources
Our Partners
Looking Forward to 2026
This coming year will continue our strategic focus on maintaining and growing all of our communities, alongside the significant development of the Northern Spirit and Southern Spirit projects. A pioneering newcomer community in Kibbutz Malkia and a new Kiryat Shemona young entrepreneurs’ community will be launched in 2026 in the north and a pioneering community in Kibbutz Nahal Oz will be launched in the south. We anticipate other communities with whom we are currently in discussion will firm up their plans to join the program as well in 2026 and look forward to being able to share our progress regarding these and all of Tozeret Haaretz activities in our next communication.
We are here to stay.
Thank you for staying here with us.
