“Today is a big day for us,” said Asaf, founder of an innovative Israeli agro-tech school near the Gaza border. “Thank God, work on our new greenhouse has begun with full momentum.”
After months of delays, planning, and great anticipation, construction is finally underway on a new greenhouse classroom in Kibbutz Sde Nitzan, in the Eshkol regional council. The project has been made possible thanks to generous support from Christian donors through ICEJ-Germany. Though the pace has been slower than hoped, on a recent visit we saw that equipment has started arriving and foundations are being marked. Within a month, the large greenhouse classroom should be fully completed and ready to welcome its first group of students.
“We dreamed it would already be built,” said Asaf, who has been leading the farming side of the project. “But the momentum is finally here. We’ll begin the coverings soon, then the interior installations.”
The greenhouse is part of a visionary new agro-tech high school being established in the Gaza border region, an area devastated by the October 7 invasion by Hamas and left critically short of agricultural workers. With 89% of local farms reporting negative impact and 19% shutting down entirely, the future of farming in the region looked grim. But now, a new generation is being trained to lead the long-term recovery.
This school, the first of its kind in the area, combines hands-on farming with advanced agricultural training and leadership development. Students learn everything from biotechnology and seed genetics to irrigation systems and entrepreneurship – all while gaining real-life experience in greenhouses and local fields.
“These are historic times for Israel, and for the entire free world,” Asaf reflected. “They are complex days but filled with hope for the future.”
The greenhouse sponsored by Christian supporters will serve as a live classroom, giving students a chance to work with soil, sensors and sustainable systems in real time. But this is only Phase One. The next stage includes full classroom blocks and a dedicated learning center, essential for expanding the program.
The sense of mission behind this project was captured powerfully in a recent year-end ceremony. Beneath the open shelter overlooking the agro-tech campus, a mix of students, teachers and local farmers gathered to mark the end of the new school’s pilot year. It was an emotional and deeply meaningful event.
Each person who spoke shared reflections on what it meant to pioneer such an initiative in a time and place of such national trauma.
“There was a deep feeling of calling and humility,” one teacher said. “These students are not just learning, they are rebuilding something greater than ourselves.”
The ceremony closed with everyone singing the Hebrew folk song “Al Kol Eleh,” by famous Israeli singer Naomi Shemer,” which says:
Please do not uproot what’s been planted.
Do not forget the hope.
Return me, and I shall return.
To the good land…
Keep, O God, this home of mine,
The garden and the wall.
Protect it from sudden sorrow,
From fear and from war.
Please guard for me all these things —
And the one my soul loves,
The silence, the tears,
And this very song.
The words echoed across the fields, moving many to tears as they realised that even in a land scarred by tragedy, hope still springs. Thanks to our Christian donors, we also can hope and pray that the new crops being planted in these fields and greenhouses will take root and remain for generations to come.
With this project now moving full speed ahead, attention is turning to the school’s long-term vision. A new class with 50 students from across Israel is already set to begin in September, even as plans progress for the development of an expanded campus — including more classrooms, a library and safe room, dormitories, dining facilities, and other essential infrastructure.
Your support can help turn this vision into reality! The ICEJ has committed to building the new learning center, however $210,000 is still needed for the classrooms. Construction can only begin once these funds are in.
We see this as more than just a farming school. It is a strategic and shared investment in Israel’s future, in its food security, its youth leadership, and in this battered region’s renewed hope of arising from the ashes of a great tragedy.
Main photo: At a recent year-end ceremony beneath an open shelter overlooking the agro-tech campus, a mix of students, teachers, and local farmers gathered to mark the end of the new school’s pilot year.
