Nature and people,meeting

From the founder

One room,one speech

We crowded onto a bunk bed. On the top bunk, Moraz Jafarov from Azerbaijan and Ido Kleiner from Nir Zvi, and beside them Moanes Awada from Sajur. On the bottom bunk, Ran Gov from Elyakhin, Uri Yerushalmi from Misgav, and me from Hod Hasharon.

All of us watching a small phone, riveted, for twenty minutes. The speech ends, and as a deep and heated argument begins, my mind drifts back through time — to my grandmother Hella, the Zionist from Holland who brought so many Jews to this country through the Habonim youth movement; thinking of my grandfather Benny and my grandmother Batya, buried beside Rachel the Poetess and Moses Hess at Kibbutz Kinneret.

I stop the heated argument with one sharp sentence: this country is changing! Do you understand that Memorial Day and Independence Day are almost here, and half of Israel's citizens do not see themselves as part of the Zionist story?

Four different tribes living in one country this small, each tribe divided within itself, countless shades inside every tribe — and what stands out most is how different their language of values is.

How are we going to hold on to this astonishing miracle called the State of Israel — when the demographics are changing in giant strides and the cultural gap runs this deep.

The years passed and the vision of four tribes began to come true: hard issues tearing the citizens of Israel into camps with no common ground.

But something astonishing happened in that room eight years ago. All the tribes who sat there in front of that small phone, on that bunk bed, manage to bridge the issues and understand that no one in that room wishes his friend harm. Out of knowing one another, and out of shared meaningful experiences, we created trust — and that trust is what keeps us friends.

A shared language of values, shared meaningful experiences, and real trust.

It is time to build a shared Israeli hope!

My name is Amir Hartman, founder of the B'Shetach association, and I believe we can build a better society.

B'Shetach — Hebrew for “out in the field” — was founded in 2022 to create a shared language of values across cultures: to strengthen the next generation, as individuals and as a group, so they can mend the fractures and close the gaps in Israeli society, and build a bridge between cultures, through outdoor skills and through getting to know the land of Israel and Israeli society.