Category: Current Events

Itamar wants to thank again our dear friend Alan Hirsch and all the wonderful people that have helped out in the special Pesach Gmach project. This year over 1400 families throughout Judea and Samaria received pesach packages of matzahs, wine, chicken, and meat. Alan and his lovely wife Barbara were warmly welcomed when they visited with us here on Itamar- where all the food was distributed from. May Hashem bless them a thousand times for their amazing kindness.

Itamar welcomed the visit of Chanoch Messner and son-in-law who enjoyed a tour of the Itamar community. Chanoch has been volunteering on one of the Itamar farms.

Special thanks to Howard and Debi Reece who came to Itamar with their son to help distribute the Pesach game packages.

This year more than 3000 visitors enjoyed touring our community on Cholo moed Pesach! Thanks to all our amazing friends that have been helping us build our community – We were so honored to have the Fischberger family, long time friends and supporters, as well as a group of tourists from Ponovich Chassidim, Josh Hasten who brought with him 6 families that stayed over for the night,  to name just a few.Itamar has become a major tourist attraction. We have so many great sites and we highly recommend it to all spending time in Israel.

Spring is beautiful here on Itamar please enjoy some of our nature pictures.

Mazal Tov to Rabbi Uziel Damari for his siyum of the Zohar.

Mazal Tov to Eitan and Adi Melet on the birth of a daughter. Eitan and Adi were both born on Itamar Eitan is the son of Barak and Sarah Melet who are long time Itamar farmers and Adi is the daughter of Rabbi Avi and Ronit Ronsky.  Rav Ronsky is the former chief Rabbi of the Israeli army and present head of the Itamar Yeshivah.

Mazal tov to Tomer and Metal Pinini on the birth of a son! Their son was born on Itamar in their home on the eve of Pesach. Metal delivered her own baby! Metal and Tomer live on one of the Itamar farms way out on our beautiful hilltops.

Mazal tov to Nachshon and Racheli on the birth of a daughter. Nachshon and Racheli live on one of Itamar’s remote neighborhoods.

Mazal tov to Nissan and Elizah on the birth of their first grandchild! Welcome to the club.

Mazal Tov to Aviyah and Dror Azulay on the Bar Mitzvah of their son Yosef Oz!

Watch Rabbi Goldsmith’s torah lesson for the week.

Please remember- we have a facebook page- please sign up! Itamar Israel Support Group (on facebook)

As the holiday of Pesach approaches, we want to wish all our dear friends of Itamar a happy and enjoyable holiday! Pesach is the time renewal in is no wonder why Rosh Chodesh Nissan it is one of our four traditional new years.  The spring is in the air and the trees are beginning to blossom. For this reason we make a special blessing over the blossoming fruit trees – see video.

 In addition Pesach It is a time where Hashem judges our grain. In other words, it will be determined on the holiday of Pesach how much bounty we will be blessed with in the form of grain. We have a very special custom at this time of year to give to the needy – what we call Maot Chitim. The Zohar Hakadosh writes on the portion of Yitro that that one must be happy on all our holidays and also see to it that the poor and needy are happy as well. If a person rejoices alone and turns a cold shoulder to the poor then in G-D’s eyes he is what the verse in Malachi 2:3 is referring to – “I will smear the excrement on your faces the excrement of your holiday sacrifices” or the verse in Is Isaiah 1:14 your New Moon and appointed holidays I despise they have become a burden to me” The Rambam (Maimonides) writes in the laws of Yom tov 6:18 that  when a person eats and drinks on his holiday he is obligated to feed the convert, the orphan, and widow together with the other needy and misfortunate ones. But if one locks his doors and courtyard and eats and drinks with his family alone and does not take care of the poor and needy this is not considered a holiday celebration but a belly feast and a disgrace to them. These very harsh words of the Zohar and Rambam hit home and we must all learn from them. This is the source of the custom to give out food packages on our holidays to the needy.

 I want to take this opportunity to thank an incredible person that has been for the last – who knows how many years – making sure that around a thousand families throughout Judea and Samaria are enjoying their Pesach holiday. Alan Hirsch, a real Tzaddik in our time, is a one man power house who is barely slept for over a month making sure that he can raise the money to feed these needy families. Families in Itamar, Elon More, Yitzhar, Shilo, Tapucah, Maaleh Livonah, Givat Ronan, Chavat Gilad, Eli, Esh Kodesh, Aday Ad, Achiyah, Shvut Rachel, Chomesh and many others from Judea are the recipients of his astounding kindness. Let us bless Alan and all those amazing people that have been a part of this great Mitzvah.  It still isn’t too late to get involved for those interested.

An amazing dinner was held in Tel Aviv last week sponsored by Israeli businessman Yaakov Luxembourg owner of the Lapidot oil and drilling company. See Post. The idea of the dinner was to raise support for the completion of our synagogue project. Thank G-D we are getting closer to fulfill this important goal but we still need substantial funding to complete the project. Please enjoy this short video showing young men from Itamar and other communities in the area working on the shul – what a blessing!

Itamar welcome the visit of Rabbi Shmuel Trinsky who specializes in landscaping and agriculture. His is now in the process of writing up plans for the creating a Biblical and Talmudic botanical gardens on Itamar. The idea is to make trails and pathways on one of the beautiful Itamar landscapes where one can tour and learn about the fascinating flora that grows in our area, the very same flora that is talked about in the bible and Talmud.

Itamar welcome visitors from Holland that are planning on making a movie about the life in Judea and Samaria.

Two new families joined our community this week – the Saadon and Kochav families. We wish them a quick adjustment to life on Itamar.

Read Leah’s special pesach message to our dear Friends of Itamar.

Watch Rabbi Goldsmith’s Torah lesson on this week’s portion of Vayikrah.

Mazal tov to Rav Natan and Nurit Chay on the birth of a grandson.

Mazal tov to Rami and Shoshy Odeser on the birth of a granddaughter.

Mazal tov to Ofer and Yael Head on the birth of a grandson.

Mazal Tov to Avraham and Tzviayah Besserglick on the birth of a son.

Mazal tov to Yoel and Chavah Avni on the birth of a daughter.

The memorial service for the Fogel family that was massacred two years ago on Itamar was held this week on the 7^th of Adar (the very same yartzeit of Moshe Rabbenu). It was a very moving ceremony attended by over 1500 people and marked by the placing of the foundation stone of the Itamar Yeshivah dormitory. Last year the memorial event was marked by the inauguration of Mishkan Ehud the major Yeshivah Beit Medrash of the Itamar Yeshivah which was completed within a year of the massacre. This year is marked in the the beginning of the buildingof the dormitories. This is our most important response to terrorism: building and establishing Jewish presence in the Heartland.  The event was attended by Israeli ministers and Parliament members. Benjamin Netanyahu sent a personal letter to the family which was read by Israel’s Judicial minister Yaakov Ne’eman. There were other ministers and Knesset members that addressed the crowd as well like Minister Elie Yishay, Minister Yisrael Katz, Udel Edelstien, and Knesset member Uri Ariel. Aaron Raziel, a renowned singer and musician sung songs throughout the event.

Itamar welcomed the visit of our dear friend  Elliot Aeurbach from Englewood NJ who came to visit the community and participate in the Fogel memorial.

Mazal Tov to the Rabbi Ben – Zion and Mivasseret Rimon on the Bar Mitzvah of their son this week!

MeYagon Lesimcha- the week started out on a serious and solemn note for our residents but ended today with a beautiful children’s Purim parade. Enjoy the small clip and pictures of the special event. With all these amazing children growing up on Itamar, it gives you the feeling of how much we have been blessed!

A special request to all our dear Itamar friends! As it is a custom to give Machazit Hashekel before Purim we turn to you to continue to support Friends of Itamar and send in your kind support! We have to build the Land and this depends on all of us!

Watch Rabbi Goldsmith’s  Torah lesson on Purim.

Purim Sameyach and Shalom Shalom to all of our dear friends!

A very special friend of Itamar, Alan Hirsch was honored in Chevron on the occasion of his 60^th Birthday. Mazal Tov to Alan, May Hashem bless and keep you with many many more years of shefa!

Mazal tov to the Gilboa Family on the birth of their son and entering the brit of Avraham Avinu!

A lush green Israel is the result of the blessed rains this winter- enjoy photos taken of places in the Shomron and the Galilee.

We welcomed a group of enthusiastic hikers this week from North Dakota and Missouri led by Rabbi Moshe Rothchild.

It will be two years that have passed since the terrible massacre of 5 members of the Fogel family, an atrocity that most of the world knew about. We pray that there should only be continued building and development in the names of the kedoshim and that the Land of Israel delivers a message of life and vitality, yihee zichram baruch!

Watch Rabbi Goldsmith’s lesson on parshat shavua!