Category: General

Israel is being blessed with much needed rain, changing the color of the landscape to green! Enjoy pictures of Itamar – Gem of the hills!

Friends of Itamar had a very emotional unveiling of a memorial wall made especially to commemorate the victims of terror attacks from Itamar. This massive mural of ceramic art was created, designed and painted by Hagar Zar, the widow of Chief of security of Samaria, Gilad Zar hy”d- zt”l. It includes the mosaic of all the names of our beloved ones and verses from the bible. Its representation of various themes of vitality illustrate for us the connect to the fallen and our mission here to continue building our Land. Enjoy the pictures! Sixteen years ago terrorist entered our high school, Chitzim and murdered three boys. Today we are, with Hashem’s awesome help along with government funding and matching needed funds from our donors, answering that tragedy by building a massive campus with brand new permanent buildings for dorms, classrooms, as well as other important rooms. Enjoy the pictures of the largest crane in Samaria! If someone would like to consider donating specifically to this cause please earmark this on your kind donation. We also have room dedications available as well! As usual we had guests here this week as we do every week no matter what is happening! Gary Greenberg, Elana Friedman and alan Nussbaum came to buy wine, ceramics and other boutique products here as well as enjoy the new pathways made by the Ministry of Antiquities here on Tel Chiya. We would like to encourage you to come as well! Please remember to contact us at our e.mail or through the website! A plethora of new winter crops are sprouting in our organic gardens here- enjoy the double blessing picture of strawberries at their finest!

Enjoy Leah’s Blog on VaEra

Watch rabbi Moshe’s Torah Shabbat Shalom Umevorach!!!!!

In an extremely difficult week for Judea Samaria with a wave of murderous attacks on innocents, there were still brave people who came to show their support and solidarity with those holding up the Land here on Itamar. Scott and Benjamin Hillman and friends – thank you for your friendship- we had a great tour of the biblical hills of Yosef and looking forward for your coming back soon with even more people from your precious community in Tennessee!    

Special thanks to Hillel Brenner for bringing Gary and Julie Applebaum on an especially volatile day but their steadfast belief in our cause was the focus of their visit, encouraging us and them in bridging the gap between heartland Jews and American Jewish communities. It was a peaceful and uplifting visit full of important facts they will take back with them to share. We wish them all the best in their mission for Israel and thank them!

Yad Leah run by Jessica Katz and Karen Thaler always seems to send their love at the right time! We will be doing a clothing distribution here soon with beautiful things they so lovingly put together for Itamar and many many other communities in Judea Samaria and other parts of Israel. Lots of painstaking patience and self- sacrifice goes into collecting these donations, sorting through them, packing and shipping them off to Israel. This chesed is not only appreciated on a material level but also in a heartfelt one. When rocks are being thrown on our roads and people are being shot and killed, just knowing such people have gone out of their way for us is totally consoling uplifting and bringing Tikkun Olam. Words can’t give enough honor and praise to these two women who have dedicated their life’s mission to this cause and to all the donors involved in the project as well as sorters, folders, packers and all the things involved to make it work.

On that note we want to give a special thank you to Sinda Berge who donated a beautiful bag of home -made knitted hats to our gmach warming our heads and hearts!

Some of us went down to the soldiers to bring delicious things for Shabbat and to thank them for what they do for Israel.

As we reach the end of the fiscal year, we would like to remind our dear friends of the importance of supporting Friends of Itamar. We have done amazing things here in the last year with your help. Everyone that has come back to visit is amazed by the beauty and growth- this is our mission- to answer terror with building, security and a range of projects in education agriculture parks children and needs of the community. We will need to purchase a new security jeep for our response team that works around the clock. Our other security projects are fortifying our fence and increasing better equipment in surveillance. This is SOS as the situation demands immediate buffing up to ensure our safety on this wide span of ground being held down by us here. We will be going on a speaking tour to the USA in the month of February. If anyone sees fit to have us speak in the tri state area please contact us asap about it. Thank you so so much- it is literally saving lives!

Enjoy Rabbi Goldsmith’s Torah lesson

Read Leah’s Blog

Shabbat Shalom!

Mazal Tov to the Ofer and Yael Head on the marriage of their daughter Reyut!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Itamar enjoyed the visit of our dear friends Mike Clayton and Chanoch Young who brought a very special group with them to tour Itamar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A tremendous thank you to Cort Mankin and her sewing crew that made beautiful girls dresses for our clothing distribution. Words can’t describe our gratitude of this act of love and kindness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also had a small and lovely group that came with our friend Ken Groat.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, there has been a rise of terrorist incidents in Israel – with the terrible attack in Barkan that where two precious people were cruelly murdered and another injured. Yesterday, right outside Itamar a soldier and civilian were injured in another attack. Last week there was an attempt by a terrorist to infiltrated Itamar. We want to thank our security team and soldiers for doing their utmost in protecting our residents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our response to terrorism has always been continued growth and development – Baruch Hashem it is so comforting to see a crane on Itamar as the building of our high school campus continues in full swing!

Watch Rabbi Goldsmith’s latest Torah lesson for the week – on Noah

Itamar welcomed again the visit of our dear friends Judy Grossman and Gila Rollhause that came this week to enjoy a beautiful summer day on Itamar. It is amazing to see how much they love Eretz Yisrael and want to do what they can to strengthen the land and make it flourish. May Hashem bestow His blessings upon them!!!! We are looking into the possibility of building another playground on one of our remote hilltop neighborhoods – this is a big project that needs a lot of help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Itamar welcomed Yosef Drever from Australia and Avraham Va’nismach from the Golan Heights. Yosef is working on a program he called Achdut Halev – where he is trying to bring Jews back home to the land of Israel by instilling within their hearts the love for Eretz Yisrael.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A memorial service was held this week for our dear friend Meir Lixenberg who was ambushed and killed by terrorists at the gate of our community back in 2001. Meir 36 at the time of his death left a wife and five children. Two of his boys are married today and living on Itamar. Meir’s father spoke about how much he misses his son and addressed the congregation with words of comfort from the Torah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Itamar summer camp program is finishing up in a few days – special thanks to all those amazing friends who participated in making the summer so special for our children, youth and community.

 

 

 

 

The Pnini farm picked some of their grapes this week and began making another batch of wine for the coming year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watch Rabbi Goldsmith’s new lesson for the Torah portion where he discusses some of the agricultural gifts that are given to the poor that apply to the land .

Today is a day of thanksgiving on Itamar – as we thank Hashem for the great miracle that took place here last night – Two terrorists were spotted approaching our community by our security cameras- a quick response by the army and our response team led to the capture of one of the terrorists. The other one is still at large as he escaped to the nearby village of Beit Furek. A bomb and Molotov cocktails were found in the vicinity.  Look closely at the picture of the bomb after it was detonated by the bomb squad , you can see how many screws and bolts were placed inside the bomb in an attempt to murder and injure as many people as they could.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, these evil savages and many others like them have one intention in mind – to murder innocent men woman and children. Over the last few months there has been a serious rise in attempts to infiltrate our community. Our response team has been working overtime with the army to protect Itamar’s residents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night they were outside in the very cold conditions of Itamar without warm clothing for over eight hours. After yesterday’s miracle, the head of Itamar’s response team requested that we purchase a special night projector that would help greatly in spotting terrorists on the run. In addition, we want to buy warm jackets, hiking boots, and high quality head flashlights for the response team members. Itamar has been through so much over the years. We have seen too much bloodshed in our community– Please stand with us!!!!! “Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened. I am the Hashem.” (Leviticus 19:16) We need to raise 15 thousand dollars -please help us.

As the New Year of the Trees approaches this week – Tu Bi’shvat let us continue to see the fulfillment of the verse in Amos 9:15 “And I will plant them on the land and they shall no more be pulled out of their land which I have given them says Hashem thy G-D” As we mentioned in our last news report anyone wishing to sponsor a tree can do so for a minimum donation of 50 dollars.  Blessings from Itamar Israel!!!!!!!

 

MAZAL TOV to all lovers of Jerusalem and Israel- President Trump – we would like to say THANK YOU -from the bottom of our hearts for recognizing truth and the capital of Israel.

As we publish our news – Itamar is in high alert as Arab mobs are rioting along our fence – special thanks to the army who is in constant vigil 27/7 protecting our community.

Connect to the parshas of Yosef now – Enjoy the short clip of our dear soldiers at the resting place of Yosef HaTzaddik in Shechem this week.

The blueberries are flowering on our organic farms! A sure miracle and sign of a new crop grown and flourishing on the ancient stony hills here!

Thank you donors for providing a computer projector for the use of our growing youth club!

Chanukah is just around the corner- a good time to think about families that could use a special boost of light and love! One of Friends of Itamar’s important projects is helping families in need.

As we approach the end of the fiscal year it’s important to voice something very critical. It has come to our attention over the years that there are many organizations raising funds in the name of Itamar- we would like to make it clear that Friends of Itamar runs out of Itamar by people who have been living here since its inception and experience the daily struggles of trials and hopes to build and grow. Please send your heart- warming donations through this 501C3- FRIENDS OF ITAMAR.

Enjoy Leah’s blog

Watch Rabbi Moshe’s Torah insights on the Parsha

Shabbat Shalom! Chanukah Sameyach!