JNF Hosts the Chabad Convention on a Tour of the Carmel and Prayer in memory of the Fallen
On the 30th day since the tragedy of the fire on the Carmel Mountain, the Jewish National Fund hosted a deligation of Chabad Rabbis on a tour of the fire damage to the Carmel. The Rabbis got their hands dirty while phisically working on the rehabilitation of the forest. Afterwards, the participators held a prayer in memory of the 44 fallen prison warders and policemen at the site of the tragedy of the bus of prison wardens.
The participants were in the vacinity for the annual Chabad Youth Convention which was held this year in Nir Etzion in the Carmel mountains. Accompanied by a JNF guide, the tour left the Nir Etzion Hotel towards the forests of the Carmel. There the participants were exposed to the dimensions of the tragedy to man and nature. They also learned of the rehabilitating procedure and renewal of the forest. About 60 person took part in this tour, of all ages, from young activists to white-bearded Rabbis.
The Chabad activists arrived at the partking branch in the Ofer Forest, where a forester of the JNF awaited them with a "Yearit", a fire extinguishing vehicle. "The visitors were very moved to see the fire extinguishing vehicle standing in the forest," said Alon Gutter, the JNF guide, who explained to them about the great fire and the damage to the forest, about the aims of renewal and the ways to do so. "Immediately afterward everyone, with no exception, put on gloves and with the means of secateurs and saws, volunteered to contribute to the renewal of the forest by pruning the trees and removing the residue."
Upon finishing their work, all the participants in the tour went towards the place where the tragedy of the bus of wardens took place, and held prayers on that spot, including the saying of Tehillim and Kaddish in memory of the 44 fallen wardens. "The tour was very moving. We didn’t imagine that it would be like that," said the director of the Chabad Terror Victims Program, Menachem Kutner emotionally, "Only upon our arrival at the spot itself, did we suddenly grasp the awfulness and the inferno which took place right here one month ago."
Just days before CTVP activists visited the families of the 44 men killed in the tragedy on the Carmel, and raised contributions from all over the world of $1000 for each family. "By the volunteering to work in the forest, we enabled the Rabbis to touch with their own hands the burnt earth, thereby connecting to the earth", said Kutner,"When the Rabbis will return to their communities throughout the land, they will tell them about their experience of confronting the fire damage and the procedure of rehabilitation, and will connect them to the burnt Carmel".,