In the midst of war, many Israeli students have found a safe haven in the western Negev.
The Nitzana Educational Community, founded by The Jewish Agency in 1986, has a student body of 15-18 year olds that ballooned in the wake of the Hamas invasion on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Since the last three months of 2023, a lot of what we did was taking care of Israelis from northern and southern Israel who had to be evacuated from their homes,” said Itai Divinsky, Nitzana’s director of R&D and partnerships.
Divinsky is a former Jewish Agency emissary in Colorado.
“We’ve also taken people from Russia and Ukraine, making aliyah to Israel.”
As a result, Nitzana has a student community of 340 students. The addition of students fleeing Ukraine and Russia is also significant.
“One of the most special things that we have the privilege of doing is to take them on a journey for discovery,” said Divinsky.
“For many of them it is to discover their connection to Judaism, because coming from former Soviet Union countries, they didn’t really have much of a Jewish community and not much of a sense of being Jewish except for knowing they were Jewish.
“The fact that we can do that with them means a lot to us.”
Nitzana is in the western Negev, near the Egyptian border. The community became a worldwide focal point when some Israelis gathered there to protest the arrival of humanitarian trucks attempting to cross into Gaza on Jan. 24, 2024. The protesters said the supplies would be stolen by Hamas.
“Nitzana is in many ways almost in a little bubble,” said Divinsky. “The situation in Israel right now is not an easy one, especially in northern Israel on the Lebanon border, but also far from the border. The communities and people there are impacted on a daily basis and there are tens of thousands who can’t even live in their homes.
“We are not far from that, and our day-to-day operations feel different than before.”
Divinsky, who was the Jewish Agency’s Colorado shaliach for four years, was in Denver last week for fundraising efforts with Nitzana’s CEO, Avi Cohen. JEWISHcolorado funnels significant monetary support to the Nitzana educational effort.
“I can’t even describe the support from our brothers and sisters in the US, and specifically, Colorado,” said Cohen.
“The partnership between Colorado and Nitzana has been so strong for so many years, and many of the things in our program wouldn’t be able to happen without the people of Colorado being with us.”
“About two-thirds of our educational programs are funded by different branches of the Israeli government and about a third with philanthropic partners,” said Divinsky.
“We are in the US reconnecting with partners and looking for new partners. Our most important partners are JEWISHcolorado and the Colorado community.”
Nitzana has become quite a melting pot, though that might not have been the original plan in 1986.
“We have the Russian speakers who start their journey in Israel, as well as Arabs and Muslims,” said Divinsky. “They do all of their high school years with us.
“We have an agricultural high school and we have a pre-army, pre-military academy. All of these groups don’t really meet each other and don’t really connect outside Israel.
“Here, we see them connecting. That is the beauty of Nitzana. That’s what makes this a place of hope and inspiration because it shows what Israel can and should be in a small village in the desert,” Divinsky said.
“It is a deep feeling of gratitude to be the leader and to have responsibility for all these amazing people,” said Cohen.
“The last two years in Israel has been so difficult, but I’m surrounded with these young Israelis and others who believe in the love of Israel, the love of mankind and the love of each other, and that we should have a mutual future and belief in a Jewish state, but also a democratic one so that each kid should have equal opportunity to achieve their dreams.
“To wake up every morning in a place like this is really a present to me.”
Listen to Itai Divinsky on the latest episode of the IJNCast.
© IJN 2024
