Ofir Libstein, who served as mayor of the Gaza-adjacent Sh’ar HeNegev Region, was killed on Oct. 7 while defending his family’s kibbutz, Kfar Aza, as was his son, Nitzan. Libstein, in (relatively) more peaceful years, dedicated himself to transforming the image of the Gaza Envelope from that of a rocket-battered war zone into an attractive area for locals and tourists to visit, founding, together with his wife, the now-famous Darom Adom (Red South) festival, attracting hordes of Israelis to gawk at the carpets of blooming kalaniyot, red anemone flowers, that blanket the Western Negev.

Today, after more than a year of war in Gaza, displacements and regular rocket attacks on southern Israel, Libstein’s mission is more relevant than ever, and is being carried forward by others. Doron Moshe, program director at the Hallelujah Project, which was also founded by Libstein, met with dozens of representatives of Israel travel programs last month in Sderot and explained to them how they could be part of the effort to rehabilitate Israel’s south. 

“In the past year everyone has been looking for ways to help this region and state bounce back, and when we spoke with the kids we felt that they were done with people relating to them as victims, and [that] the best remedy is to give them a platform to lead, be activist and make this place bloom again,” said Moshe, whose organization conducts educational workshops and activities that aim to strengthen ties between Israel and the Diaspora.

Moshe was speaking with members of the Israel Educational Travel Alliance, which held a summit last month to explore ways in which their organizations could adapt their programs to match the new post-Oct.7 reality and boost participation in their trips. IETA is a consortium of over 100 Israel educational travel organizations, programs and philanthropies housed at Jewish Federations of North America, and includes groups such as Birthright Israel, RootOne, Masa and Passages. 

Sderot, where the group met with Moshe, has not historically been a common stop on North American Israel travel experience itineraries. The Halejujah Project seeks to, Moshe told them, “invite people from Israel and the world to discuss the revival of this area from a war zone to a place of red flowers blossoming.”

Tchelet Grabowsky, manager of the Western Negev Region and of the communities along the Lebanese border at the Hallelujah Project, added that for youths coming from abroad, it was important for them to gain a more tangible understanding of what they are defending when they face anti-Israeli accusations in places like college campuses.

“What Ofir did was change the perception from a war zone to a red flowers festival without doing anything else,” Moshe told the group. “The red flowers were always there — the opposite of a place you need to keep distance from.” Libstein, he said, made a change by “spotting a resource that already exists and spurring a momentum around it, not by changing reality but by seeing opportunity in a place which will change the perception and mindset and then will change reality.”

Moshe said that the workshops he was pitching to the group of tour operators would be led by young survivors of Oct. 7, who would effectively say, “Here is what we went through in the past year and here is how we move forward.” He suggested that tour operators begin their itineraries in the south with a visit to some of the Oct. 7 massacre sites, then take part in the Darom Adom Workshop, named after the festival, to discuss strategies to overcome negative perceptions of the Gaza Envelope and finish the day with a volunteering activity, such as agricultural work together with Israeli teenagers.

Avi Rubel, co-founder and co-CEO of Honeymoon Israel, said that it felt like the “dawn of a new era.” Speaking to eJP in Sderot after hearing about Moshe’s workshops, Rubel said, “After a year and a half of torture, we are on the verge of being able to bring hundress of couples here and collectively feel like we are doing holy work around helping, in such an important moment, to connect people with Israel.”

Nisa Felps, director of partnerships at Momentum, which brings Jewish mothers on trips to Israel, told eJP after the summit ended, that among the key takeaways she gained from the summit was to move the volunteer experience they usually include in their programs from central Israel to southern Israel to transmit the themes of resilience and rebuilding after learning about the tragedy of Oct. 7.

The group also met with Ayelet Shmuel, a psychotherapist who trains professional and paraprofessional teams from Jewish communities around the world and Israel in the field of psychological first aid, trauma and ongoing stress.

Shmuel stressed the importance of providing tour operator staff with mental health first aid training before taking their groups to Israel. “We can’t bubble wrap kids, but we need someone who knows how to facilitate it,” she said. “It’s a skill you cannot skip.”

The group’s day in the south also included a culinary food tour in Sderot, to find new places for meals for participants when they travel to the area, and a meeting in Rahat with Shalev Biton, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre, and Yunis Alkarnawi, a Bedouin-Israeli man who saved his life along with dozens of others. In addition to sharing their story with the group, Biton, 25, addressed questions about the best ways to engage with survivors from the Nova community.

“I think it’s very important for most of us, the survivors, to tell our stories — it’s like a therapy for me, in addition to a therapist, this kind of thing is absolutely therapy,” Biton said. 

“It’s the best tool to show the truth to the world and what we went through on Oct. 7 and how, for myself, through my story, to give some hope to the future in Israel,” he said, adding that he draws hope and meaning from sharing his story.

He also said that he is open to all questions people may have about his ordeal and that “there is nothing that is forbidden to ask,” around the sensitive subject. “Many times, just like people feel they mustn’t ask certain questions, I feel that I mustn’t share certain things — so it’s mutual,” he said.

Adam Waters, director of the U.K.-based UJIA Israel Experience told eJP, “It is likely that many of our groups of teens this summer will visit the Gaza Envelope, and understanding how to frame this educational experience will be critical. The IETA itinerary in the south — with visits to Nir Am, Sderot and Rahat — helped construct the educational goals of these trips, giving a clearer understanding of how we balance hope with tragedy.”

Anna Langer, IETA acting executive director and vice president for North America-Israel strategies, said that the summit laid the foundations “to build new models that reflect today’s realities.”

“Our next steps are to build upon the progress we made by continuing to spread these new best practices and moving toward tangible solutions to problems like flights to ensure that all who want to come to Israel can,” Langer said.