People
The idea of creating a rehabilitative and educational environment for veterans suffering from PTSD was that of our CEO, Nir Lahav, a prominent figure in the Israeli non-profit sector with many years of success in establishing and leading social action projects both in Israel and around the world. Supporting his work are the other members of the founding team: Marc Bernstein, Yuval Limon, Udi Nativ and Guy Ronen, themselves a group of committed educators and accomplished professionals. In cooperation and consultation with leading professionals in their field, we have joined together to establish the farm and provide a unique rehabilitative program of group therapy and engagement.
The farm operates under the guidance of three professional, advisory bodies: a therapeutic advisory, an agricultural advisory committee, and a committee for assessment of the program’s effectiveness.
Our namesake
Ruca Lahav was born in Argentina in 1930 in the small Jewish agricultural colony of Rivera and grew up within a family of farmers. In 1950, she was the first from her village to come to Israel, where she joined the group of pioneers who founded Kibbutz Gazit in the Jezreel Valley. Ruca was the first tractor driver on the kibbutz, worked in the field crops, and agricultural work was her great pride. The tractor she drove in those early days is on display today at the entrance to the kibbutz. Later, Ruca worked in children’s houses and was the moving force behind the founding of the center for elderly care at Kibbutz Gazit and served as a health advocate for many years. She passed away in 2018, and in her honor, and in honor of the other founding pioneers of the State who saw farming and caregiving as central to the fulfillment of the Zionist vision, we are establishing the farm as a continuation of the path they paved in the days of Israel’s creation.
