I bought a stamp of KK”L to paste it to my notebook. I am so glad that I help, with my money, the holy work of building the land of my forefathers, the Jewish land.

I look at this stamp and…

I see the whole of Eretz Israel in front of my eyes with all its holiness and glory.

I see a land of gardens and vineyards, fields and forests, spreading beautifully and everything looks as one big green sheet. Farmers are carrying on their shulders baskets full of grapes, their heads are wreathed and they are singing. They carry these fruits to the Carmel winery.

I see small children standing in the orchard, arguing about some game and conversing in Hebrew.

On the other side I see young man and women arm in arm singing and dancing after having completed their labor, removing stones. Birds are chirping. Then I remembered what my uncle, who came from the Land of Israel, told me.

Thirty-forty years ago, Eretz Israel was desolate and lifeless. Towns and villages were uninhabited.

There were few Jews in the land –old and poor– who came to the Land with the plan to die and buried there. The fields were unsowed and covered with boulders and scorpions and foxes wandered around in the streets…

Some people arose and said: “Enough to suffer here in exile and let our land be desolate: Let us go to the Land of Israel and build it.” A movement of emigration started and youth made Aliya with a song on their lips and started building the land – drained swamps, built houses, fixed railways, planted orchards. They turned the land into paradise. And do you know, my uncle continued, “why the earth of Israel is so fertile? Because it absorbed a great deal of blood and sweat of Jews who sacrificed their life. There is no piece of the land that was not redeemed with blood and sweat.”

Now the Land of Israel is like other lands: roads, railways, villages, towns, factories, automobiles in the streets, theatres, schools, universities - everything. In the streets you hear the Hebrew language spoken. The KK”L helped with the money donated all over the diaspora.

“However, ” added my uncle, “the land is not ours yet. There are rulers over us and another people claiming the land is his. If you look closely at the map you will see that many places you know from the Bible such as Skhem, Hebron, carry now Arab names. The piece of land we occupy will not suffice for 17 million Jews of the diaspora. Right now there are only 172,000 Jews in the Land. The Arabs are willing to sell us the plots they own but we don’t have money for that. We must make an effort to redeem the land from their hands. Therefore it is a duty of all Jews to support the KK”L whose task is to redeem the land.”

That day, I promised myself to buy a stamp of KK”L every day. You do the same, my readers. “Our hope is not lost yet.”

Meir Tennenboim (5th Grade)