Tu B’Shvat, the Holiday of the Trees, which was just celebrated, took on a great new meaning as hundreds of people from all walks of life planted trees in memory of Ezra Schwartz in the newly established Ezra Schwartz Vineyard in Israel. Ezra was the young American yeshiva student from Sharon, MA, who was tragically murdered while learning and volunteering in Israel, and the newly created vineyard has the complete endorsement and blessing of Ezra’s parents.

The moving, one-minute video on the website www.trees4ezra.org shows Ezra’s parents and grandparents talking about the vineyard and shows them planting its first trees. They encourage others to plant trees as a meaningful and supportive gesture with their hope that the vineyard will become a beautiful and everlasting tribute to the young man they lost.

People from all across the world are being asked to plant trees in this special vineyard. Ezra was proud of his heritage and his land, and loved his fellow Jews, literally until his last breath. He was so young, yet his enthusiasm and vitality were infectious, even after his tragic death. This project is a way for everyone to join the Schwartz family in carrying on Ezra’s legacy.

Schools across the world have joined the effort and are sharing this opportunity with their students. Temple, shuls, synagogues, houses of worship and religious and communal organizations have also recognized that people want to be part of this important initiative and have opened up the opportunity to their members.

Among the many schools that are involved are Striar Hebrew Academy (Sharon, MA), SAR Academy, Yavneh Academy, The Frisch School, Westchester Day School, Ben Porat Yosef, Yeshiva University High School, Nancy Reuben School of London, Torah Day School Atlanta, Mazel Day School, Denver Academy, Gross Schechter Day School, Shulamith of Brooklyn, Hebrew Academy Day School of Tampa Bay, Ida Crown Academy (IL), Solomon Schechter High School, Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School (CA), HAFTR and North Shore Hebrew Academy. Many others will be joining shortly.

This project, which started on Tu B’Shvat, will continue for several months. It is being run by “Zo Artzeinu—Israel Trees,” an organization that has planted 150,000 new fruit trees in Israel and whose farmers keep all aspects of Jewish agricultural law.

Visit www.trees4ezra.org and plant trees in the new Ezra Schwartz Vineyard. Israeli farmers will plant and care for the trees and the vineyard can be visited by anyone at any time. By inviting people from all over the world to take part in this project, it will unite people who love Israel in an important way.

This project is endorsed by the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America) and NCYI (National Council of Young Israel).

For more information or to have your school or shul involved, please contact [email protected] or call (516)371-2474.