Tu B’shvat
is Israeli Arbor Day. Ecological organizations in
Israel and the diaspora have adopted the holiday to further
environmental-awareness programs. On Israeli kibbutzim, Tu B’shvat is celebrated as an agricultural
holiday.
On Tu
B’shvat 1890, Rabbi Ze'ev Yavetz, one of the founders of the Mizrachi movement (Religious
Zionism), took his students to plant trees in the agricultural colony
of Zichron Yaakov. The Jewish Teachers Union and
later, the Jewish National Fund, established in 1901
to oversee land reclamation and afforestation of the Land of Israel.
The JNF
devoted the day to planting eucalyptus trees to stop the plague of malaria in the Hula Valley. Today the Fund schedules major
tree-planting events in large forests every Tu B’shvat. Over a million
Israelis take part in the Jewish National Fund's Tu B’shvat tree-planting
activities.
In keeping with
the idea of Tu B’shvat marking the revival of nature, many of Israel's major
institutions have chosen this day for their inauguration. The
cornerstone-laying of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem took
place on Tu B’shvat 1918; the Technion University in Haifa, 1925; and the Knesset (Parliament Building), 1949.
