A planting ceremony was held in honor of the 200 members of the Japanese Makoya movement’s 53rd pilgrims’ delegation. The ceremony, in Naftali Forest’s HaRoim Recreation Area, recognized the movement’s generous contribution to the restoration of the Galilee forests.  Efrat Benvenisti, director of KKL-JNF’s Books of Honor, has fostered a warm relationship with members of the Makoya for many years. “I should like to welcome and thank the members of the 53rd delegation for their important contribution to the rehabilitation of the forests of the north. Your donation will be used to plant trees over an area of one thousand dunam (approx 250 acres), part of a 12-thousand-dunam forest that was burned in Lebanon War II. In making this important donation, dear friends, you are responding to Dr. Binyamin Zeev Herzl’s impassioned appeal of 1901, when, foreseeing the day the Jewish State would be founded, he called upon all participants in the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basle to contribute to KKL-JNF. With his foresight and imagination he knew that intellectual achievements need material help, that every vision needs to be translated into everyday action and that nothing can be done without financial resources.”  Avi Dickstein, Director of KKL-JNF’s Resources and Development Division, said, “Our response to our enemies is to plant and plant again until we restore the burned forests of the north. We are doing this with the help of our many friends throughout the world, among whom the Makoya hold a highly honored position.” Yishai Soker, Deputy Director of KKL-JNF’s Northern Region, welcomed the delegation to the forest. “Friends show their true nature in times of trouble. Your generous contribution has shown you to be wonderful, loving and beloved friends.”  Mr. Yokoto Akira spoke on behalf of the members of the delegation, expressing himself in pure and elegant Hebrew: “Japan is a mountainous country and the Japanese are well aware of the vital role played by forests and tree-planting in conserving the soil and enhancing the beauty of the landscape. When Makoya members toured of the north with KKL-JNF officials after Lebanon War II, they saw the burned forests and the sight grieved them terribly. At their annual assembly in Japan they decided, with great happiness and affection, to make a contribution to the rehabilitation of the forests. Members of the Makoya movement want to see Israel as green and beautiful as it was in Biblical times.”  After the ceremony the participants, dressed in blue kimonos adorned with a large Star of David, planted saplings in the burned forest, now showing the first signs of returning life. They recited the Planters’ Prayer and sung songs in Hebrew, the words of one of which were taken from the Book of Ezekiel and set to a Japanese melody: I will take of the highest branch of the high cedar And will set it. I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one And will plant it upon a mountain, high and eminent. In the mountain of the height of Israel … it shall be a goodly cedar (Ezekiel 17: 22-23) Mr. Koyoko Mitzonga Gabriel (Gabi) the Makoya’s representative in Israel, and his colleague Professor Akira Jindo Akiva, a Makoya instructor in Osaka, used their wonderful Hebrew to tell us something of the history of the movement. It was founded in 1948 by Professor Abraham Ikuro Teshima, who began to study the Bible and Hebrew after he experienced a spiritual revelation. Because of his charisma and exceptional leadership qualities he was able slowly to gather around him a number of followers who thought as he did.  In 1961 Professor Teshima announced his impending visit to Israel and declared his great love for the Holy Land – the Land of Israel. He studied Hebrew in an ulpan on Kibbutz Heftziba, to which he later sent his followers, so that they, too, could acquire the language. A warm and affectionate relationship developed between Makoya members and the members of the kibbutz, and this affection extended, of course, to the Land of Israel as a whole. Over the years almost 1,000 Makoya members have attended the ulpan at Kibbutz Heftziba. Once they have learned Hebrew they register for a course of study at one of Israel’s universities, and contribute greatly to both cultural and trade relations between Japan and Israel. The present Director of the Makoya center in Jerusalem – from which most of the organization’s activities in Israel are conducted – is Mr. Koyoko Mitzonga Gabriel (Gabi).  Professor Teshima taught his followers that the founding of the State of Israel and the liberation of Jerusalem are the two most important miracles of the twentieth century. He regards both as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. Members of the Makoya believe in the Bible, and the name “Makoya” means “Tent of Congregation.” They have no formal prayer houses, preferring to gather for prayer in believers’ homes. The symbols of their movement are the Jewish menorah, as described in the Bible and the Star of David. The Makoya have an extremely successful choir which performs Hebrew songs taken from the Bible. This year, on 27th February, they appeared in a special festive concert at the Jerusalem Theater, together with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem.  Professor Teshima, the movement’s founder, was declared after his death to be one of the five most eminent thinkers in Japanese history. Makoya delegations come to visit Israel every year. Their collaboration with KKL-JNF began when they planted a wood near the Galilee village of Turan, and continued with the creation of a forest adjacent to Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood. When the Ramot Shlomo neighborhood was built, a forest in Shaar HaGai – the Makoya Forest – was dedicated to the movement. In recent years these friends from Japan have a new planting area near the Golani Junction in northern Israel, and every Makoya member who visits the country plants a tree there. Last year the Makoya movement raised a sizable sum of money for a water infrastructure development project in the Negev, and KKL-JNF repeats the appreciation expressed at theAnnual World Leadership Conference to the wonderful Makoya representatives in Israel. |