Flowers After Fire

In August 2021, an enormous wildfire consumed some 25,000 dunams (6,200 acres) of forest. At the height of the blaze, it was feared that Hadassah hospital at Ein Kerem might need to be evacuated, the Times of Israel reported.

The Jerusalem Hills, with their sprawling pine tree forests, are prone to forest fires. According to another Times of Israel report, "Israel experiences a massive wildfire every few years, with especially large ones in 1989, 1995, 2010, 2016, 2019 and last month. Climate models show they’re getting more frequent and more fast-spreading, in part due to rising temperatures and a longer summer dry season."

I remember the 1995 fire well. I was working at the Neve Ilan Hotel and one July afternoon, we were preparing to host the wedding of Israeli President Yitzhak Navon's daughter. A fire raced up from Sha'ar Hagay, burning trees on on both sides of the main highway connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The fire reached the hotel grounds and skirted the main buildings, but causing the wedding to be canceled. The fire made its way into the moshav itself, burning five homes, including the house next door to my in-laws.

The 2016 fire came even closer to my home. We could see the flames in the forest below our moshav. I wrote at the time: "We also saw fire racing up a distant hill across the valley. Along with other residents of Neve Ilan, my wife Jodie and I stood watching the flames, worried that danger was quickly approaching."

Yesterday I hiked at Sataf with my sister, Judy, in forests burned last August. Although I could see the charred remains of burnt trees, and the dry, brown areas that had suffered, the area was also beautiful after the plentiful rains of this past winter. As we go into summer, the wildflowers covering the ground will dry out, It will take years until the forest regains its former green splendor. But yesterday I could really sense how beautiful this area of the Jerusalem was, and how beautiful it will again be in the future.

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