A crowdfunding campaign launched by HaShomer HaChadash (a national volunteer agricultural organization), the moment Operation Roaring Lion began, has hit its first milestone: 60 shelters are now being deployed across farms and agricultural lands, in partnership with the Harvey and Gloria Kaylie Fund – enabling farmers who had lacked adequate protection to continue working safely and to once again take on volunteers.
The organization's goal is to raise donations to purchase between 100 and 120 armored shelters in the near term.
Yoel Zilberman, CEO and founder of HaShomer HaChadash, said, "I want to thank our donors, who rallied to the campaign immediately. Thanks to them, more and more farmers will now be able to go out to work with a regulation-armored shelter at their side to protect them, their workers, and volunteers during missile fire or UAV attacks. The crowdfunding continues alongside the deployment of shelters that have already arrived, and we will do everything we can to protect as many farmers and farm owners as possible as quickly as possible. We are always alongside our farmers in every mission and task, and we continue to raise donations for more shelters."
On Rifman, deputy CEO for education and co-founder of HaShomer HaChadash, said, "Starting Thursday, we will reach dozens of farmers and deploy a regulation armored shelter with each of them so they can continue agricultural work even during Operation Roaring Lion. At the same time, we at HaShomer HaChadash continue to provide support across a long list of national missions alongside our assistance to farmers and farm owners – and so we are calling on the public to keep joining us in all our volunteer missions in the field, whether that means helping at disaster sites, assisting farmers with harvesting, running activities in bomb shelters, or helping collect food baskets for the elderly."
Israel Raznik, a farmer from Metula (a northern Israeli border town), said, "I want to thank HaShomer HaChadash, whose people have stayed with us farmers on the Lebanese border and helped with everything required. This important campaign is named for our friend Omer Weinstein, may his memory be a blessing, who was murdered in October 2024 along with four of his foreign workers while they were harvesting at the family orchard in Metula. We will remember Omer forever, stand by his family, and through his story we will continue to tell the story of the Israeli farmer who stands on the front line but keeps working the land, securing strategic ground, and producing food security for the State of Israel."
