You Have to Be an Optimist”: Renewal in Northern Israel

IFCJ Canada  |  August 8, 2025

October 7, 2023, marked the day when daily life in Israel was tragically interrupted. Since then, conflict on Israel’s northern and southern borders has deeply affected the nation. Nearly a year and a half of loss, destruction, and displacement has left many Israelis seeking safety within their own country—refugees in their homeland.

Renewal is beginning in northern Israel with local businesses returning. In one of many instances of this postwar healing, Tosha Bakery in Chziv reopens as a scene more akin to a peaceful painting rather than a former warzone:

On the ground of an Israeli national park just opposite the Mediterranean coast near the border of Lebanon, the indoor-outdoor café and bakery is bustling anew with activity, the chill soothing music in the background interspersed with the calm waters of the shoreline just across the street.

The serene pastoral atmosphere amid the trays of site-made croissants and jugs of sugar-sweet freshly squeezed orange juice from produce grown in the Golan Heights belie the tension that existed here last year when the area was evacuated during the 14-month long war with Hezbollah; most of the residents have since returned to their homes and businesses following the November ceasefire, hoping for peace but wary of the future.

You have to be an optimist,” says Tomer Suissa, 35, co-manager and pastry chef of Tosha Bakery. A resident of Shavei Tzion, a Galilean village that saw tens of thousands evacuated and endured over 17,000 rockets and drones launched into northern Israel, Tomer speaks from lived experience. “If you are not an optimist, you will not be here.

In fact, Tosha Bakery was hit by missile fragments and shrapnel, damaging the pergola. Suissa and management feared that they would have to close completely because of it.

Tomer’s resilience is a reflection of the wider spirit in Israel. With God’s help, the people are rebuilding their homes, businesses, and hearts.

Let’s pray for the people of northern Israel and all of Israel, asking God to bless them with His most precious gift—shalom.

“The LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” –Numbers 6:26 (NIV)