I’m back in IDF reserve duty, helping protect the Jews who live in the Judean Hills while Israel’s war against jihad continues.

One of our newest assignments is particularly meaningful: protecting a brand-new Jewish community taking root on an undeveloped hilltop. Just weeks ago, caravans arrived and the first families moved in. Today, it is a dirt road, temporary homes and open hills. God willing, it will eventually become a thriving community of approximately 250 families.

We are not merely guarding caravans. We are witnessing Jewish history being made.

Children will grow up here. Synagogues and schools will be built. Families will celebrate weddings and britot. One day, residents will look at photographs of these first caravans and say, “That was the beginning.”

This new community is part of an unprecedented wave of Jewish development throughout Judea and Samaria advanced by the current Israeli government, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich playing a central role. More Jewish communities mean greater Jewish continuity, stronger security and hundreds of thousands more Jews eventually living throughout Israel’s biblical heartland.