Lahav
Israel
Karel Scenic Lookout Lahav AIDS Memorial Forest since 9 May 1993
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The Jewish National Fund, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, began planting Lahav Forest in 1952. The creeping desertification of the Negev hills that encroaches ever further northwards should be stopped by planting trees financed by donations from people in Israel and abroad. Besides pine and cypress, the Lahav Forest is composed of olive groves, carob, terebinth, pistachio, and eucalyptus trees.
In 1993, the first tree was planted to commemorate someone who died of AIDS, Ryan White. Ryan caught the AIDS virus from an infected blood transfusion given to treat his hemophilia. At the age of 12, Ryan’s school refused to allow him to continue to attend classes. This was in 1984, when public awareness of AIDS was minimal, and prejudice against carriers of the virus was rampant. Ryan became a leading figure in the battle for AIDS awareness surviving for six years and dying on 8 April 1990. Four months after his death, the American House of Representatives passed a law bearing his name which regulates the care of AIDS patients and helps to prevent the spread of the disease, the Ryan White CARE Act.
The AIDS Memorial Forest in Lahav Forest was inspired by the AIDS Memorial Grove established in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park five years earlier. Ryan White’s mother, Jeanne, traveled to Israel in order to dedicate the forest on 9 May 1993 by planting the first tree in her son’s memory, a year-old sapling pine.
At the foot of the watchtower, which serves in the hot summer months as a lookout for forest fires, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael established a central dedication site consisting of two circular buildings. On their inner walls plaques bear the names both of the donors and of those in whose memory this forest was planted. Row 35 is reserved for the AIDS Memorial Forest, as of January 2013 it contains 8 plaques.

Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael - Jewish National Fund