February 13 1892 – 15 Shevat 5652
In Zikhron Yaakov, Zionist educator Ze’ev Yavetz took his students out to plant trees in honor of the Jewish horticultural new year. Yaavetz was one of the first to institute this custom, which officially became a feature of Tu Bi-Shevat in 1907, when the teachers’ union adopted Haim Arye Leib Zuta’s suggestion of a tree-planting ceremony in Jaffa’s Mikve Israel agricultural school. Three hundred students from five local schools participated in the event, launching a tradition still upheld by youth movements all over Israel.