Citrus & Salt founder Aliya Fastman prepares meals for Israeli soldiers, evacuees, and bereaved families in Tel Aviv. Photo courtesy of Aliya Fastman.

Since the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre, immigrants who moved to Israel (olim in Hebrew) have been helping the Jewish state’s war effort in crucial ways beyond the battlefield. The Algemeiner has spoken to several of these individuals — natives of the US, Europe, and elsewhere — gathering their stories of courage and resourcefulness to help Israel prevail over Hamas in Gaza. Over the coming weeks, The Algemeiner will share some of these stories as a new series on how olim are helping Israel’s war effort. To read part two, click here.

Like other olim, Aliya Fastman launched her volunteer-run operation within two days of the Hamas attack. Overnight, the Berkeley, CA native repurposed Citrus & Salt, her Tel Aviv-based studio for cooking lessons and culinary tours, into a community kitchen for meal distribution.

Fastman made aliyah in 2010 to join the Israeli army as a lone soldier. She started Citrus & Salt from her home kitchen while pursuing a master’s degree in conflict resolution and mediation.

To date, Citrus & Salt’s newly coined Citizen’s Kitchen has provided more than 20,000 meals to soldiers, bereaved families, displaced families, and synagogues that are hosting meals. According to Fastman, $36 is enough to cover five full meals, including distribution costs.

The volunteers, who in addition to preparing the food also transport them to the beneficiaries, are all olim. Many olim experienced feelings of helplessness, despair, and loneliness after Oct. 7, Fastman said, so establishing a hub to help the oleh community “find a way to connect” became a second goal for her.

“So many of us are without families, and it was so helpful for us to be together in that time of trouble,” she told The Algemeiner.

To that end, Citizen’s Kitchen has also hosted Shabbat dinners and Hanukkah events for her volunteer olim community, and Fastman is hoping to further formalize that angle of her initiative moving forward. In addition, she said, she will be pivoting its efforts as the needs of the war evolve.

One initiative Fastman is working on is providing cooking classes to visiting volunteer tourists in a bid to “connect them more with the local food culture,” she said. She emphasized, however, that the bread and butter of Citizen’s Kitchen — providing meals to those in need — would still continue.

Fastman hailed the widespread mobilization by Israel’s civil society in the wake of Hamas’ butchery as a counterpoint to both victimhood and antisemitism.

“It’s been unbelievable to see and it does strengthen our community that people aren’t Jews with trembling knees, but rather standing taller, and shining brighter in order to get through this,” she said. “I hope that people who are against us can see that we’re not willing to back down. Every day that we’re volunteering and giving back is our message to the world that we’re strong, but we’re even stronger when we’re united.”