A life of giving, a legacy of love

My name is Dita Gould. I am a Holocaust survivor, and I understand what it means to live in a world without a country of our own. That must never happen again. Nothing means more to me than that.

My first fundraiser was when I was just 10 years old. It might sound unusual, but I believe that learning to give at such a young age was one of the reasons I survived. I share that journey in my book, The Girl in the Lion’s Mouth.

When my husband and I bought our first home in South Caulfield and were raising our three sons, I was approached by the JNF Blue Box collector on our street. He asked me to collect twice a year. I agreed, and often, my children helped. Today, I am proud to be recognised as the longest-serving JNF Blue Box collector in Australia – 80 years and counting.

Seventeen years after arriving in Australia, I visited Israel for the first time for my eldest son’s Bar Mitzvah, thanks to my parents. I imagined stepping off the plane, kissing the ground, and feeling like my life was complete. But when we landed and I heard my family call my son’s name, I looked up, smiled, and thought: I’m alive, I belong, and I am home.

That trip gave me not only a deep personal connection to my ancestral land and roots but also revealed the power of JNF. I saw firsthand how JNF developed land, built infrastructure, and created thriving communities. I saw arid areas transformed into fertile fields through water conservation, innovative drip irrigation, and desert greenhouses bursting with fruit and vegetables. I saw marshlands created to support migrating birds, so rich in habitat that they chose to stay rather than fly on to Europe.