"From the understanding and recognition that the post-traumatic injury, and the prolonged dealing with it, lead to a dramatic impairment in daily functioning and the ability to realize personal ambitions, our mission is to provide the warriors with a safe, natural, and productive environment that will allow them to pave new paths of ability and fulfillment, on the way to optimal integration in society"
Tomer Weinberg, founder of the association
Tomer Weinberg, Founder
I founded the Terra Uma organization in April 2022 after many years of coping with PTSD. Having incurred a severe injury at the beginning of the Second Lebanon War, I tried unsuccessfully to return to the level of functioning I possessed before my combat experience. Eventually, I was faced with a debilitating state of stagnation and an inability to transcend the depths of this impairment.
A few years later I lost my father, Yitzhak, in a motorcycle accident. The deep connection we cultivated since my injury was suddenly fractured, yet what arose from my grief over his passing turned out to be my rebirth.
My father made wine as a hobby. During the mourning period, I stared at the barrel that stood in the center of his small home winery and made a promise to continue his work. Little did I know at the time, that decision would become the ticket to restoring not only my life but the lives of others suffering from PTSD as well.
I took my first steps in the professional wine world with Assaf Margalit at Margalit Winery and the Haifa-based Wortman family. Working in the vineyards awakened something within me that had been dormant for years. I felt that both myself and the wines were going through similar processes—fermentation, sedimentation, and breathing. Everything spoke directly to my soul. In the vineyard, my body and spirit found calm.
I later began studies in the field of enology and established a small winery in the basement of my home. Suddenly, I had something to wake up for in the morning. For the first time in a decade, I had an answer to the question, "What do you want to do with your life?" My sense of capability and self-worth began to strengthen alongside the agricultural work, and the process of wine production reignited a passion for life.
After a year in the wine world, something significant had happened—something no medication or other treatments had managed to do. My self-confidence increased, triggers diminished, and my motivation was reborn. This transformative work had allowed the healing pieces to fall into place with a calming connection to the earth, the meditative activity in the vineyard, the senses that sharpened and functioned so pleasantly in the winery, the parallel process I underwent along with the wine in the barrel, and of course, the exciting final product.
With the realization of the power of this cycle, a question began to burn within me - can this help others just as it did me? This is how the vision for Terra Uma was born and the decision to establish the association was made. It is our mission to provide this same transformative pathway to others suffering from the invisible injuries of PTSD.
Cheers,
Tomer
Our way
The Terra Uma organization assists veterans coping with PTSD through a multi-sensory, agricultural, therapeutic, and empowering journey in the wine world. Our Wine Journey is a process that takes place over the course of a year between the vineyard and winery, developing and strengthening skills that have been worn down by psychological injury, enhancing resilience, and paving the way for reintegration into society.
The personal barrel is at the heart of our journey and represents the soul, the internal fermentation, and the sediment left by combat experience. The personal bottle series symbolizes new life, renewed abilities, and dreams our participants seek to fulfill for themselves.
We believe productive, creative, and engaging manual work with a direct connection to the earth can bring about positive and dramatic changes to the consequences of physical and psychological injury.
For updates on the journeys, our activities, new products, and more.
The creations of our warriors in their wine journey
The creations of our warriors in their wine journey
The creations of our warriors in their wine journey
