On Sept. 1, the excited chatter of youth reunited after summer vacations and almost 23 months of war will echo across schools in Israel. But for the Adar children and their friends, “back to school” means more than sharpened pencils and new backpacks.

For them, like tens of thousands of children in northern Israel, it is the hope of reclaiming a normal childhood after being uprooted from their homes under fire from Hezbollah nearly two years ago.

“My only wish for them is that they get to start—and finish—this year in the same school,” says their grandmother Daniella, whose home in Yesud HaMa’ala , the first modern Jewish community in the Hula Valley, became a sanctuary during the upheaval. For months, the children slept in her bed at night, finding safety and comfort.

For 13-year-old

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