Growing up on the Gaza border

“The redeeming of captives takes precedence over supporting the poor or clothing them. There is no greater mitzvah than redeeming captives for the problems of the captive include being hungry, thirsty, unclothed, and they are in danger of their lives too.”   Rabbi Moses ben Maimon[a] (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides

In 1909 a group of young Jewish dreamers gathered around the Sea of Galilee to begin living out a new ideology. They called their new concept The Kibbutz. 

Their dream was to create a better society—one more equal and just—without any private property. They believed that we shouldn’t work for the sake of a living, nor work for the sake of a command, but instead work for the sake of life.

Their main slogan was “Give according to your ability, take according to your necessity”. What a great utopian idea. 

For years, Israel led the Kibbutz movement. Prime ministers, presidents, army generals, and air force pilots were the leaders who pushed Israel to become such a great nation. 

Less than three percent of Israelis produce most of the nation’s agricultural products, and many of them are in the 280 kibbutzim in Israel. 

Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, believed that farming the land and living everywhere in Israel makes us stronger. He pushed many Jewish dreamers to live in the Desert. Ben-Gurion knew that the best way to protect our nation and land was by building kibbutzim around our borders. 

In many ways, I am a product of that belief.

Growing up in an Israeli kibbutz

My parents made “Aaliyah” in 1946. It means they went “Up” to Israel; a spiritual ascent. 

My father, born in Germany, met my mother, who was born in Paraguay. I know you are running to check if it’s in Africa or South America (it’s the latter). 

Both were Zionists and very active in pursuing those beliefs. After getting married, they, alongside other young idealogues, came to Israel and went straight to the border with Gaza. They built a beautiful Kibbutz less than a mile from Gaza. 

I was born there in kibbutz Or Haner, meaning The light of a Candle. In our humble home, we felt that it was the best place to live. 

The sweetest oranges, the best watermelon, and the most tasty milk are from my kibbutz. Our perfume was the smell of the cows and deer, and shoes were a waste of money since we walked barefoot. We wanted to touch the earth beneath our feet. 

At the age of 10, we started working immediately after school. Except it was not work as you might experience in America. Rather, for us work was simply part of life, and we lived in a kid-sharing house rather than in our parents’ house.

All of these kibbutz principles helped to create a peaceful, strong society. 

We felt safe. We lived safe.

Then Hamas came.

The only path to peace

October 7 almost ruined everything, as the monsters of Hamas tried to destroy all that my parents and many other pioneers dreamed about. 

Many of the 1200 that were massacred on this day were members of the kibbutzim around Gaza. Large communities had to evacuate their houses and their fields. Many of the hostages were and are from these communities. 

We, as a nation, failed to protect our own people. We promised that, even if people lived on the border, they and their families would be safe. That didn’t happen 

Every house will be rebuilt, every tree will be replanted, and the fields will be resown even nicer and better. That’s actually the easiest part of starting over. The hardest part is to rebuild the communities; to recover as humans from this trauma. 

I believe we Israelis are very special. We will mourn the loss of our loved ones, but will look at the future with strong motivation. 

That’s what’s possible when you know that God is with you. And when you understand that the holiness of life and not the holiness of death is what keeps us together, then you are unbroken. 

In order to build again we must bring every hostage that is in Gaza back home. Twenty-four hostages are still alive and thirty-five are dead. If we want to be able to exist as a nation—if we want to bring pioneers like my parents back to the Kibbutzim—bringing all fifty-nine hostages home must be our highest priority. 

We had never celebrated the killing of our enemies, not even of all these mega terrorists.

The only time when all Israelis went to the streets and cried from happiness was when hostages came home. 

“There is time to kill, and a time to heal” the Bible says (Ecclesiastes 3:3). Now is the time to heal. 

How to show we’re not alone

The social concept of the Kibbutz started around the Sea of Galilee, the same place where Jesus started his public ministry. Jesus healed many people around the Sea. He put human life at the center of his teachings. 

Israel must learn to do the same; to put our people in the center and bring hope to our nation by bringing all of our brothers and sisters back from the tunnels of Gaza.

These are hard days for us. We need each one of you to help and support us. Your prayers or actions will let us know that we Israelis are not alone