Dozens of Baltimore Jewish community members gathered at Beth Tfiloh Congregation on May 22 to learn about the Kibbutz Movement, an Israeli organization that supports kibbutzim across Israel and has played an important role in helping these communities recover after Oct. 7 and months of rocket attacks from Gaza and Hezbollah.
The event brought two Israelis, Neri Shotan, the general manager of the Kibbutz Movement Fund, and Ayelet Harris, the director of the community department, to Baltimore as part of a multicity tour to present stories of survival and rehabilitation in these communities.
“The Kibbutz Movement is an umbrella organization for 259 kibbutzim spread from the northern part in Misgav Am all the way down to Eilat. So, we have 259 kibbutzim. We have 259 different ways of practicing kibbutz,” Harris explained to the audience.
The Kibbutz Movement existed before Oct. 7 and primarily worked to assist communication and networking between the kibbutzim, providing professional training for people running the kibbutzim, sharing best practices and conducting research and development.
But the attacks on Oct. 7 changed the role of the organization and had a deep impact on Shotan and Harris.
“Since that day, I’ve been living in what I can only describe as a leap of faith, a daily choice to show up where I was needed and to do what is good and right. It is not a single moment. It is a way of walking constantly through the unknown. It is choosing hope over despair, action over paralysis, light over darkness,” Shotan said.
The most obvious change for the Kibbutz Movement has been working to support the displaced kibbutz residents, as those in the northern part of Israel had to evacuate shortly after Oct. 7 as Hezbollah began launching missiles at their homes, and 12 southern communities are still barred from returning by the Israel Defense Forces as they are located in active combat zones.
The second change has been working to find the funding and other resources for rebuilding the destroyed homes in communities that were destroyed by the Hamas or Hezbollah attacks.
“The current situation is better but is still very complex because 18 kibbutzim on the northern border started to get back, but only between 25% and 50% of the kibbutz members have started to get back,” Shotan said. “The communities are in a harsh situation, and one kibbutz won’t be able to get back probably for a year because about 70% of the houses were destroyed by Hezbollah. Exactly 117 buildings of the 157 in the kibbutz were destroyed.”
Shotan added that there was one community in which 93% of the buildings were destroyed, and they’ve estimated it will cost between $100 and $200 million to fully rebuild, while others have hundreds of houses that were destroyed.
Shotan said the organization is also working to help bridge the gap between funding needs and what is budgeted by the Israeli government.
He said the government estimates that it will cost around $3.5 billion USD to rebuild the northern kibbutzim, but there is only $1.5 billion USD budgeted currently.
Harris explained there are also issues of mental health and trauma for children impacted by the attacks and subsequent relocation.
Data also shows that children from the northern kibbutzim have been impacted more harshly than their southern counterparts, including a 47% greater incidence of substance abuse, with drinking behavior being noted in children as young as 12 years old.
She spoke about the disruption to educational systems, communities being broken up as they live in relocation housing and lingering trauma that is still having an impact today.
At the presentation’s conclusion, Jack Zager, a Beth Tfiloh congregant who helped organize the event with his wife Ellen Zager, implored the audience to spread the stories they heard from Harris and Shotan to bring more recognition to the struggles of the kibbutzim residents and efforts to support them.
“We really appreciate all the community support, and I also want to now deputize all of you, because we had less than a month to put this program together, and there’s a lot going on in the community. And now you all know what the story is better than most. I want you to be ambassadors, to go out into the community and spread the word of yet another very important need that we have supporting our brothers and sisters in Israel,” Jack Zager said.
And for the two presenters, they wanted to explain the firsthand stories of life for kibbutzim residents after Oct. 7 and the challenges the organization has faced in trying to assist them, as not many people around the world know the full scale of the impact the war has had on these people.
“We also wanted to convey that the kibbutzim, although they are struggling now, have a resilience system within them, but they do need a lot of support in order to strengthen that resilience within them,” Harris said. “If we can get people around the world to be in contact and support them, we will be able to help the kibbutzim.”
