With communal spirit, Nir Oz will rise again

February 23, 2025

By Bonnie Ellinger

In the aftermath of October 7^th, one place that symbolizes the agony, grief and torment of the massacre is Kibbutz Nir Oz. Twenty-five percent of its 400 members/residents were either brutally murdered or taken hostage, and much of the kibbutz was burned to the ground—forty-six murdered, seventy-one taken hostage into Gaza and about twenty from Nir Oz of the estimated 59 hostages still remain there. The indescribable savagery of the Hamas terrorists shocked the country and the world with its monstrous, carefully calculated assault. 

What do we know about Kibbutz Nir Oz? Located 4.3 miles from the Gaza border, it is one of the southern kibbutzim and moshavim – the long-established agricultural settlements bordering Gaza - known as the “Gaza Envelope”. The kibbutz also has one of the largest paint factories in Israel. Nir Oz was founded in 1955 by idealistic members of the secular Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair. This movement, translated from Hebrew as The Young Guard, came into being in Galicia (Austro-Hungary) in 1913, with the goals of immigrating to Israel and living a cooperative lifestyle in Mandatory Palestine with equality between Jews and Arabs.

 Members of Hashomer Hatzair organized defensive groups in Europe, were guerilla fighters, participated in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and fought in the Resistance. A leader in the uprising was Mordechai Aneilewicz, who was killed in May 1943. Kibbutz Yad Mordechai was named for him. Many of the men and women members of the Resistance in Europe such as Chajka Klinger, Tzvi Braun, Shifra Sokolka, Moshe Domb and Rachel Zilberberg were from Hashomer Hatzair.  There were other Zionist youth movements whose members were Resistance fighters and heroes as well. One extraordinary example is Hannah Szenes (1921-1944), a young Hungarian poet who parachuted into Yugoslavia during WW ll to help save Hungarian Jews. She was captured, imprisoned, and tortured before being executed by firing squad. Her courage and defiance have made her one of Israel’s national heroes.

Hashomer Hatzair defined my youth. When I was 11 years old, my parents were looking for a summer camp for me, and friends of theirs recommended one in Liberty NY, which was run by Hashomer Hatzair. That summer was the beginning of an intense and joyful connection to the youth movement and its principles of strengthening Jewish identity, inculcating values of Judaism, socialism, equality and social justice, encouraging the importance of participation in Jewish life in the Diaspora, teaching the significance of peace and coexistence, and the belief in kibbutz life. Many of these values were very attractive to Jewish youth in the 1960s.

 Kibbutz life, as a way to embody the above values, was the ultimate goal, and many of us in the movement made “Aliyah” (immigrated to Israel) and went to live on Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim. It wasn’t the answer for everyone. Some decided to forgo the communal experience altogether, others stayed for some years and still others of our “garin” (small group of people) are kibbutz members to this day. I was a member of Kibbutz Galon for 5 years and spent 30 more in Israel before moving to Santa Fe 23 years ago.

One of the immeasurable benefits of spending one’s youth in a movement like Hashomer Hatzair is the sustaining quality of lifelong friendships. In our high school years in the movement, we often met several times weekly to engage in educational and cultural activities. Many of us have been friends for 60+ years, maintaining relationships that have supported and nourished us through life’s vicissitudes. There is a shared understanding of where we came from and what is important. The values of our youth still define many of us.

Close friendships and impressive community spirit are apparent these days at Nir Oz, as the members exchange views about rebuilding. In an interview with Nick Schifrin of the “PBS Newshour”(Paul Bostic and Nick Schifrin, PBS Newshour, Feb. 4, 2025), several people voiced their hopes and concerns. Ola Metzgar, whose in-laws Yoram and Tami were captured on October 7^th by Hamas terrorists, (Tami was released and Yoram died in captivity), wants to start from scratch and celebrate the lives that were there before. “We want to come back to Nir Oz, and we feel that you cannot start a life while living next to a cemetery…I don’t need any ruined houses to remind me of that.” 

 Irit Lahav, on the other hand, advocates for preserving the damage by keeping some demolished homes, as they are strong evidence of what occurred. If this is not done, she is fearful of accusations at some later date that the destruction and slaughter were exaggerated. Ron Pauka, a founding member of the kibbutz and a landscape architect says: “we have enough courage to rebuild.” Of course, as the kibbutzniks continue to deliberate, the question is how to go forward? How do they see their future? An indication of their way of thinking is stated by Ola Metzgar: “I don’t want to hate forever.”

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Bonnie Ellinger, Phd., Applied Linguistics. Dr. Ellinger lived in Israel for 35 years, the first five on the kibbutz. She taught English for more than 20 years at Bar Ilan University before moving to Santa Fe.

On Sunday, April 6th, she will be interviewing Amir Tibon, Haaretz journalist and author of "The Gates of Gaza: One Family's Story of Betrayal, Survival and Hope on Israel's Borderlands." Tibon and his family survived the October 7th attack on kibbutz Nahal Oz. Register for the free online Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series at www.distinguishedlectures.com.

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