Singing the lyrics of a song called “Stalbet B’Kibbutz” by Full Trunk and Jimbo J, Re’im Kibbutznik Shani Medina explained how he feels about going from his beloved green paradise to living in the concrete jungle of Tel Aviv’s Florentin. “Don’t wanna fight over parking; why should I live inside a construction site?” Medina joked as he recited the English-translated lyrics to The Jerusalem Post.
Medina, along with his wife, two small children, and 400 other Kibbutz Re’im members have officially moved into twin buildings on Herzl Street in the grungy, yet up-and-coming neighborhood of Florentin, Tel Aviv. The city’s absorption program is providing housing and other benefits for families who needed to be evacuated from the Gaza envelope following the heinous massacre on October 7, 2023.
The Israel Business Forum is a major part of the support efforts. The group is comprised of 200 of Israel’s largest company leaders, including executives of large banks, insurance, energy companies, and more.
Together with the city, the entities were able to take over units in the new building complex to house Kibbutz Re’im residents for one year. The space will keep the community together in one place while giving people an opportunity to do things that were impossible to manage in the Eilat hotels where they were previously living for some three months. Being able to cook for oneself was a theme that surfaced multiple times during the interviewing process for this article.
“This is an improvement because we can make our own food. We can choose when to go out. We can choose when to be in private and when to be more public,” Medina explained when talking about the transition from hotel living to having his own apartment.
Families with more than three children are given two apartments within the building, one for sleeping in and one for cooking and living in. Medina said some of his kibbutz friends are happy for the housing, but are finding it tricky to live between two units.
Medina was in Kibbutz Re’im with his family on October 7, wherein they spent 23 hours hiding in a bomb shelter. He brought in food for them, and at one point assisted soldiers who came to the Kibbutz to help. He showed them where to go and which houses had people who had not responded since the early morning hours. Medina described it as being a hard experience and discussed how he was supposed to be on the kibbutz’s first responder force, but said his weapon, ordered through the army, never arrived. He had been waiting for it for over a year.
“The Tel Aviv municipality definitely did whatever they can to help us feel like we are in some kind of home,” Medina explained. “The DNA is very different. We always want to go back to the land, to the ground. And if we can and if the situation allows us, we will return to the Kibbutz the minute we can, the minute we have full security.”
Medina noted that in the meantime, his kids are amused by the activity in the construction site next door, which they can watch from their new apartment window.
These new residents of Tel Aviv will get other assistance as well, like free veterinary services, reduced-rate parking spots along the beachfront, and an opening to join the My Digital application which offers reduced-cost event tickets and programming to Tel Aviv residents. Forty girls and boys from the kibbutz in grades one through eight will study at a nearby nature school as well.
Short-term and long-term psychological services and programming from the Education Ministry are being opened up to the kibbutz evacuees, as well as tuition-free education for their kids.
The municipality is also nurturing a kindergarten reminiscent to the one the kibbutz used to offer to serve children from birth to age six back in Re’im.
“This is just a temporary immigration, but I promise the kibbutz members what I have promised to all evacuated residents of the North and South from day one – you are not guests, you are residents of Tel Aviv-Yafo and you will receive all the rights, support, and assistance that city residents receive regularly, and certainly in an emergency,” said Tel Aviv city Mayor Ron Huldai. “Members of Kibbutz Re’im, this is a great privilege that you have given us.”
Only temporary
Walking through the outdoor courtyard between the two buildings was Reut Karp. Her shining face, green eyes, energetic demeanor, and vertical posture sufficiently hid the traumas and difficulties she’s been dealing with since October 7. A 42-year-old mother of three, Karp is now suffering the loss of her former husband who was shot dead by Hamas terrorists after defending the children at home. He came at the terrorists with an ax after three of them entered their house.
Karp was in a different city that Saturday coaching and guiding her ten-year-old girl on the phone, telling her that the army would arrive soon to rescue her. In the meantime, Karp was sending out frantic messages to anyone she could, trying to bring attention to the terrorist invasion.
Terrorists found Karp’s two youngest who were at home during the murder. Little Lia was hiding under a blanket when a Hamas terrorist found her. He lifted the blanket, put it back down on her and then wrote on the walls in Arabic that they “don’t kill babies” and left the house.
“I cannot complain about anything after October 7. All the people here are trying to make it easier for us, they even donated bicycles for the kids here so they can feel like they live in a kibbutz,” Karp said.
She explained how children are learning the rules of city living, figuring out where to go to see grass, and understanding how the bus works.
“They [her children] are in the room and they don’t go out at all. Not even to play with their friends. I think they are protecting themselves from the world and I cannot know if it’s the trauma or because… this is what they would have chosen to do without the trauma,” Karp said.
When asked about his emotional state, Medina told the Post that he and most people he knows are still in the “fighting zone” trying to understand what will be with their homes at the Kibbutz or their jobs, which many have not been engaged with since October 7.
“We are trying to put our mental state aside for now,” he said.
One thing that seems to be receiving a resounding yes is the idea that keeping the kibbutz together on one complex is a great way to maintain unity, and especially a way for the kids to maintain some sense of normalcy as they play out in the courtyard with their friends from home.
Tel Aviv-Yafo’s municipality has received 20,000 evacuees from the South and North, with about 9,300 evacuees in the city from Sderot, Nir Am, Karmia, Ashkelon, the Meta Asher Regional Council, and Kiryat Shmona, who are housed throughout 101 hotels.
“It’s important to say again that without the nice people, the good people, the people of Israel who came for us... fast and without any questions… they just came with anything we needed. Without that, I don’t know where we would have been. They helped us with every step we made,” Medina said.