Lovely to see so many colleagues this past weekend at the ABA! And back to reporting from last month’s trip to Israel:
We had started day three by visiting Kibbutz Urim with Julia Chaitin, which miraculously escaped harm from Hamas. We stopped in the middle of the day at Kibbutz Nirim, where we visited with Bar Heffetz, a kibbutz leader and avocado farmer, who took us around his kibbutz. Kibbutz Nirim was mostly spared as Hamas could not get in the front gate and “only” was able to attack a few homes and kill four residents. We were now heading to Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the most destroyed locations in the south.
Student Annie Lelonek described the visit:
Our last stop for the day, after witnessing the horrors at the Nova site and Kibbutz Nirim and Orim, was Kibbutz Be’eri, a place where nearly 10% of the population, over 130 people, were massacred, and more abducted.
Upon arriving at Be’eri, we were greeted by Alon Pauker who would be our tour guide of the once quiet oasis. As we toured through the destruction, passing burnt buildings, piles of gravel, and abandoned children’s toys guiding our path,
Alon stopped and explained who lived in certain homes and what had happened to them. In homes of those who had been murdered, signs were placed in front of them with the names and faces of the victims.
For me, Kibbutz Be’eri was particularly poignant as the home of Vivian Silver. Vivian, as readers likely know, was the founder of Women Wage Peace, an Israeli peace movement founded after the Gaza war in 2014. Below is the last picture of her (holding the sign on the right) taken at a Women Wage Peace march just a few days before the attack.
For several weeks, it was thought that Vivian had been kidnapped to Gaza but then it was confirmed that she had, in fact, been burned to death in her home. Her family permits visitors to walk into the home, including the safe room where she died, and I know this particular part of the trip—even as hard as other visits were—continues to haunt me and my students. (Below are my photos from her home)
