Growing forward

On October 7, 2023, the western side of the Kibbutz Nirim — the neighborhood where our young adults lived — suffered the heaviest blows.

If you look back through my posts, you’ll see photos of what once stood near the western fence facing Gaza: the buildings where generations of our teens lived during high school, their army service, and beyond — my four children among them. After the onslaught, those buildings were pockmarked with shrapnel and RPG holes. The balconies that once offered comforting shade for the old, discarded sofas where the kids would lounge after a long day’s work melted as if they had been made of candle wax.

Nine months after the attack, that neighborhood was sealed off with metal sheets. The ruined buildings were demolished. For years, those walls had held life and laughter, eyes sparkling with dreams of the future. On October 7th, those same walls did their best to shield their inhabitants — containing their fears, their screams, their desperate calls for help as fires were lit to smoke them out, while they pulled down on their saferoom door handles to keep the monsters out. What remained among the ashes, after the smoke settled, was eventually bulldozed. The ground was leveled — the blood-soaked earth compacted and prepared to welcome new life in a rebuilt neighborhood designed for our future.

Today, you can see the new walls rising, the floors being laid, the solar water heaters waiting to be installed — all preparing to welcome new inhabitants who will return to these plots of soil that still overlook the Gaza Strip.

Our vision now is to create something bigger, stronger, safer, and more beautiful than what was stolen from us. In just a few months, we expect to see lush green lawns and gardens bursting with spring flowers and vegetables, taking root once again. Young adults will return to these new homes and, as in decades past, sit in the shade on their porches after a long day’s work — planting new greenery, rebuilding community, and breathing hope back into this place.

This is my revenge for October 7th: to live, and to live well. This is my victory. Hope is quite literally being built here. And that’s who we are — people who grow forward.