Kibbutz Kfar Aza Marks Memorial Ceremony Three Years After October 7
Kibbutz Kfar Aza held a moving memorial ceremony for the victims of the October 7 massacre, marking ongoing recovery and pain three years after the tragedy.
Half an hour before the memorial ceremony at the cemetery in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Varda and David Goldstein stood by the graves of their son, Nadav Goldstein-Almog, and granddaughter Yam, who were murdered in the October 7 massacre. They watered the plants and carefully cleaned the site. How can such a sight be absorbed by a world striving to return to a grey routine?
"There is no day that is not a memorial day," David says as people begin to gather for the ceremony. "Time certainly does not heal. In our family, people were murdered and kidnapped. Our house was burned down, and we are alive only because we were abroad at the time. But on that very day, we decided to return because the kibbutz will recover. Can I tell you if the other side will be quiet? Even God has no answers, just as He had none on October 7."
Return and Reconstruction
Varda and David Goldstein still live in Kibbutz Ruhama in the Negev, where they were evacuated during the war, while Kfar Aza slowly recovers. So far, about sixty out of three hundred families have returned in a process expected to continue until next summer, with many still undecided whether life in the Gaza envelope is right for them.
"I would die to return, but my wife is at most willing to come as far south as Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa," says former MK Shay Hermesh, who lost his son Omer, a devoted Hapoel Tel Aviv fan, in the disaster. "She is not capable. Even entering here was difficult for her."
Memorial and Absence
Among the attendees was Emily Damari, who spent 471 days in Hamas captivity. Ofer, the father of the late Yahav Winner, recited the Kaddish, while Liora Ayalon, mother of the late Tal Ayalon, a local security squad commander who fell in battle, spoke on behalf of the families.
During the ceremony, a path of 35 memorial stones was inaugurated at the cemetery for the massacre victims not yet buried in the kibbutz. Some graves will be relocated there later, while others will remain in other cemeteries due to various constraints.
