To mark the year since 7 October, a Jewish magazine compiled stories of the survivors of that horrific day. Dafnah from Kibbutz Re’im had been the cultural director of the kibbutz and was one of the organisers of the Nova Festival. Dafna was released in the hostage exchange. Touring the kibbutz, she showed the journalist her charred house and the room in which her mother and children, Shira, and Meir, were found murdered together.
When a journalist asked her if any shuls were destroyed, Dafnah responded, “Not a single synagogue was damaged in all 21 Gaza kibbutzim. It was not a miracle. How could they damage something that doesn’t exist?” Most of the communities didn’t have designated or active shuls. Then Dafnah continued, “A week prior to the massacre an outreach Rabbi produced the idea of a basketball game between yeshivah students and the boys of Kibbutz Reim. The game was set to take place on 2 October 2023. However,” she continued, “I personally cancelled the game.” She understood the match wasn’t just a friendly contest but a way for religious influence to creep into the kibbutz. “We didn’t need outsiders telling us who a good Jew is.” Five days later, the massacre came.
Dafna found herself held hostage. One day, as she was face to face with a Hamas terrorist in the tunnels of Gaza, she asked him (in Arabic), “Why do you torture me? For twenty years I’ve made programs for Arabs and Jews, we are your cousins.” She pleaded in the darkness for some recognition of their shared humanity. The terrorist shouted, “You are not a descendant of Ibrahim! You are not a Jew! You are a European colonialist who stole our land!”
“It was in that moment, that something awoke within Dafna, as she started screaming, ‘Ana Yahudiun, Ana Yahudiun, I am a Jewess, I am a Jewess!’” The guards had to restrain her, taping her mouth closed. “For the first time in my life, I saw my soul; I saw that I am a Jew. All of my life,” Dafnah reflected, “I’ve been part of this community. We didn’t see ourselves as Jews, in the traditional sense. When I travelled overseas and someone asked if I was Jewish, I would correct them. ‘No, I am an Israeli.’ But when he called me a colonialist, it hit me. He did not see me as a Jew because I did not see myself as a Jew.”
Dafnah paused for a moment, her eyes wandering over the ruined landscape. “Every Arab village has a mosque. Christian settlements build churches. And here, we have nothing. Nothing to say that we are Jews. At that moment, I realised that if we were going to rebuild, we needed to reclaim our identity.”
Dafnah said, “I took it upon myself to build the new Beit Knesset (synagogue). When we rebuild, our Beit Knesset will be the most beautiful structure on the kibbutz.”
The Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Hanukkah (December 25th–January 2nd) with the lighting of the candles on the eight-branched Hanukkah Menorah. Whilst we acknowledge the victory (in 200 BCE) of a small army of Jews against the Greek empire in our prayers, what we celebrate is the miracle of the oil. The Jewish fighters who were called the Maccabees on their victory immediately sought to light the menorah in the Temple. For this, they required a jar of oil with the seal of the High Priest. They found but one such jar of oil, that miraculously lasted eight days until new oil could be sourced.
This remembrance continues to be a timely message, particularly in these days when we find the small nation of Israel once again at war against multiple armies. We must remember the miracle of the oil that even in these dark times there will always be small miracles that we can celebrate. Even in the dark tunnels of Gaza Dafnah rekindled her soul.
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