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I would like to share with you today how I arrived to meet the community members of Kibbutz “Reim” who were evacuated to a hotel in the city of Eilat. I have arrived not as an expert, not on behalf of any official organization. I came to support my best friends.
Kibbutz “Reim” has been the home of my friends for the last 25 years. Their lives and ours have been intertwined following a traumatic event we both were part of 30 years ago.
On Saturday, October 7th I was in constant contact with them for many hours while they were hiding in their shelter. Two days later, on Monday, they called me from the hotel they were evacuated to. My friend was in a bad mental condition and couldn’t stop crying. When I suggested I’d come over, she immediately accepted.
Before I left for the airport, my 14-year-old daughter stuffed a small, yellow tin box of Rescue candies into my bag, which later proved to be useful and valuable.
When I arrived at the hotel, everyone was busy, sleepwalking around the lobby and the corridors, collecting bits of information about kibbutz members they were worried about, and also collecting clothes and shoes of all sizes that were donated.
For years I have been teaching about trauma, talking about the traumatic experience as an “exile” from the known and understood certainties (Brothers, 2008).
In Eilat I understood the real meaning of being exiled from a previous life, from the daily certainties, the routines, and from the society of other people, those who have not undergone trauma.
I walked around the lobby, recognizing kibbutz members I knew, and gently approached those who seemed neglected and shocked. In fact, I used the so-called “Social link” (Orange, 2015) and took advantage of my early acquaintance with the kibbutz members to easily create an intimate dialogue.
I stayed with the community for about two weeks, while sharing the hotel room with my friends and their daughter. From this moment on, I have slowly started a learning process.
I learned that som