Bruce and I attended the “ We Stand With Israel “ talk Sunday, 9/29 at Temple Shalom in Cedar Grove. Adele Raemer, a resident of Kibbutz Nirim, one mile from Gaza, told us how life at Kibbutz Nirim was 95 percent heaven until October 7th, 2023.
We saw photos of the gorgeous countryside, acres of sunflowers, pictures of the happy residents of the kibbutz celebrating holidays.
On Oct. 6th, they celebrated the 77th Anniversary of Kibbutz Nirim, which was formed in 1946, two years before the State of Israel.
Adele was supposed to get up early on Oct 7 to walk outside the Kibbutz to look at the sunflowers. She overslept and that saved her life. She led us through the gunshots and alert messages that woke her and sent her into her safe room. She was constantly sending and receiving messages from neighbors and relatives.
Her daughter in another cottage of Kibbutz Nirim, was alone in her safe room. Her son in law and her 2 grandchildren were in a 3rd cottage in their safe room. It was clear that this was not the usual bombing. Terrorists had infiltrated. There were no locks on the safe rooms. They had to keep pressing down on the door handle.
Her son in law was a security guard so he had a rifle. When a terrorist opened the door of the safe room, he shot him. But there were a hundred terrorists in the Kibbutz. Adele, after 5 hours, left the safe room to use the toilet. Her livingroom window was smashed open. Obviously, the terrorists had been called away. Otherwise, she would have been murdered, as many of her friends were.
Kibbutz Nirim was an agricultural community, where everyone knew each other well. Adele made a notebook with all the names of the people she knew who were murdered or kidnapped.
She read us her relationship with them, her neighbors, her students, artists, handymen, teachers, farmers, babies, teenagers, honeymooners. She knew them all well, seeing them every day, living with them since 1977.
Adele shared an audio from 7am, Oct 7, when Judith, who lived two cottages from Adele, called a nurse who was in another part of the country. Judith and her husband had been taking a walk outside the kibbutz. Judith told the nurse that terrorists on motorcycles had shot her husband in the head and shot her in the face and hand. She thought her husband was dead. She was hiding under a tree. The nurse tried to get Judith’s location and said she would send help. But Judith was later kidnapped to Gaza.
Everyone who was at Adele’s talk agreed that after everything we had read and heard since Oct 7th, Adele’s talk brought it all home to us in a very personal way. We were all affected very emotionally.
Jewish National Fund is sponsoring Adele to give these talks all around America. Adele wants to go back home to Kibbutz Nirim to rebuild dreams and lives. She says that will be her revenge.
Thank you,
Natalie Baff
- Life On The Border With Adele Raemer - Tue, Oct 1, 2024
- A Glorious Evening - Thu, Jul 20, 2023
- My First Trip to Israel - Wed, May 3, 2023