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Serving each family.
Consoling each heart.
For 105 years.

T

hree weeks after 
Kibbutz Be’eri was 
massacred, its 
surviving members still 
gather for their community’s 
traditional evening meeting. 
The kibbutz, ransacked 
and empty, is now a closed 
military zone. To those 
familiar with the litany of 
atrocities committed on 
Oct. 7, its name has become 
synonymous with some of 
the day’s worst horrors. Many 

of Be’eri’s residents refer 
to that day as a “Shoah” or 
Holocaust. 
Now, the nightly meetings 
instead take place at the 
David Dead Sea Resort, 
where most of Be’eri’s 
members are staying as Israel 
fights a war against Hamas, 
the terror group that invaded 
Be’eri and the rest of the Gaza 
border area, killing 1,400, 
wounding thousands and 
taking more than 200 people 

captive. 
Instead of discussing 
the usual business of the 
community of about 1,100, 
Be’eri’s residents spend the 
meetings updating the list of 
kibbutz members who have 
been moved from “missing” 
or “kidnapped” to “dead.” 

A conference room in the 
hotel is divided by black 
curtains into several separate 
shivah areas for families. 
More are being held outside 
on the hotel lawn. 
Nineteen days after the 
massacre, the search and 
identification process for 

Refugees from 
Kibbutz Be’eri 
Count their Dead 
and Grieve

ELIYAHU FREEDMAN JTA.ORG 

Family and friends attend the Oct. 25 funeral of three members of the 
Sharabi family, Lian, Noya and Yahel, who were murdered by Hamas 
terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, 2023. 

CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90/VIA JTA