When rockets started falling on October 7, David Bar and his wife sought safety in their bomb shelter in Israel's Kibbutz Alumim, two miles from the Gaza border. But they didn't realize the seriousness of the situation until their daughter called.
"There are terrorists in your kibbutz," she told them.
While they'd used the shelter many times previously, they had never closed the door. But this day was unusual. "It was a different level of attack than we have ever been through," Bar said.
They could hear terrorists storming through each house, killing people as they ran for safety, and coming less than 270 yards from the Bar home. "We spent the day in panic," he said, "We felt helpless."
As hours passed and they learned of widespread murders, they began to worry about his wife's sister, Naomi. She typically went for a run every Shabbat morning near her home in Sderot, also near the Gaza border. After four days of anguish, they learned of her death.
"When you don't know what's going on with somebody, it's awful," he told a packed room at the Bernard Weinger JCC in Northbrook in February.
Bar-- along with two other survivors of the Hamas attacks--came to Chicago that month as part of the "Heroes --First Testimony: Midwest Tour," sponsored by The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, JCC Association of North America, the Zionist Enterprises Department, and JCC Chicago.
The survivors also appeared at Stevenson and Whitney Young High Schools, and at Anshe Emet Synagogue, before heading to Milwaukee, Louisville, and South Bend to discuss their experiences.
"It's really important that people hear first-hand what happened," said Zohar Lahav-Shefer.
She grew up minutes away from Gaza in Kibbutz Nahal Oz; she recalled her parents telling her, "Our neighbors want, just like us, to live in peace and quiet."
But as terrorists tore through her community of Kibbutz Gevim, where she now lives, she spent 30 hours in her safe room with her husband and three children, while in constant communication with her sister. "If you could see the things we wrote," she said. "Why are terrorists going house to house, slaughtering and taking hostages?"
When the evacuation orders came on October 8, her husband left first and called minutes later, telling her not to look aside. "Of course, you can't not look. It was apocalyptic," she said, describing an overwhelming "amount of cars on the two sides of the highway with doors open, burned out, with [bullet] holes and bodies."
"I keep waking up and telling myself this didn't really happen. I can't believe we went through this," she said. "People who were murdered were my friends, my kids' friends."
Sharon Anna Yacobi, also a resident of Kibbutz Gevim, and her family spent 27 hours in their safe room, while text messages and videos poured in with shocking details.
She received a video showing a family sitting together on the floor, the father's hands covered in blood, and a young girl saying, "My sister is dead." When Yacobi called a friend to share her grief, she learned of another close friend's death.
A high school teacher, she began checking on her students. "I'm on the roof with my parents because terrorists are trying to get into the building," one told her.
Months later, she still sees the fallout among her students. "Suddenly, they are carrying knives with them because, G--d forbid, if somebody would attack," she explained.
Bar, Lahav-Shefer, and Yacobi are all still living away from their homes--with family or in hotels--and facing difficult questions about the future. "You can't just come back the next day as if nothing happened. A lot of thought needs to be given as to how to rebuild," said Bar.
"We should embrace every decision that people make after that horrifying day," stated Lahav-Shefer, adding, "but we will build something that is better, stronger, and happier."
The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, JCC Association of North America, the Zionist Enterprises Department and JCC Chicago brought this program to our community.
Julie Mangurten Weinberg is a Northbrook-based freelance journalist with more than 25 years of experience in broadcast, print, and digital media.
