Hillel Kuttler
The gray layer of outlined ash hints at the round glasses that once stood on the small shelf unit now resting on a floor in a storage room at Kibbutz Kfar Aza. The ash attests to the fire that engulfed the kibbutz on Oct. 7, 2023, during Hamas terrorists’ rampage in Israel’s western Negev. Next to the shelf sits a transparent box containing the tins of yahrzeit candles lit nearby by parents of soldiers killed defending the kibbutz that day.
“Take this shelf,” said Dina Grossman, who’d come to the kibbutz one late December morning from Jerusalem, where she is the director of digital heritage projects for the Ben Zvi Institute, a research body. “You see it and know that much drama occurred here. Artificial intelligence can’t fake it. This is something very authentic and real.”
The shelf and candles are among 1,300 items housed in the building—which is the culture club for the still-evacuated kibbutz—and on the second floor of the dining room across the way. Another 1,700 items are kept in two buildings at Kibbutz Be’eri, with 15,000 items from other invaded communities expected to be stored at a rented warehouse in Netivot, a town to the east. Eventually, a modern warehouse might be built.
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