In the video: We visited the temporary pub in Kibbutz Bari/Editor: Gilad Mann Mannheim
Already in the first days after October 7th, while an entire country looks with tearful eyes at the harsh scenes from the settlements of the surrounding area and does not know its soul from grief, we thought about what could be done to bring back a little joy in life to a place that suffered such a severe blow.
At least in our case, the people of the Sanhedrin channel on the Walla website, the answer was clear: schools and kindergartens will be rebuilt, community buildings and other public institutions will be rebuilt by the State of Israel, but who will also take care of something for the soul? Who will help the pubs in the damaged communities to get back on their feet?
It may be that for many readers this is a marginal issue - and we will be the first to agree that this is not the first need, and yet, in our view, a pub is not a foreign word for a tavern, a place where people come to drink. For us, perhaps with its English name derived from the word PUBLIC, meaning "public", it is a community center for adults, a place where they come to have a drink, but also to meet the community:
to talk with a friend that is not about work matters, meet new people, fall in love, gossip, laugh , to speak from the heart, drink something more to remember and then another drink to forget. The pub has an important role in the life of the community, especially in the life of a community that needs healing, after going through what it went through...
We gave this speech, members of the Sanhedrin, to our colleagues - and immediately afterwards we continued to the main society, where we found not only an open door but also a soul object They also proposed the brand to accompany the move: Sycamore.
On rising and rising
Why rose? Because Shakma is a craft capital, what was called here until recently a "boutique", it does sit inside the Carlsberg brewery in the Ashkelon industrial area, a short distance from the surrounding settlements that were affected, but what made it perfect for the task is the connection between past, present and future.
Sycamore symbolizes the renewal of beer production in what is considered its birthplace: the biblical Land of Israel that connected Mesopotamia and the Egyptian Empire.
The first person we contacted was Haim Yelin, a member of Kibbutz Bari and formerly also the head of the local council and a member of the Knesset. Lilin got tired of politics almost from the first moment, but he can't take a break from working for the community, in the purest sense of the term.
This is perhaps the reason why in recent months he entered, through the television, not only every living room, but also every heart. The man simply expressed pain and at the same time great hope, gave a face to the great break but also to resurrection, managed to speak at the same time with a hurting heart but also with faith, did not hide the destruction, but at the same time was a symbol of resurrection.
Haim didn't need more than a few hours to collect for us the contact details of the people responsible for all the pubs in the localities of the area. A little inquiry showed that none of the buildings were damaged.
It's just that the physical restoration is a small matter, the goal is to restore the pub so that it fits the needs of the community, and these - as we've come to know in recent months, are very, very complex. Let's start by saying that not all pubs are the same just as not all communities are the same.
Some of them were just two rooms connected together and in them a bottle of vodka and orange juice were pulled from a small fridge, poured into a plastic glass with some ice. When someone wanted a cocktail, they also used to add a straw... Other places met the highest standards, ones that would not embarrass a successful bar in the central area: with a unique drinks menu and with a kitchen that produced beautiful dishes.
In fact, the only thing they all have in common is what is also common to all the communities in which they operated: since October 7th, they have been closed, while the residents-customers are far away, evacuated to hotels or other settlements.
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Sunday evening at Kibbutz Bari
This week we took a small step, the first of thousands of steps that we will have to take hand in hand with the communities and those responsible for the pubs in the various localities. In Bari, a settlement of about 1,250 Simchat Torah Arabs, about 120 residents now live. Some of them are kibbutz members who have returned to their homes and the rest are members of a core of volunteers. Their original pub is still closed, but in order to serve the small community that has returned to live in its home, the nearby shelter, which was built under the People's House and was previously used for performances, was converted as a temporary pub.
We went there this week: Ofer Havkin, the beer sommelier of the central company, called Shakma beer. And we, the people of the Sanhedrin inside Walla - and we met the members of the economy who partially returned to their homes. They also know that the journey will be long. how long It's still hard to even gauge.
Some say about two years, others think more. What we can offer them in the meantime is professional accompaniment, culinary accompaniment, help with small needs such as a Sycamore beer tap that will be installed there immediately after Passover, some refrigerators... the small things that can satisfy a big need, not necessarily in drinking for the sake of drinking, but more in a social gathering, One where the fragments of a community that has suffered a blow begin to be nursed.
What will the journey look like from here on? We don't know yet. What is certain is that soon we will make contact with more settlements and begin to characterize the needs: slowly, carefully, like groping our way on a first date at the bar... One thing we promise - to be there for them, because no matter how long the road will be - the day they enter the reopened pub In one of the settlements, those who came to him alone, and left as a couple - will also have a day of small victory.