Nadene Goldfoot
The Tribe of Nova trance music festival, near Kibbutz Reim, was one of the first targets for Hamas militants as they launched their unprecedented attack on Israel in the early hours of Saturday morning, overrunning the concert area, shooting into the crowd and grabbing as many hostages as they could. Festivalgoers described how the gunmen blocked roads, ambushed escaping cars and scoured the area looking for people to kidnap.
Noa and her boyfriend were among the hundreds of people at the festival in Re'im when Hamas gunmen opened fire. The city is near the Gaza Strip, a Strip that is Palestinian territory where 2 million Arabs live.
Paramedics removed about 260 bodies from the desert area – a number that is expected to increase, Israeli rescue service Zaka said, according to the Associated Press.
Kibbutz Reim. Kibbutz Reim is Re'im (Hebrew: רֵעִים, lit. 'Friends') a secular kibbutz in southern Israel. I've never heard of a secular kibbutz, so I looked it up. Kibbutz Artzi and United Kibbutz Movement kibbutzim were secular, even staunchly atheistic, proudly trying to be "monasteries without God". Although most mainstream kibbutznikim also disdained the Orthodox Judaism of their parents, they wanted their new communities to have Jewish characteristics nonetheless.
And so, they held this music festival on Saturday, which is Shabbat. Not only was it Shabbat, but a very special one. The last day of Sukkot was the 6th of October called Sukkot VII (Hoshana Raba) and the 7th, Saturday in the USA, was Shemini Atzeret(celebrated outside of Israel as a separate celebration on the following day) and the 8th was Simchat Torah (rejoicing of the Law) which recognizes the finishing of reading in the synagogue of the 5 Books of Moses (Pentateuch). According to being secular, they would not have celebrated any of their orthodox friends' religious holiday. This is a joyous holiday for the orthodox who will take out all the Scrolls of the Law and carry them 7 times around the synagogue, sometimes with dances which may be continued for hours.
located in the south of the country, close to the Gaza Strip. Initially, the kibbutz was called “Tel Reim” (Tel – Hill, Reim – Friends) after the nearby hill called in Arabic, “Tel al-Jama” (the hill of the friends). The common story is that the hill remained in the Negev and the “Jama” (friends) left for another hill – Tel Aviv.
First Aliyah immigrants of 1881 were largely religious, but those of the Second Aliyah were mainly secular. The Second Aliyah refers to the massive influx of immigrants during the years 1904-1914. Between these years approximately 35 thousand Jews arrived, mainly from Russia and Poland. Like the First Aliyah, the Second Aliyah was motivated by a combination of ideology coupled with anti-Jewish violence and pogroms. They had the attitude of the Returnees to Jerusalem from Babylon 538 BCE who had never seen Jerusalem.
A Jewish work ethic thus replaced religious practice. Berl Katznelson, a Labor Zionist leader articulated this when he said "Everywhere the Jewish labourer goes, the divine presence goes with him."
They had a need to return to their land of origin as they were tired of losing family in pogroms, but they had lost touch with their religion. They really didn't understand why they were treated so badly by different countries.
The kibbutz owns the Isralaser company, which was the first laser company in Israel to buy an advanced laser machine for the purpose of cutting metals, most of which is intended for the defense industry. The plant itself is protected not only by a battery of tanks placed right in front of it, but also, apparently, by a force majeure – one of the first works of the Isralaser plant was to create bottles filled with water from the Holy Land for Christians.
The kibbutz was established in 1949 by former Palmach members with the provisional name HaTzofim Vav (lit. 'Scouts F'). It was then named Tel Re'im (Hebrew: תל רעים, lit. 'Hill of Friends') after the Arabic translation of the nearby archaeological site of Tell Jemmeh. It was eventually renamed Re'im in memory of members of the Gar'in who were killed in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The name, meaning 'friends', was taken from the Book of Proverbs (18:24) to symbolize them.
The kibbutz was planned by the architect Hanan Habaron, one of the founders of the kibbutz and a member until his death in 2002. The ascetic style was described as a visual expression of Habaron's social and architectural worldviews. Asaf Kashtan, an Israeli architect who wrote a book about Habaron, said that in recent years, Habaron's style fell out of favor with Re'im's residents.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has a base near the kibbutz. Prior to the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005, the base was used as a camp for the evacuating troops. After the disengagement, Re'im became the target of Qassam rockets fired at it from the Gaza Strip. In 2008, IDF troops at the nearby base near Nahal Oz requested that the base be relocated to the area near Re'im, away from the range of Hamas' mortar fire.
The kibbutz's economy is based on agriculture and its laser factory, Isralaser. IsraBig, which manufactures dies for stamping, also has a factory in Re'im. The kibbutz also has a room letting business, including a Bedouin accommodation tent. It suffered as a result of the Israel–Gaza conflict, and the kibbutz lowered its prices. In 2008, Re'im embarked on a project that would make it the first community in Israel, and perhaps in the entire world, to rely entirely on solar energy for domestic consumption. Sunday, a company which markets the technology in Israel, is to install solar panels on all 130 rooftops in the kibbutz. The cost of the project is estimated at NIS 60 to 100 million and the investment is expected to pay for itself in 10 years. The cost and revenues from electricity are to be divided evenly between the kibbutz and Sunday, and any excess energy is to be sold to the Israel Electric Company.
Resource:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-supernova-festival-noa-argamani-hostage-hamas-attacks-video/
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