‘Mutual responsibility is very Jewish’: How the Kibbutz Movement is stepping up to help communities hit by Iran’s attacks

Neri Shotan’s grandparents helped to established Kibbutz Shefayim in 1927. While both of their families died during the Holocaust, the pair were part of a group of Polish immigrants who first set up the community in HaSharon, along the mediterranean coast.

Nine months ago, Shotan welcomed the fourth generation of his family at the kibbutz. He named his son Telem, meaning “plough line”, inspired by the famous phrase by the early Zionist Russian activist Joseph Trumpeldor: “Where the Jewish plough concludes its last furrow, that is where the border will be set.”

For Shotan, the heart of the kibbutz mentality is taking care of your fellow citizen. One of the first things the 42-year-old mentions in our interview is that, if one was to switch off all the lights in Israel and left only the kibbutzim illuminated, you would see the country’s borders mapped out – and that is no coincidence.

“A hundred out of 259 kibbutzim are located on the borders. The movement was – and still is – designed as a way of keeping borders. Not through the army, but through agriculture,” he said. Showing up for Israel at its time of crisis is the lifeblood of the secular movement, he added.

That is why, in the wake of the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, the Kibbutz Movement established its Rehabilitation Fund, which has generated $50 million (£37 million) to support those displaced by the war. Shotan is the proud CEO of the fund and manages its efforts to help rebuild Israel’s kibbutzim into thriving communities full-time.

Neri Shotan, the CEO of the Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund. (Photo courtesy of Neri Shotan)[Missing Credit]

And when war broke out between Israel and Iran, the movement wasted no time. It immediately opened a national emergency volunteer headquarters – financed by the Rehabilitation Fund – offering services like hosting displaced families in kibbutzim, supporting local authorities and aiding farms suffering from a critical labour shortages due to mass IDF reserve call-ups.

The Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund is supporting residents who are evacuating due to the Israel-Iran conflict. (Photo courtesy of the Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund)[Missing Credit]

Just hours after its launch, the emergency HQ carried out its first operation, delivering 121 mattresses to bomb shelters in Upper Galilee kibbutzim.

Now, Shotan is raising funds to bring TVs and toys for children who find themselves entering bomb shelters five times a night. The day before we spoke, he was able to re-house a good friend from Tel Aviv with children, who described the situation in the city as “unbearable”. He was able to quickly find her a safe place in a kibbutz on the Sea of Galilee free of charge.

The Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund is financing efforts to provide emergency kits to Israel's bomb shelters. (Photo courtesy of the Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund)[Missing Credit]

When a missile struck a Bat Yam high-rise on Sunday 15 June, killing nine people including a seven-year-old Ukrainian girl receiving treatment for leukemia, Shotan’s volunteers assembled on the ground, offering assistance to survivors. They were also there in the aftermath of the missile on northern Arab city of Tamra, where four members of the Khatib family – including a mother and two daughters – were killed.

When asked about what motivates him, Shotan said that “mutual responsibility is a very Jewish thing”, and it is a philosophy that lies at the heart of the kibbutz. But there is another reason why he and his volunteers knew they would have to mobilise so quickly amid the conflict with Iran – the feeling that perhaps the government would not be there to help the country.

“Unfortunately, because of October 7, we have enough experience to know what needs to be done. My lesson from October 7 is that we are practically alone,” he said, recalling what he perceives as the state’s continued failure to keep its citizens safe.

For Shotan, Israel’s undeniable achievements in Iran, including the elimination of top military generals, key nuclear sites and scientists, throws into relief the abject losses of October 7, where more than 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage because Hamas terrorists were able to storm the border.

“The Israeli Air Force has had an extraordinary performance in Iran over the past two weeks. But, there is a huge gap between the abilities of the Israeli army and the Air Force, and what happened on October 7,” he says, referencing the massacre at Nir Oz where a quarter of the Kibbutz members were killed or abducted and the first Israeli soldiers arrived after the last terrorist had already left.

In the context of the current conflict, Shotan emphasised that Israel’s local authorities have been “amazing” in responding to Iranian missile attacks in Tel Aviv, Rehovot and Ramat Gan. “But when it comes to the central government offices, it is no understatement to say that they are weak,” he says, explaining the need for his movement to step in in the country’s moment of crisis – just like it has been doing since the war in Gaza began.

After October 7, around 30,000 kibbutz members were evacuated from their houses, and around 300 were killed: a quarter of the total fatalities of the day. Realising there was a crisis in his community, Shotan opened an emergency headquarters at 6 pm that day, and began coordinating burial arrangements, temporary schools, and mass re-location, including 500 people from Kfar Aza to his own kibbutz for more than a year.

“It’s a very hard mission to keep communities together,” he said. He is still raising money to rebuild life in the kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope and in the north, where Iran’s proxy terrorist group Hezbollah wreaked devastation with rocket fire for more than a year. “Just imagine being part of a community that has been evacuated to several places for almost two years.”

As the CEO of the Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund, he takes on the responsibility himself, because he knows government funding will not go far enough. “The government states it will cost nine billion shekels (£1.9 billion), to rebuild the northern border. But the government budget is only 2.2 billion shekels (£500 million). In this gap lies the story of our situation with the government,” he said.

"It is not a matter of budget – because there is enough money – it is a matter of government priorities.” 

For Shotan, it is no surprise that the “only Israeli leader” who, he claimed, is still talking about the hostages being held in Gaza after 600 days is Yair Lapid, the Leader of the Opposition. On Sunday, the IDF announced it had retrieved the bodies of two civilians and one soldier in the special operation the day before. Fifty hostages remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem believes that at least 20 of the captives are still alive. “I think the war with Iran allows the Israeli government not to deal with the situation in Gaza. We must keep on speaking about the hostages’ release,” Shotan said.

His efforts have relied on donations from Jewish charities in Israel and from abroad, including UJIA, Jewish National Fund, and the New Israel Fund. “We could not do it without the diaspora,” he said, emphasising that “from October 7 until now, civil society and the NGOs in Israel are the main pillars that allow Israeli society to keep going”.

Two days after October 7, Shotan recalled driving to the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council headquarters to ask how he could be of assistance. The chair of the council, Ofir Libstein, was Shotan’s friend, and had been murdered during the massacre at Kfar Aza. That day, Shotan remembers getting in his car and listening to “Leap of Faith” by Bruce Springsteen.

The lyrics stuck in his head, and ever since, he has been making that leap of faith every morning when he wakes up. “It’s a very long leap of faith – like two years,” he said. “But without the faith that one day we will be a stronger, more vibrant, and better society, we will not make it.”

To support the Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund on its mission of reconstruction and community recovery for displaced kibbutzim, you can donate here.