‘The hugs I receive are a human energizer’

Reut Karp was the finance manager at Kibbutz Re’im. Nine months before Black Shabbat, she and her husband, Dvir, separated. On October 7, their children Daria, 10 and a half, and Lavi, nine, were with their father and his girlfriend, Stav, in Re’im. Their sister Liya, 13, slept at her friend’s house in Moshav Ein Habesor. Dvir and Stav were murdered in front of Daria and Lavi. The terrorists who murdered them told the children to stay under a blanket and said that they don't kill children. They wrote on the wall “Al Kasam don't kill children.” 

The rebirth of Reut is Café Otef Re’im in the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv. A second branch in her new chain of coffee shops is called Café Otef.

Where did Black Sabbath find you?

That weekend, I went to stay with a friend in Yahud. Around half past six,  my friend and I woke up and went downstairs to go for a run. At that moment an alarm went off, and we realized there was rocket fire. I wasn't stressed, but it was important for me to know that the children were safe. Dvir wrote me that he and the children were in the safe room and that everything was fine. I relaxed. At eight o'clock, my daughter Lia wrote me that she was scared to death because there was a terrorist outside the house. I was afraid. I called her, but she hung up and sent me a message that she wasn’t allowed to talk. I realized that she was in the safe room with her friend's family. I told her to continue hiding, while reassuring her. At 8:15, I sent Dvir a screenshot of Lia's message, and he replied that terrorists had also reached them. He wrote: 'There is a big mess here. There is heavy shooting in the kibbutz.' I didn't understand. I asked, ‘Shots?’  Dvir answered ‘Yes.’ Then I realized the magnitude of the situation. Messages started flowing in the kibbutz's WhatsApp group asking to lock doors, board up windows, and darken the houses. I reassured Dvir that Lia was safe. At 8:24, I received a message from Dvir's cellphone: ‘Mother, this is Daria. Father was murdered. Stav, too.'

I called Dvir's cellphone. Daria answered and whispered to me that the terrorists had entered their home. They opened the door of the safe room and Dvir attacked them with an axe to protect the children. Stav also tried, but they were both murdered. The terrorists signaled to the children to be quiet. They covered them with a blanket and left. 

What did you do?

I knew I had to be strong for them. I hoped that Dvir might be alive and just wounded. I wanted to ask Daria to go over to check if he had a pulse, but I knew it wasn't safe. Daria said she was hearing voices and was afraid of being seen. I asked about Lavi, who is on the autistic spectrum. Daria said that Lavi didn't move or speak, and she didn’t know if he was asleep or dead. I told her to stay in the safe room and to close the door. She said it couldn’t be closed because the bodies were lying in the entrance. As I was talking to Daria on Dvir's cellphone, I sent messages to the kibbutz group and begged them to help them. People called Dvir. When they heard call waiting, they were sure he was alive. They didn't know it was Daria on call waiting. We stayed on the line for a few hours. I reassured Daria and told her that the IDF was on the way and they would soon take them to a safe place. Time passed, and Daria told me that no one came. The kibbutz group said that it was difficult to get to the house because the terrorists were all over the kibbutz. Daria said that she heard voices in the house and was afraid. I told her to be quiet and not talk to anyone because there were reports that the terrorists were impersonating soldiers. After three hours, a friend's husband took a gun and went to them. He called me on a video call and showed me Daria and Lavi, who started talking. The friend stayed with the children for a few hours because it was dangerous to go out. Nine hours later, the kibbutz's emergency squad arrived and rescued them through the window. The next day, they brought them home to me. It is clear to me that this is a trauma that will stay with the children forever and that their lives and mine will never be the same again.

Tell me about Dvir the chocolatier.

Dvir was the chocolatier of the Gaza Strip. He founded the brand Chocolate Dvir, and together we founded Chocolate Café in the Eshkol Regional Council. Over the years, it became a meeting place for the residents of the area who came for coffee and quality chocolate. The café was closed during the war and recently reopened.

I began teaching chocolatiers to recreate Dvir's recipes. My dream is to establish a chocolate factory in Re’im named after Dvir.

Will you go back to the Re’im?

Of course. The children are also waiting to go back. These days, we have a new home. Dvir is buried there.

Why did you decide to open a café in Tel Aviv?

It was part of our desire to commemorate Dvir and create a meeting place for our community that will remind us of the home and the loved ones we lost. Our lives will never be the same, but the things that strengthen us and help us survive are our community and the memories. People who come to the café say they come to support and cheer. It's not a place of compassion, it's a place of love. People tell me they come to hug and leave hugged. The hug is the human energizer. Dvir loved to make people happy with his chocolate. I wish we could return a little of the sweetness to the lives of all of us. I hope we will be able to convey the taste and atmosphere of Re’im to those who come here. The café is a symbol of the revival of all the surrounding settlements and Kibbutz Re’im.

The community of Kibbutz Re’im has about 450 people. In the terrorist attack, seven other citizens were murdered and were kidnapped and released in the hostage deals. There is a temporary residence in a project on Herzl Street in Tel Aviv, with a shared complex of gardens and a kibbutz secretariat.

The Otef coffee chain was established with the aim of creating community and mental resilience for the evacuees and enabling them to find employment, horizons, and revival. The chain employs girls and boys from the settlements. The cafés are a meeting place for the community and enables them to keep in touch as much as possible. The establishment of the chain perpetuates and echoes the story of each community and connects the host community with the evacuated community.

The people behind the chain are Tamir Barelko, entrepreneur and founder of the Arcafe chain; and Michal Zion, owner and manager of the Idea sales promotion and production company in Israel and around the world. Café Otef Re’im was established thanks to generous donations from Bank Hapoalim, Ether Fodi, Falsaun, Modi, Tempo, HSBC Bank, and Checkpoint.

The café is managed and operated by Re’im residents. At Café Otef, you can purchase products such as cheeses, wine, jams, berries, cakes, granola, local products, and specially designed items such as shirts, mugs, aprons, and cloth bags. You can also purchase a picnic basket and sit in the spaces of the complex or around the café.

This article is taken from The Jerusalem Post Women Magazine 2024. To read the entire magazine, click here.