Page 20 - C.A.L.L. #21 - Spring 2003

Ha’aretz December 13, 2002 Mourning routine: Nitai and Liora get up at 5:45 A.M. and walk
through the fields until 6:30 A.M. When they get back they wake
the kids.
The Schreiber family Breakfast (“quick”) is wafer cookies (vaflim) and tea. The girls leave
at 7:10 A.M., Alon a bit later. Nitai goes to meetings, Liora crosses
the road to her job in Gevanim’s offices, in the dining room
The cast: Nitai (41), Liora (39), Nitzan and Shaked (twin girls, building.
12), Tal (7), Alon (5). The Shreibers live in an “urban kibbutz” Lunch: In the communal dining room.
– a form of settlement invented in Jerusalem in the 1970’s. Menu: Chicken, schnitzel, rice, vegetables, salads.
Their kibbutz, called Migvan, is actually one closed street with Supper: At home. Usually an omelet and salad (“everyone when he
two rows of houses built in a uniform style. The street, called feels like it”).
Shaked, does not look anything like a kibbutz, but resembles a Friday evening: In the dining room, with Kiddush blessings
suburban community. The homes are two-storey affairs with a (including: “Before we begin the Sabbath meal, let us bless the
bit of land and a fashionable beige exterior, set on a brick road. challah and say: ‘Blessed is he who brings forth bread from the
However, there is one unusual feature: Between the houses is a ground’”).
large public structure that houses a common dining room in God: Nitai does not believe (“though I believe in a ‘world
which lunch is served every day. During the week the beyond’”). Liora doesn’t believe (“But that’s what we talk about in
structure is the scene of ramified social and administrative our morning walks”).
activity, and on Fridays the members gather there to welcome Additional occupation: Every Sunday Nitai travels to Kfar Sava to
the Sabbath in their own way. The 14 houses along the street attend a “workshop of awareness through movement,” to connect
are home to 14 families. Each family has a house and each with his feelings – “When I was 35 I was at the height of rustiness.’
house has a mortgage that every family has taken out Then, by means of proper nutrition, physical activity and the
personally. workshop, I came out of it.” Liora is a
The house: Two-story, 120 square partner in this, “but only with the food
meters, on a lot of 300 square meters part.”
(attached to another home). The ground Principles of nutrition: Vegetables, fruits,
floor contains a living room, kitchen and goat’s cheese, whole-wheat bread, whole
three bedrooms, while upstairs are the rice, fish. They don’t spend time cooking
parents’ quarters, a den and a balcony. or baking; they make salads and stir-fry
Cost: $147,000 (two years ago). vegetables.
Private and collective: The Shreiber Dreams: Nitai would be happy to find
house is registered in the names of Nitai time to pursue his hobbies – sculpting and
and Liora, but all the rest of their drumming. Liora dreams of peace and of
property – salaries, car, office – is held settlement in the Negev, Shaked would
collectively. want to live in nature, Nitzan thinks
Why an urban kibbutz: “We wanted to be plugged into the about living in a city with big malls (“I heard they have that in
Israeli society”. Canada”). Shaked doesn’t think she could live abroad.
What the members do: They are engaged in two areas of Attitude of Sderot residents: It depends. One group “appreciates
activity: They run social projects in Sderot and in another us,” for a second group “the word ‘kibbutznik’ is highly charged,”
development town in the region, Netivot, within the and the rest are new immigrants. What else about the second
framework of a not-for-profit association called Gevanim group? Nitai – “Until the 1980’s there were a great many conflicts
(rehabilitation of the physically and mentally disabled, between the kibbutzim in the area and Sderot, and that’s one of the
protected housing for the latter); and they run a high-tech reasons we came here.”
company.
Funding of the social projects: The government, the Joint
Distribution Committee and the French-based Sacta-Rashi The place
Foundation. Sderot – A development town in the northern Negev, close to the
Livelihood and occupations: Nitai, who is a graduate of the Gaza Strip, population 23,000 named for the row (sdera in Hebrew,
Kibbutz Nirim high school (“I have a lifesaver’s certificate”), plural: sderot) of eucalyptus trees along Highway 232 that the first
initiated and established the Gevanim association in 1987 and settlers planted. The town had its beginnings in 1951 as a transit
is its manager. Liora, a social worker by training, does camp for new immigrants; it was officially recognized as a city in
accounting for the association. 1996. Its population is mainly of North African origin, along with
The food: Vegetarian. new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, most of whom are
from the Caucasus and Bukhara.

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