Safeguarding our Community

In the wake of the unprecedented, unprovoked, and horrendous attack by Hamas from Gaza on civilian communities in Israel on October 7th, 2023, Kibbutz Barkai is seeking to reassemble the Kibbutz’s emergency squad. Barkai is surrounded by Arab villages, sitting at a strategic junction at the entry to Wadi Ara, on route 65 connecting Hadera in the west and Afula in the east, and is located only 4 miles from the increasingly hostile West Bank. 

Kibbutz Barkai means "The Star of Dawn", the first light that heralds the coming of a new day. Barkai was founded by groups from Romania and Poland who arrived from the darkness of the Holocaust into the light of a new day in Israel. This light was joined a few years later by a large group from the Hashomer Hatzair movement from North America and South Africa. The Barkai community today consists of 165 families. It’s a very small community.

One of the first lessons from the invasion of Hamas on Saturday October 7th, is that communities with trained and equipped security squads are much likelier to survive such attacks. With this bloody lesson in mind, Barkai has decided to reassemble the Kibbutz’s emergency squad, as a local first responder squad, that can provide life-saving security and repel first attack till police/IDF forces will arrive.