At reopened Nahal Oz pub, Israeli musician closes circle begun after October 7 |
When musician Elai Botner performed at Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the eve of the Shavuot holiday on May 21, he was completing a circle begun just days after the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught.
As it marked the Jewish agricultural festival, the kibbutz was also celebrating its return home after its members were evacuated from Nahal Oz following October 7. At the kibbutz’s renovated pub, Botner performed his new song, “Chag Hameshek” (“Farm Holiday”), surrounded by kibbutz members and his backup singers.
Like so many other Israeli entertainers, Botner, known for his guitar playing and folk-rock style, backed by a team of emerging artists known as the New Kids, has spent much of the last two and a half years performing for soldiers, bereaved families, survivors, and anyone who needed the lift that comes from hearing live music.
At some point, Botner, who grew up on Kibbutz Ein Carmel and felt a strong affinity to all those from the Gaza envelope kibbutzim, sat down to write “Chag Hamashek.”
The song was the first he had written after the massacre in which invading terrorists killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages to Gaza.
“It turns out that when ‘Chag Hameshek’ came out on the radio, people from Nahal Oz heard it and felt like it was written for them,” Botner told The Times of Israel.
The song is written from the viewpoint of a boy growing up on a kibbutz, impatiently awaiting the annual community celebration — Chag Hameshek, marking the establishment of the kibbutz — but a war begins the next day.
That was the situation for Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which was set to mark its 70th anniversary on the day of the assault.
Instead, over 180 terrorists swarmed into the unsuspecting Gaza border community in three waves,........