A Sea of Love: The “Ligmah of Shikma” Project at the Be’eri Kibbutz Pool

About a year and a half ago, in March 2024, when Kibbutz Be’eri was still closed, locked and almost empty of residents, we gathered in the shelter beneath the Community House, which had been turned into a temporary pub in place of “Pabari,” which was forced to close its doors. We sat with several cases of Shikma beers and, as the beer warmed our hearts, planned the operation, helping the communities of the western Negev in one very specific aspect of returning to routine, namely reopening pubs as a place for community gathering.

Since then, we have held many events, in Sderot and Or HaNer, in Be’eri and Netiv HaAsara, hosted the members of Nir Am in Tel Aviv, and managed to help other community pubs in additional communities. Still, each event raises the level of excitement a little more, joy mixed with sorrow, an “here and now” existence soaked in memories, cold beer and warm tears.

This is already our third “Ligmah of Shikma” event at Kibbutz Be’eri, but if the previous two were held at the pub, this time the Walla, CBC Israel and “Hudson” restaurant team came to the place that perhaps more than anything symbolizes the happiest part of the kibbutz experience, the pool. The Pabari team took care of the ice and the sound system, Matan Abrahams, the chef and co-owner of the “Hudson” steakhouse chain, set up the station, the lawn was filled with buckets of ice and Shikma craft beer, and the joy was great.

Before the war, the Be’eri community numbered close to 1,200 residents. Today, most of them live in Kibbutz Hatzerim, until the reconstruction and renovation work at the kibbutz is completed, where fewer than 100 residents currently live.

The crowd was mostly made up of kibbutz members who have returned to live there. A few also came from the temporary neighborhood in Hatzerim, and even some guests from Kibbutz Re’im. Music played in the background, the friends sat on plastic chairs, and from time to time they went to eat the excellent hamburgers from “Hudson” or open another bottle of “Shikma” (an informal survey we conducted shows that the most popular style, at least among Be’eri members, is IPA, a relatively bitter hoppy beer with a greenish label).

There is a pile of people on the grass, as a poet from another kibbutz once wrote, and everything looks so normal, even pastoral, a quiet occasionally broken by the thunder of the bombings in the Gaza Strip. After a few beers, hearts open up, and it turns out that it is difficult for the ears of central Israel residents to get used to the “booms,” but even harder not to be moved by the stories, stories of a community struck by bereavement, finding the strength to rise from the ashes, cope, recover, and gradually return home.

Haim Yellin, perhaps Be’eri’s best-known resident, recalled that meeting in the improvised pub in the shelter, when everything was still fresh. How reopening “Pabari” seemed like a distant dream, let alone a pool party. The smell of hamburgers filled the area, bottles were raised in hope, and we took the opportunity to cool off a little, only to discover that there is excitement that cannot be washed away, neither with beer nor in the pool water.