Yuval Hovav did not wait for promises or rehabilitation plans stalled in the depths of bureaucracy. About six months ago, when the evacuation ended and some residents of Kiryat Shmona began returning to the city, he left Lod and moved with his wife, Hadar, and their five children to the wounded northern town.
In a city where roughly a third of residents have yet to return from the prolonged evacuation and about 40% of small businesses have closed and not reopened since the war, Hovav — demographic growth coordinator at the Kehilot Foundation — understood that real recovery would not begin with speeches, but with moving to the city and putting money into the pockets of local business owners.
“It all started when a friend innocently asked where he could get ready-made mishloach manot in the city,” Hovav recalls. “We decided to turn it into a concept. We gathered a few residents and began assembling gift packages whose components all come from the smallest businesses on the outskirts of town — those that need help the most. The graphic design, printing, documentation, even the driver delivering the packages to distribution points across the country — all of them are local.”
Within just two days of launching the sales page, more than 1,200 Purim gift packages were snapped up. “We thought we’d start with 400 packages, but in less than a day everything was sold out. We tripled the quantity and still had to stop because of the overwhelming and deeply moving demand,” Hovav says.
Inside the packages — with names such as “View of Mount Hermon” (85 shekels), “Picnic by the Stream” (200 shekels) and “Best of the Land” (120 shekels) — local volunteers packed a variety of locally produced goods, or items sold in neighborhood grocery stores. They also added stunning landscape postcards and a map of secret spots, nature sites and water sources known only to city residents.
Among the offerings are cookies and macarons by Hagit Fartuk, owner of “Stylish Packages and Desserts.” Fartuk returned to Kiryat Shmona after two years of evacuation in Netanya, solely because her children insisted on going back home. “It gives us a push that wakes us up and shows that people see us,” she says.
Zehava Maman, an employee at Tel-Hai College who volunteered to pack the shipments, recently returned to the city after a year and a half of evacuation in Eilat. Although she found work in the south and grew accustomed to a different life during the extended displacement, longing for home ultimately prevailed.
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The packages contain a variety of locally produced goods, or items sold in neighborhood grocery stores
(Photo: Avihu Shapira)
“The children and grandchildren have returned too and are living near me again,” she says emotionally. “But it’s very sad to see places like our shopping center near the main post office closed, the stores abandoned. The idea of pumping life into small businesses here in the city is so meaningful and moving.”
Hovav describes a lesson in humanity he received exactly from the very people fighting for their livelihoods in the northern border town. “When we went to the clothing store ‘Begdan’ and told the owner about the initiative, he said he thought it would be better to strengthen the nearby ‘King of the Shekel’ store and buy from him instead. When we went to ‘King of the Shekel,’ he suggested we go to another business. Each one thought someone else needed the support more. We believe hope will grow from that place. This city needs purchasing power and an Israeli embrace — not handouts. Business owners need the people of Israel, not more stipends,” he said.
Hovav and his friends’ initiative may be just a drop in the ocean of recovery needs. But because it comes from local residents and from a desire to take responsibility and be part of the healing the city so desperately needs, it carries genuine promise for residents who need to be seen and remembered in their difficult hour.
“We’re already thinking about Passover gift packages and calling on workers’ committees to join and purchase,” Hovav concludes. “The rehabilitation of this city is much bigger than our personal story. Here in the north there are small and large businesses — wineries, specialty food factories, all the good things our country has to offer. Everyone can choose to buy from them right now and be part of extending a hand and the solidarity that is so strengthening and needed here.”