{"id":154758,"date":"2024-10-11T15:10:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T13:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=154758"},"modified":"2024-10-11T15:10:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T13:10:52","slug":"matvej-je-pobegao-od-rata-u-jugoslaviji-cerka-mu-sada-ratuje-za-izrael-u-pojasu-gaze-a-evo-kako-izgleda-njegov-zivot-u-kibucu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/matvej-je-pobegao-od-rata-u-jugoslaviji-cerka-mu-sada-ratuje-za-izrael-u-pojasu-gaze-a-evo-kako-izgleda-njegov-zivot-u-kibucu\/","title":{"rendered":"MATVEJ FLED THE WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA: His Daughter is now fighting for Israel in Gaza, and here\u2019s what his life in a kibbutz looks like!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matvej Eisenberg<\/strong> has lived in a kibbutz in Israel for over three decades, having arrived to escape the war in Yugoslavia<\/a><\/strong>. This native of Belgrade<\/a><\/strong>, three decades later, takes a gun along with his keys and wallet when heading to the supermarket, as his daughter currently fights in Gaza. Branislav \u0160ovljanski discusses Israeli actions in Gaza and Lebanon, stating that it is the most difficult situation he must respond to, as he does not consider himself someone who would rush into war, yet admits that military actions by the Israeli army provide him with a certain sense of security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matvej recalls his last months in Belgrade in the early nineties, the military police gathering students at universities and sending them to the front, his friends from across the former Yugoslavia, the questions of identity and origin, and the feeling that the image of \u201cpeace and a perfect country began to unravel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the last two or three months in Belgrade, I lived in Banjica, but I was hiding at a friend’s place in Vo\u017edovac, who is originally American. My father was a professor at the Faculty of Applied Arts, and there was an agreement that I would escape through the window of the amphitheater, where my father\u2019s car awaited me. The decision came quickly; after two or three weeks, my mother came and said they had bought me a ticket, and I was traveling. I had an hour to pack my things and found myself in Sur\u010din. A family friend who was influential at the airport escorted me through security, and I found myself on a plane that took me to Israel,\u201d Matvej reminisces about how he arrived in the country that is now his home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With no knowledge of Hebrew, except for some phrases he did not understand, Matvej arrived in Israel as a tourist and initially lived in Jerusalem. When he decided to learn the language, he realized there were two options\u2014either the state would pay for it as a Jew and new immigrant, or he would have to pay a large sum as a tourist. He chose the former, proving his Jewish heritage through bureaucratic procedures and thus arriving at a kibbutz where he would learn the language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be honest, I wasn\u2019t sure it was what I wanted. My thoughts were still in Belgrade,\u201d says Eisenberg. He adds that his ten friends from all parts of the former Yugoslavia, who ended up in the same place, felt the same way. \u201cWe were living or surviving the war that was going on there, and we sat here, and no one had the patience to learn that language,\u201d Matvej recalls, remembering how Hebrew letters looked like hieroglyphics, and the sounds felt like spitting sand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of his father’s letters about the war in the country he left, Matvej wanted to read stories about his roots, about everything his father remembered from his earliest days until the end of World War II. From those letters, which often spanned 20 or 30 typed pages, later emerged the book “Letters to Matvej,” which has been translated from Serbian into several languages and ultimately reached the Yad Vashem Memorial Center in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy coming here to Israel and with my personal war, I realized that for the second time my family was going through something that would change us, and suddenly I was scared that in my youth I hadn\u2019t listened enough to my father and his stories, the details that make up a personality, that make up the family tree that is important,\u201d Matvej emphasizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life in the Kibbutz Before and After the War<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eisenberg describes the kibbutz as \u201can idyllic beautiful community where everyone is equal, a perfect communism where it doesn\u2019t matter how much you work because it\u2019s assumed that everyone gives as much as they can.\u201d In the kibbutz, all houses and land belong to the community, and the houses are of equal size. Everyone contributes in ways they can, earning for the kibbutz, which in turn takes care of its residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In practice, this means individuals do not pay for electricity, gas, or water; the kibbutz does. Taxes and contributions are also covered by the kibbutz, not its residents. Whether someone is a dentist, electrician, or farmer, everyone receives the same imagined salary. When shopping in the kibbutz, one does not pay with money; instead, the value of goods is deducted from this imagined salary. The kibbutz takes care of the helpless and sick who can no longer work, ensuring that no one is left without food. If someone needs an expensive operation or other treatment, the kibbutz will cover the costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithin the kibbutz, each individual has a safety net, a system we created to ensure everyone is secure in any situation, whether they are ill or unable to work. The kibbutz as a community takes care of them,\u201d explains our interlocutor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To become equal members of this community, he and his wife had to undergo psychological testing and then be on probation for a year and a half. During this time, the kibbutz assessed whether they were good workers, and they evaluated whether this was the right place for them to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter that year and a half, the kibbutz members voted secretly on whether to accept us or not. Since we were accepted, we became equal to all other members,\u201d says Matvej.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kibbutz today is somewhat different. Matvej admits that people leave it and seek employment elsewhere to contribute more to their families. The ideal community has changed, with more people looking to keep the money they earn for themselves rather than the kibbutz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, the kibbutzim in the south of the country were among the first to be targeted. He says he probably didn\u2019t expect such an attack from the people living there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the moment we entered the war, the kibbutz quickly organized itself so that everyone who could contribute in some way helped maintain normal life in a wartime situation,\u201d Matvej recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Younger members cared for older neighbors, bunkers were converted into kindergartens, and the kibbutz\u2019s medical staff formed a field hospital. Matvej, who is an electrician, acquired a generator capable of supplying electricity to about 150 homes. Residents from areas without electricity were relocated to where power was available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe kibbutzim were ideologically created as military bases, the first military bases in Israel, places where the first immigrants came because it was known they would stay there, and most members were armed, and the weapons have remained to this day. We had hidden rooms at various locations where we kept various weapons known only to kibbutz members, for situations like last year,\u201d Matvej says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, times have changed, and some kibbutz members also possess personal weapons. Our interlocutor is one of them. He did not part with his pistol even while speaking with reporter Branimir \u0160ovljanski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere in the kibbutz, alongside all the things we organized, we also have our civil defense, an internal unit where we are divided into those who have weapons and, in case of an attack, everyone knows exactly where to go and we fight. There\u2019s another group involved with medicine who help if someone is injured, and those who know something, a kind of firefighters, who have some machines to clear debris,\u201d Eisenberg explains the wartime division of tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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