David Karol, 72: Devoted kibbutznik was family’s ‘life and soul’
Murdered by Hamas terrorists in his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7
David Karol, 72, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.
The last his family heard from him was around 9 a.m. when he said that he heard terrorists outside and he was going into his safe room. His home was completely burned down in the attack, and his body was not identified until 10 days later. He was buried on October 22 in a temporary burial in Kibbutz Revivim.
He is survived by his partner, Orly Meir, daughter Lior Bar, granddaughters Lea and Romi and his two younger brothers, Moshe and Yigal. David’s son, Harel, died in 2017.
David was born to Turkish immigrant parents and grew up in Ramat Gan, but always wanted to explore kibbutz life, according to a eulogy. At age 16 his parents finally let him move by himself to Be’eri, where he remained for most of the rest of his life.
He enlisted in the army in 1969, serving in the Nahal Brigade, and was later called into reserve duty during the Yom Kippur War, during which he was wounded in his arm. He worked in a number of jobs in the kibbutz over the years, including in carpentry, in the kitchen, and later in the printing house.
David’s nephew, Aaron Kader told the BBC that his uncle “was a huge part of our family, the life and soul of it.”
“He was a larger-than-life character, who had the ability to make us all laugh,” he added.
His cousin, Gali Karol Rozental, paid tribute on Facebook to “my older cousin, older than me by 20 years, but he had a special relationship with us five sisters, like the big brother we never had.”
“To get a hug from Karol (what everyone called him) was like being wrapped in a giant quilt, he was a big kibbutznik and his embrace was always strong, from his whole, wide heart. He loved life, he held on to it even when there were moments that broke him, he would take a deep breath and find the beauty in tending to his garden, in traveling, singing.”
His daughter, Lior, wrote on Memorial Day that she couldn’t help but think about her father’s final thoughts.
“I imagine to myself that you must have worried about me and the girls,” she wrote. “After all, you were an anchor for us and you knew this. I want to believe that you left with the knowledge that everyone really close to you would succeed and keep going with joy in their hearts, between the moments of longing and missing.”
“They will maintain your path of taking care of your plants, your humor, your good food and your attempts not to take things too hard, because ‘what can you do, this is how it is,’ as you always said with your hands in the air,” she added.
Lior said that she mostly wants to believe that the souls of her father, her brother Harel and her late husband Erez “are floating in light and goodness and watching over our hearts, to make sure they will keep beating and being happy in the face of such darkness.”
