Those We Have Lost

Menuha Chulati, 75: ‘Beloved teacher’ and grandmother

Murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7

Menuha Chulati (Courtesy)
Menuha Chulati (Courtesy)

Menuha Chulati, 75, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7.

She and her husband, Yisrael, lived in side-by-side homes inside the kibbutz. After more than 24 hours, Yisrael was rescued by IDF soldiers only to find out that his wife had been burned alive in her home. His daughter told the Walla news site that he left with a suitcase full of both of their medication that was riddled with shrapnel.

“He told [the soldiers] he had to go to mom,” said their daughter Einat. “They wouldn’t let him. He started to go and he saw her. What did he see? It’s better not to say.”

After her body was eventually evacuated and identified, she was buried on October 18 in Givat Brenner. She is survived by her husband, Yisrael, two children, Yuval and Einat, and four grandchildren.

She was recalled as a lifelong educator, devoted to her pupils, and a wonderful mother and grandmother.

Her former student, Liat Levi, wrote on Facebook that Chulati was “the reason that I finished school! Always supported, helped, embraced — there are people in this world who leave a mark on you for your whole life, Menuha was one of them… you will always stay in my heart, but now my heart is broken and shattered.”

Her granddaughter, Ilona Chulati, who was rescued from the nearby Nahal Oz after 18 hours, told Haaretz that she was in touch with both her grandparents that Saturday morning until the connection was cut midday. “I was very close to them,” she said. “When I was born they were 49, so I experienced them also at a relatively young age for grandparents.”

At a memorial ceremony for the kibbutz movement in mid-November, Yisrael recounted how they settled as a family in Kissufim in 1976 and became integral members of the small kibbutz.

“She was a beloved and appreciated teacher by hundreds of students,” he said, noting that she also served for a period as kibbutz community manager “with the sensitivity, empathy and pleasantness that characterized her.” She was also, he said, “an incredible wife, mother and grandmother.”

Yisrael recounted that one of their granddaughters said that “when they were little, you would hold them by the hand on trips around the kibbutz.” In later years, he said, “You asked them to hold on to your hand because it was hard for you to walk… That’s how it was supposed to be. We were supposed to hold onto your hand until you were ready to let go of us, but they tore you away from us and they didn’t give us a chance to look into your eyes again and realize how much you loved us.”

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