הפוסט Event Lounge הופיע לראשונה ב-חזית הבית.

Art has been an integral part of the Hangar since the very first day. A car arrived, a young and graceful painter stepped out, and handed over her original artworks. An hour later, a young family from the border area entered and chose from the paintings that had just arrived. It seemed as though the paint had not yet dried on the canvas—just as the tears were still flowing down the cheek of the young mother who had lost her home but chose to begin rebuilding her life by selecting art for her wounded soul.

This was one of the first posts shared by Home Front. Proof that art comes before a microwave. That the soul, despite the terrible upheaval it endured, is still intact—it seeks comfort. It seeks healing.

The Hangar doors were first opened by Orly Robinson, the founder, together with her partner, Ted Barr, an artist working with the FLY technique around the world. Art is their way of life. It was clear that a Hangar without art is like an unseasoned dish—lacking emotion and soul.

Today, art occupies a central place in the Hangar. Significant spaces are dedicated to it, including Ted’s studio, which invites entire communities to participate in the creative process; an art department offering families a wide range of artworks donated to the Hangar; the initiative’s original art collection; and art installations scattered throughout the Hangar.

Art is at the heart of the initiative. It provides added value and is defined as one of its core principles.

הפוסט The Studio הופיע לראשונה ב-חזית הבית.

Aviv Kopler

“Color is power, energy, vibration—and definitely therapeutic… and I needed it”.

After closely accompanying 17 evacuated families whose homes were burned, whose family members were kidnapped or murdered, I understood the need for shades that air out the soul. Light, airy, colorful furniture… I felt that one colorful piece of furniture brings light and color back into the lives of evacuees.

Color truly is a mood.

Balance and calm wear green.
Sensuality and creativity wear orange…

I opened the paint studio at Home Front. Every piece of furniture that passed through my hands and was taken the next day helped me understand the powerful energy that color gives to the souls of evacuees—how smiles return to their faces. And along the way, of course, I treated my own aching soul. Color returned to my life.”

הפוסט Upcycling הופיע לראשונה ב-חזית הבית.

The guiding values of The Home Front project are sustainability and preservation. From this place, the Hangaria (Hangar + Carpentry Workshop) was established—drawing talented people from all fields who chose to volunteer in restoring damaged furniture and multi-dimensional construction within the hangar.

We almost exclusively use materials and tools that arrived at the Hangar, were collected and sorted—materials that hold great abundance. The handyman team tries to save every piece of furniture by applying knowledge, talent, and creativity.

We are essentially the emergency room and hospital for furniture: bandaging, stitching, and transplanting organs. The Hangaria is also a maternity ward for furniture, creating new products from old raw materials. Over time, and with the help of talented people, we perform restoration, painting, and reupholstery.

Furniture that passes through the Hangaria gains a personal touch and love.

With awareness of special needs, we also adapt furniture for specific cases—sometimes through shared, empowering work with families, strengthening initiative, decision-making, and responsibility that are not self-evident after traumatic events.

It moves me every time to see how families immediately sense which piece of furniture received an extra dose of love—and choose it instantly. The furniture rehabilitation process is accompanied by healing and mending the personal fractures of each team member.

For me, the Hangaria is the magical corner of the Hangar—a refuge from a complex reality, a place that draws special and beloved people. A place where our handiwork fills physical and emotional spaces with light.”

Moti Atia

“This is the place where tired, damaged, trembling, and frightened furniture arrives. Sometimes missing a leg, a door, a shelf—or simply lifeless. Here they undergo a full rehabilitation process, including reinforcement, replacement of damaged parts, completion of missing elements, and even refreshing cosmetic treatment.

Chair legs that were on their way to the trash also arrive here and are transformed into tiny tables for plants or decorative items. The work is done by top handymen with golden hands and pure souls.

From here, the furniture leaves refreshed and beautiful, bringing joy to families and giving them a sense of home. And when you see the wide smile of a family member with a lovingly restored piece of furniture in the background—there is no greater feeling. There is no greater joy than being part of the great light that the Home Front initiative spreads into the world.”

Gideon Dotan

When searching for the term “front” on the website of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, it is defined as a feminine noun referring to the front side (of a house, a vehicle, a body, etc.), the front line of an army in war, or figuratively, an alliance between people for joint action. I found this definition concise and precise.

For me, the activity at the Home Front Hangar represents a place of action born from a genuine desire to contain, help, and heal within the chaos following October 7th and the overall situation in the country.

Fracture and Repair

Within the great rupture we are experiencing, amid constant pain and loss, the willingness to act, the containment, and the giving of Home Front activists create a space of repair—physical, emotional, and ideological.

On a practical and material level as well, this is a place where repair, reuse, recycling, and re-purposing of existing objects are possible through imagination, will, ability, and talent.

Agents of Change

But above all, what connects me most is the partnership. Change begins with action, without excessive talk. In the Hangar, I find a unifying spirit of positive action for others. There is no divisive or toxic discourse, no “us and them,” no politics—only all of us together. We all act. We all help.

This spirit rests upon us all. We are all agents of change, contributing our skills and together creating meaningful transformation.

Giora Keller

“I began volunteering with Home Front as a handyman in early November 2023, and recently transitioned to assisting with computers and information.

My activity at Home Front makes me feel that life has meaning. I feel that I contribute and help others in times of distress, which gives me a deep sense of fulfillment.

Meeting the other volunteers is an experience of encountering the beautiful, good people of Israel.  Belonging to the Home Front family—the extended, loving, wonderful family—is a rare privilege.

The stories of the families who turn to us and their responses fill the heart and are deeply moving.The leadership, drive, and push of Orly Robinson—for whom nothing stands in the way—are a challenge I enjoy facing.”
Electrical engineer, IDF retiree, age 80

הפוסט The “Hangaria” הופיע לראשונה ב-חזית הבית.

Ilana

My slogan for the initiative is: Packing lots of love, with great love.
When I am broken, hurting, worried, and barely functioning, I drive to the Hangar. The moment I walk in, I receive inexplicable superpowers. My heart fills with endless love and giving.

There is no other place in the world I would rather be these days.

Each one of our amazing volunteers radiates so much love that it feels like the most beautiful and comforting place in the world.

The worry for my son, for the hostages, and for all the other soldiers has consumed every good part of my soul.

This initiative and its volunteers are the only things that calm me, heal me, and give me strength and hope.

Every day I am grateful for the privilege of getting to know all the wonderful volunteers, who have become so important in my life.

Thank you for your blessed initiative.

With such an incredible group, it’s impossible to fall. I love you all with all my heart. I pray for better days and that after this terrible darkness, a great light will rise. I will continue to pack lots of love, with great love, until the light comes.

Aviva

I kept hearing nonstop about the Home Front initiative from my son and daughter-in-law, who volunteer there. So the moment I retired, I told them: ‘Fine, you’ve worn me down — now I’m coming to volunteer too.’

On my first day at the Hangar, Ilana, who was the regular packer on Tuesdays, couldn’t make it. I offered to fill in for her for one day, and since then, she and I have become the permanent Tuesday packing team.

When I pack kitchenware and fragile items for families, I feel that I’m giving them a sense of security after such a deep emotional fracture, beyond the physical damage their homes experienced.

I started volunteering in July, and I’ll never forget how hot it was. I was warned about the heat, but it still caught me by surprise. The even bigger surprise was the sense of fulfilment at the end of the workday.

Now, every Tuesday morning I wake up excited to go to the Hangar!

Sylvie

I started volunteering on Thursdays — ‘Donation Day’. I’m proud to tell everyone that The Home Front is a place of hope, mutual responsibility, smiles from ear to ear, action, mutual respect, and lending a hand when needed.

I’m deeply moved by the amazing people who choose to part with their belongings for the sake of others, by the volunteers who act with an indescribable force — an immense power that fills every corner of the Hangar — and finally by the families and individuals, those with the colored ribbons (few arrive on Donation Day), who express gratitude for the initiative and the help, and leave smiling.

I return home filled with healthy air and a full soul. Full of hope for our people.

Marilyn

The Home Front is the place where I come to do my small part in helping my people, who have lost so much over the past year. Every time I come — unfortunately only once a week — I am happy to see all the good people of our nation helping and giving with all their hearts.

On the other hand, I am saddened by the need for Home Front and by what has happened to our people in so many ways over the past year, both from outside and from within.

But above all, The Home Front gives me hope for the future — with people who build and take part in a project like this, we can only be okay.

Meital

“The Home Front Hangar, for me, is a breath of air in a time when my beliefs and foundations were shattered.

It is a place to meet and get to know experience the people who were most deeply affected.

It is seeing and speaking with the most generous and sensitive people who donated their very best possessions to the initiative.

It is embracing and standing alongside the most wonderful people there are — who came to give of their energy, their time, their talents, and their smiles to ease the burden of those in need (and, like me, also themselves).

The Hangar is a place of hope.

The Hangar is belonging and home.

הפוסט Packing הופיע לראשונה ב-חזית הבית.

Mai

The Children’s Department is filled with games, dolls, toys, and books. Young parents come here, large families, pregnant women, grandparents — and of course, boys and girls. Parents are invited to choose items to decorate and enrich a child’s room or corner of the home, as well as gifts and joyful surprises to delight the children.

When children come with their parents on collection day at the Hangar, they can spend time in this space while their parents move through the different departments — playing, drawing, wandering, discovering, and choosing for themselves the games that excite and interest them most. The children leave for their new place of residence with a bag full of wonderful things that belong to them and are meant especially for them.

Volunteering in the Children’s Department of The Home Front sometimes means being immersed in a sea of games and dolls for all ages and in all shapes — but from that, creating order, sorting, reorganizing, and making accessible all that children love. Along the way, you come across the sweetest items and learn to see value in the smallest things that warm the heart. The Children’s Department grants volunteers, families, and children moments of innocence, excitement, joy, and goodness.

הפוסט Children’s Department הופיע לראשונה ב-חזית הבית.

Meital Sivan Sheni

“Over the past year, the Home Front Hangar has received, among other things, items that together form a complete mosaic of the Israeli home almost since the founding of the State. We felt it was right and fitting to present this wonderful collection as a gallery within the hangar. For each person, the concept of the ‘Israeli home’ evokes a different association and a different memory. The collection itself was formed through donations from various places and people, so it truly encompasses many styles:

• Collections of tableware and porcelain that made aliyah with grandparents from England, Germany, Poland, and more 
• Crystal and glassware 
• Dining-room utensils and memories from the kibbutzim 
• A selection of ceramic and utilitarian vessels from the finest ceramic factories in Israel 
• A beautiful representation of Murano glass 
• Items that featured prominently in homes during the 1980s and 1990s 

All of these are combined with furniture, artworks, and textiles identified with different periods.

I believe that every family that comes to the Hangar, even those who are not necessarily vintage enthusiasts, had something like these items at home – a home that was destroyed, one they were forced to leave, or one they cannot return to for various reasons. Sometimes they choose to adopt an item that was once in their home and lost; sometimes they choose to go in another direction, one that does not awaken memories. But the sight of these items always sparks conversation and nostalgia, and there is no doubt that this is something worth preserving.

On a personal note, I am a vintage enthusiast and work with vintage in various aspects of my profession. As a kibbutz member all my life, working with vintage allowed me to express myself in a different, unique way. At the beginning of my journey at the Hangar, I accompanied families in the extended track that existed at the time, which included a visit to the temporary apartment, a day of collecting items at the Hangar, and a day of arranging the items in the apartment. The collection stage was very challenging, as it required synchronizing the available inventory, the family’s taste and wishes, and my own eye, which sought even in this situation to create a space that would feel as complete, harmonious, and home-like as possible.

After a short break, I returned to the Hangar, this time as part of the team responsible for the Vintage Gallery – both the sorting of the contents and collection and the manner of its presentation and curation. I feel this is currently the most fitting way for me to contribute my knowledge and understanding of vintage that I have acquired over the years.”

Ran Arnon

“A collection from the past accumulated in the Hangar 
Utensils, cabinets, people from another time 
A story here, a story there 
An object that reminds you of Grandma 
A doll that recalls childhood 
A dialogue that brings forgotten things back.

Our collection is a gathering of both objects and memories – from childhood, to Grandma’s house, from the greengrocer to the kibbutz dining hall.

When you look at a pitcher, you see both what it contains and what it symbolizes. The shape, weight, and material are merely triggers that awaken what you keep deep inside.

The collection is deep emotions coming out, inviting you on a journey – a journey you arrive at and continue from the moment you enter the hangar.”

הפוסט Vintage הופיע לראשונה ב-חזית הבית.