Keren Or Peled

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