Ma’ayana Hershkovitz
Ma’ayana was born in 1958 and raised in the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz, the daughter of Eli and Shoshana Karasanti, Israeli-born members of the kibbutz, and sister to Eli. Shoshana read the unique name in a story in which the heroine’s name was Ma’ayana – the well of the god.
Ma’ayana lived and breathed art from childhood. Her mother was a painter and teacher of art, and her father dealt with sculpture. Over the years, her life always touched on creativity, and in the last years she dealt also with painting, drawing and ceramics. But her primary hobby for years was photography. She tended to photograph scenery, people, and mostly still life. In her youth, Ma’ayana dreamt of studying photography. However, as was customary in that period, she adapted herself to the needs of the kibbutz and studied physical exercise, a field in which she worked until the birth of her oldest daughter, Ella.
When her second daughter, Amit, was born, the small family decided to begin a new life in Kibbutz Be’eri, in which Ma’ayana’s father, Eli, also lived. With the move to Be’eri, she joined the staff for infants and started dealing with management jobs: as the person in charge of infants, person in charge of informal education and others. At the age of 40, Ma’ayana studied for a bachelor’s and master’s degree in business administration and worked at the local council in a variety of organizational jobs, primarily in the field of education.
Ma’ayana was energetic and always aspired to study and create. She loved documentary films, and, in the last years, she was involved in creative writing and planned to continue studies in producing and directing. Her artistic journeys moved from the Art Gallery in the kibbutz and extended to many museums throughout the world. She loved to return again and again to those places since she thought that “great paintings should be viewed more than once.”
Noah and Ma’ayana met in 1975 in Kibbutz Kalia. Noah came with his group of friends and met Ma’ayana who joined the kibbutz for a year of service. Both were young, beautiful, chatterboxes, and full of life, and the fire of love burned between them from their first meeting – a nighttime swim on an off-limits beach at the Dead Sea. Several months later, Ma’ayana was drafted into the Communications Corps and was stationed in Jerusalem. Despite the distance, they continued to nurture their relationship, which was formalized at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha in August 1978 following a nighttime telephone conversation in which Ma’ayana notified Noah that she had fulfilled her military service and that they were going to get married.
Noah and Ma’ayana loved the kibbutz idea, and when they moved to Kibbutz Be’eri in 1986, they felt that they had found their home and called it a special piece of the Garden of Eden. The aspect of their relationship which supported them through the ups and downs of life over the years was their great love. In addition, they shared values and common areas of interest: their love of sports which led them to swim and ride together, love of art and culture, the world of classical music and Land of Israel songs, and the love of handicrafts in which they would combine their skills in the areas of carpentry and art, and almost always for someone else – the children, the grandchildren, nursery schools and the kibbutz school.
In their warm home in Be’eri, in the “border patrol” neighborhood in which Tamir, their third child, was born, a tribe of friends of their age formed. In the common grassy areas in the heart of the neighborhood, children ran around freely and barefoot and felt at home in each of the houses in the neighborhood. Noah and Ma’ayana shared household tasks, and the friends who came in would partake of Noah’s orange cake or Ma’ayana’s wonderful cheesecake.
But more than anything, Noah and Ma’ayana’s lives were dedicated to their children, Ella, Amit, and Tamir, and to their seven loving grandchildren: Amir, Daniel, Oz, Lavie, Ma’ayan, Raz, and Naomi. Noah would play with them and Ma’ayana would spend hours doing creative activities, telling stories and swimming with them in the kibbutz pool. Noah always emphasized to the children the value of a united family, and Ma’ayana was the strong woman who lived life fully and inspired them to flourish and grow.
Noah and Ma’ayana were secular people who lived a life full of faith. Their faith was expressed in the respect that they felt for all people and their ability to respect and see the divine light in everyone.
