A Tel Aviv cafe is a shrine to a man who died in Oct. 7 Hamas attack

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

People in Israel have been trying to process the Hamas attacks of October 7 and the war that followed. Some have protested, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in that war. Other Israelis are finding ways to remember some of the 1,200 people killed October 7, like a woman who opened a cafe to honor her ex-husband, who is named Dvir Karp. Itay Stern reports from Tel Aviv's Cafe Otef.

ITAY STERN, BYLINE: Reut Karp points to a table full of treats that she sells at her coffee shop.

REUT KARP: We also have these confitures and the wine. We have cookies.

STERN: But what looks like an ordinary business is actually a shrine to her ex-husband, Dvir. She points at a painting of a man in an apron.

KARP: It was very important for me to put his - this picture here. He's looking at us.

STERN: Dvir, along with his girlfriend, Stav, was killed on October 7 in their home on Kibbutz Re'im. Dvir and Reut Karp's 10-year-old daughter, Daria, was there the whole time.

KARP: And Daria saw it all. I mean, it was in the hall in front of her. She saw them both getting killed.

STERN: On the day of the attack, Daria, her 9-year-old brother, Lavi, Dvir and Stav heard shooting and bombing outside. They ran into their safe room, a reinforced space found in most Israeli homes. Then the militants walked into the house.

KARP: And that was the moment when Dvir decided to open the door and surprise the terrorists to protect our children. And maybe if Dvir will surprise him with the axe - he took the axe, so he hurt badly one of them. And the other two shot Dvir to death, and they stepped into the safety room.

STERN: They also killed Stav, Dvir's girlfriend. Karp says the militants found Daria hiding under a blanket.

KARP: And she was planning to say, please don't kill me, in English. There was no need to say that because after they removed the blanket, they covered her again.

STERN: When the militants left the room, Daria got on the phone with her mother.

KARP: I want to hear what happened, but I can't let her talk because then someone will hear her and maybe shoot her.

STERN: Karp tells her daughter to get out from under the blanket and hide in the closet.

KARP: And she said, Mom, I cannot hide in the closet. And I said, why not? She said, because if I remove the blanket, I will see the bodies again, Ema (ph). I don't want to see the bodies.

STERN: Karp says she feels lucky. Daria and her brother Lavi survived. According to Israeli officials, 42 children were killed on October 7, and 39 were taken hostage. The residents of Kibbutz Re'im were evacuated to a hotel before moving together into an apartment complex in Tel Aviv.

KARP: The first choice is to cry in bed and to be very sad. I'm an optimistic woman. So for me, it's not even an option. And right after it happened, I've decided that I will do whatever I can to show our kids that life is so powerful.

STERN: Karp knew she wanted to keep Dvir's legacy alive somehow. He was a chocolatier, so she took his recipes and found someone to recreate them.

KARP: I wanted everyone to be familiar with the chocolate, with the great taste that he had. Dvir was a very unique person.

STERN: And that's how Cafe Otef was born. Karp employs members of her kibbutz who work at baristas and behind the chocolate stands, and she says very special people walk in all the time.

KARP: It became, like, a place of Holocaust survivors that come here and hug me and say, we saw you on TV, and we wanted to support you. And I feel that they want me to support them as well. Like, I give them power.

STERN: Karp tells the story of Dvir to anyone who listens, giving them long, tight hugs before they leave Cafe Otef. Otef means embrace in Hebrew.

KARP: You see this? This is our kibbutz. Welcome to our kibbutz. They took a story with them. Even if they don't buy anything, they come here, and they won't step out the same way as they came in.

STERN: They will step out, Karp says, with a piece of her family in their heart. For NPR News, I'm Itay Stern in Tel Aviv.

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