Pesi Cohen
Pesi was born in Magdiel (today, Hod Ha Sharon) on March 6, 1955. Her parents, the late Pnina and Shlomo Weisblatt, Holocaust survivors from Poland, met and married in Israel. They had three children: Hanna, Dani, and Pesi, their youngest daughter. Pnina was a housewife and Shlomo was one of the founders of Tnuva, and worked there all his life. At home, they spoke Yiddish. As is the custom in traditionally observant households, they celebrated the Jewish holidays and kept kosher. Their home was a modest and pleasant one, in which they behaved respectfully and courteously towards each other.
Pesi always spoke of a happy childhood in a house with a yard full of toys that her father built. Like all her friends, she collected napkins, perfume bottles, and tiny dolls. She played all the classic Israeli childhood games—‘Hakafot’ and hide-and-seek, ‘Machanaim’ and ‘Salted Fish’—with friends in the neighborhood. She especially loved the Shavuot holiday—the blintzes, the water fights between the neighborhood children, and the abundant joy.
Pesi was a good girl-shy, modest, friendly, and very loved. She was a tall, blonde-haired beauty with eyes as blue as the sea. She studied in a religious elementary school, majored in fashion at Orot High School and was a youth movement counselor for Noar Ha Oved (The Federation of Young Students and Workers). One of her greatest pleasures in life was going on trips around the country. But in her youth and throughout her younger years, Pesi was, first and foremost, aunt to the children of her beloved sister and her soul mate, Hanna. She was always happy to help her sister when her children were small, especially during the long periods when her brother-in-law, Zizi, was in the reserves and absent from home.
In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, she served in the Sinai as a clerk in the 79th Armored Regiment of the 14th Brigade. After the army, she was a swimwear model for Gideon Oberson. Her children recall that she was embarrassed to discuss this chapter of her life. Pesi was one of the founding members of Kibbutz Moran in the Galilee. At a kibbutz movement singles event in Ashkelon, she met Rafi (now deceased) and fell in love. Pesi fancied building their home in Moran, but Rafi was attracted to Kibbutz Be’eri and he won out.
They married in May 1979 in a grand kibbutz wedding that included the marriage of four other couples (Naomi and Daniel Alon, Ronit and Larry Plotkin, Tsila and Zafrir Keren, and Revital and Doron Talmor). Four children were born to Pesi and Rafi - two girls and two boys. Shay was born in 1980, followed by Hila (in 1981) and Keren (in 1984). Guy, their youngest, was born in 1994. Pesi was an ever-present mother. She watched over them all with a soft and loving hand. She was dedicated, and quite significant to them all.
In those years, Pesi progressed professionally as well. She enrolled in the Kibbutzim College of Education and began teaching crafts and sewing in the local Be’eri school. For years, she was also a caregiver in Be’eri classrooms. The role of the caregiver back then was hugely important. Pesi formed strong relationships with the youth she worked with, even with those considered highly problematic. Years later, after they had matured into good people, they sought out Pesi’s children, eager to acknowledge how their mother had succeeded with them where others had not. Pesi paved the way into every heart, and they loved her in return.
At the time of the ‘Rakefet Class’ gala, Pesi, pregnant with Guy, was lying in Soroka Hospital under a doctor’s strict bed-rest orders. But when she decided she could not possibly miss her students’ special event she had Rafi sneak her out of the hospital in her hospital gown. She changed clothes on the way and stepped on stage while experiencing mounting labor contractions. Not long after, she gave birth to Guy.
Pesi completed her next project with Iris Gelbard. Together, they founded a handicrafts club for the senior kibbutzniks. Morning classes and afternoon classes were launched. After Iris, her dear friend and co-partner, passed away, the talented Pesi renamed the club "Iris House" in her loving memory. Pesi managed the shop for many years and was the life force of Iris House, which became an artistic outlet for golden-agers -- a magical place where older people gathered to paint, sculpt, sew, and embroider. Pesi showered love and patience on everyone who worked there, celebrated everyone’s birthday, and showcased their lovely fabric and wood handiwork in the 'Shai-li' shop she helped establish, which quickly became popular. Pesi was so proud that the club’s creations delighted children and decorated kids’ rooms and baby prams. With the shop key in her bag, Pesi answered calls from customers near or far, and opened the shop at any hour.
Her daughters say that after missile attacks, when they discussed leaving the kibbutz, Pesi would ask: How can I evacuate? What about Iris House? And what will happen to the elders?
The years passed, the children married, and ten grandchildren were born. All of them chose to live in Be’eri. Pesi was a dearly loved grandmother, a daily presence in her family’s lives. "Savtusheet," her teenage granddaughters called her, a Hebrew nickname they coined especially for her. They loved coming to her; they came after school to be pampered by their grandmother or to complain about their parents; she knew the right words to calm them. In her role as "taxi driver," Pesi readily chauffered grandson or granddaughter upon request, making sure she shared quality time with every one of her grandchildren.
The sudden death of the Rafi in 2016 was a fateful crisis point. Hila attests: "After the death of our father, Mother had two options - to live or not live. She chose life, and we were with her." Pesi gathered the pieces and found the strength to volunteer on the Kibbutz council, work with childless seniors, sing with the "Parliament of the Valley," exercise and swim, keep fit, and renew and fortify ties with friends from every period of her life. She had many groups of friends and was active in them all: the group from Kibbutz Moran, the group from The Israel National Trail, the groups she traveled with, the "eight" from Be’eri, six of whom were murdered on that Black Sabbath, and of those, the "trio" - Yona, Mazi, and Pesi--close, brave, life-long friends. They loved being together, took care of each other, and stuck by each other’s side as they wandered the remote places of the world: Namibia, India, Mexico, and Vietnam, and also to Dahab and to Sharm they traveled, and often it was Hanna, Pesi's sister, and Shosh (Sharon's mother), who encouraged them to go and enjoy.
On the eve of Simchat Torah, they were all together in the Be’eri synagogue, and after, the family gathered, as always, for Friday night dinner. Hanna, her husband Yitzhak (Zizi), and their son Tal were there to celebrate with them. They danced and sang around the big table on the balcony, in the family dining room—which, only two months earlier, was expanded and enclosed so nicely. The next day, Saturday, at 6:30 in the morning, when the alarms sounded, Pesi entered the safe room with her sister and family. Pesi messaged and spoke with her children and friends. When she wrote that the terrorists were inside the house, Shoham, her grandson, wrote back that the terrorists had also reached them. At 12:56, she texted that she loved him and said goodbye-to him and all her children and grandchildren. Pesi understood it was the end and disconnected.
Her children later learned that all the neighbors were massed together on her balcony, and only one kibbutz member remained alive to tell what happened in those last moments. How sad that Pesi and Hanna, who never separated, died together, and with them, her brother-in-law Zizi and her nephew, Tal.
Pesi was a modest and strong woman with a tremendous heart. She loved to help. She always saw the glass as half full. Pesi was loved and respected in the Be’eri community. She was honest and straightforward, true to herself. She radiated goodness, and that goodness enveloped everyone around her. She was all about giving. Her words resonate with those left behind: "Don't expect that what you give to others will be given to you in return. Give with all your heart and be happy."
This was Pesi's will to her children - Shai and Sharon, Hila and Kobi, Keren and Itai, Guy and Danielle, and to her grandchildren - Shir, Shoham, Shenhav, Snir, Yahli, Daria, Tohar, Romi, Ori and Goni.
May her memory be a blessing.
