“A Place at the Table” is a commemorative project that documents the favorite dishes of those lost on October 7 with the help of their families.
Every night before Jinky Bolivar goes to bed, she scrolls through her and her late partner Gilad Kfir’s WhatsApp messages. It helps her fall asleep, she says. She reads them over and over, listens to his familiar, calm, and reassuring voice in the voice messages he left her, and looks through the photos and videos they sent each other. In the last ones, he’s preparing his home for her and the daughter they were expecting in December.
Gilad, an engineer at Intel, who lived in Netiv HaAsara, met Jinky through OKCupid. Seven months earlier, she had come from the Philippines to Israel where she worked as a nursing assistant on Midrach OZ in the Jezreel Valley, caring for the woman she affectionately calls “Mama Shoshana.” Jinky sent money back to her family, including her 12-year-old daughter Chloe.
She joined the dating app with the hope of finding a meaningful relationship. In her first conversation with Gilad, he told her he wanted children. She saw he was serious and told him that she also wanted a sibling for Chloe.
They talked on the phone, but each time Gilad asked to visit her at the kibbutz, Jinky refused. She didn’t think it was appropriate for him to visit her at work or travel such a long distance to see her. Instead, she arranged their first meeting for her day off, which coincided with a dentist appointment in Tel Aviv.
Gilad waited for her at the central bus station. She didn’t expect him to hug her, but the moment he wrapped his arms around her, she felt completely at ease, as if she’d known him for years. In that instant, she knew this was the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, she recalls through tears. “Of course, he also drove me to the dentist and waited for me,” she laughs.
They only had nine months together, during which they met once a week on her day off. As they had both hoped, Jinky quickly became pregnant. During their precious moments together, Gilad would pamper her — massaging her feet and cooking for her. Although Gilad asked her to move in with him from the start, but she felt a deep commitment to Mama Shoshaha, the elderly woman she cared for and asked him to wait until their baby was born.
In one of the WhatsApp messages she sent him, Jinky shared a picture of the Yemenite chicken soup she had made with Mama Shoshana. Every Friday morning, Jinky would help her prepare a large pot of soup filled with vegetables and chicken, seasoned generously with hawaij, for her children and grandchildren who came to visit. The vibrant yellow soup reminded Gilad of the one his Yemenite grandmother used to make for him as a child. Although he loved to cook, he struggled to replicate the flavors of the soup. Jinky promised to make it for Gilad after Zoe’s birth, but she never got the chance.
Car racing and photography were Gilad’s two main hobbies, Jinky shares. She was always worried about the car racing, but it was his passion for photography that led him to leave the safe room in his home on the morning of October 7. He went outside to capture images of the armed terrorists who had infiltrated the kibbutz. These were the last pictures he ever took.
Since he was murdered, Jinky moved in with Gilad’s parents in Gan Yavne. Today, she’s preparing the Yemenite soup she promised to make him. Little Zoe is nestled in her grandfather’s arms, gazing curiously at her mother as she works over the steaming pot. Jinky adds a few more potatoes than usual, knowing how much Gilad loved them. She also adds a bouquet of cilantro and scallions, left whole rather than chopped, as she prefers. To put her own spin on the dish, she adds a “magic cube” — a Knorr chicken broth cube from the Philippines. With this Yemeni soup infused with her Filipino touch, Jinky hopes to create the life that Gilad dreamed of for their daughter.
Did you prepare the dish? Share a photo of it and tag it #A_Place_at_the_Table to honor the memory of the late Gilad Kfir.
4-5 onions, peeled and left whole
6 large potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
4 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
4 large zucchinis, roughly chopped
16 pieces (3 pounds) of chicken of your choice (legs, thighs, wings, necks, etc.) totaling 1 kg (2.2 lb)
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch scallions (green part only)
1 tablespoon Hawaij spice mix for soup
4 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder
To serve:
Fine egg noodles
- Place the onions with the coarsely chopped potatoes, carrots, and zucchinis in a large pot. Add enough water to cover and bring to a boil
- Add the chicken and bring the mixture back to a boil.
- Using a spoon, skim off any foam or scum that rises to the surface.
- Tie the cilantro and scallions into a bouquet and add to the pot along with the Hawaij and bouillon powder.
- Reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pot, and simmer until the chicken and vegetables are tender, about 1½ hours. Add more boiling water during cooking, if necessary.
- When the soup is ready, remove the cilantro and scallion bouquet, add the noodles, and cook until they are done. (Alternatively, cook the noodles separately and serve with the soup.) Enjoy immediately.* This recipe remains true to the family recipe. No modifications were made.
