Gal Pauker, 25, grew up around wine. His grandfather, Gideon Pauker, and three of Gideon’s buddies—Gadi Mozes, Haim Perry and Yoram Metzger—started a winery on Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, where they filled about 1,300 bottles a year with fine wine.

It was a joint effort: Gideon planted the vineyard that supplied the grapes, and the friends would harvest together, choose the blend together, and enjoy the wine together.

Then Hamas terrorists attacked the kibbutz on Oct. 7, 2023. Of the four men, only Mozes, 80, the oldest hostage abducted from Nir Oz, survived. He found out his friend Gideon had been killed when he returned from 480 days of Hamas captivity. The other three were murdered either on Oct. 7 or while being held by Hamas.

“Gideon and I have been friends since 1961,” Mozes told JNS in a phone interview. “He came from Nahariya and I came from Hadera and we both moved to Nir Oz. We became very close. We got married together, got divorced together, and had children and grandchildren together.”

They also drank wine together. Mozes said that Gideon Paulker was the spirit behind the winery, and was responsible for the equipment. On weekends, they and their wives hung out frequently, sipping their wine.

Mozes said he often thought about the vineyard when he was in Hamas captivity in Gaza, afraid that it would not be taken care of or had been ruined by the fighting. He recently moved back to Nir Oz and said it’s good to be home, although he sorely misses his friends.

On Oct. 7, Gideon Paulker was murdered by Hamas in his home a week before his 80th birthday. He and his wife, Orna, were in their safe room when Hamas terrorists opened fire. He was left to bleed to death; Orna survived.

At his funeral, a bottle of his wine was put on top of the coffin during the burial service.

His grandson, Gal, grew up on Nir Oz and started working in the winery as a child. After his grandfather was murdered and the kibbutz was evacuated, he moved to Ein HaBesor, a moshav in southern Israel, and opened a winery there where he is producing the current vintage with grapes purchased from other wineries.

Gal has decided to expand his grandfather’s winery and make it a commercial enterprise, selling about 50,000 bottles a year. He has just started studying winemaking at Ariel University.

“I am just trying to make the Paulker winery the highest-quality winery that I can,” he told JNS, adding that he sees the winery as a homage to his grandfather.

“He was a man who enjoyed small pleasures,” Gal said. “He was a man who liked good food and good alcohol, but it was all an excuse to meet new people, and the winery made it easier to connect.”

The first harvest in Nir Oz was in 2008, a labor of love by Gideon Paukner and his friends.

“All of the work was done by friends and relative as well as me and my younger brother Sivan,” Gal relates. “The winery filled by grandfather’s life with joy.”

The wine got better with each successive vintage, he says, as Gideon and his friends learned more about growing the grapes, mixing the blends, and aging the wine.

Along with Gideon getting killed Gal’s brother Sivan was wounded on October 7 and is still recovering. Sivan was at his girlfriend’s house in Kfar Azza when Hamas terrorists came in.

“They shot three bullets through the door of the safe room, and he was wounded in both arms,” he said. “They escaped the house and ran through the kibbutz to her parents’ house. He told her parents how to put on a tourniquet, and he spent eight hours there unti my cousin, who is special forces of the police, rescued them. Sivan was taken by helicopter to Sheba Hospital and spent six months there.”

Gal says that until his grandfather was killed, he never thought he would become a professional winemaker. He and his girlfriend took a post-army trip to Australia and had planned to move to Nir Oz jut before October 7. His father Raz is an agriculturist and Nir had been working with him before Gideon was killed.

“More than a career, my grandfather gave me a way of life,” Gal said. “It started as a way to honor him, and I hope I still am, but it’s become a way of life for me and a career. I see it as a way of moving from past to future.”

He said that every time he returned to Nir Oz to make the wine, he felt more connected to his grandfather. “I have a chance to finish something that my grandfather started and to make it bigger and more professional,” he said. “It is a way to honor my grandfather’s work and his kibbutz.”

He and his girlfriend have just moved back to Nir Oz and plan to build a new winery there.

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