Grassroots literary movement turns October 7 grief into books with new 'Bound in Memory' exhibition

When the scale of the October 7 massacre became clear, editor Dana Naomi Ben Shlomi watched news feeds flood with uniform, clinical digital boxes detailing the names and ranks of the fallen.

To her, these clinical notices felt like reducing a human life to a mere statistic.

“Every single one of them was an entire universe,” Ben Shlomi recalls. “I knew we had to rescue their personal stories from those uniform digital boxes.”

Ben Shlomi launched Kotvim Chaim (“writing life/living writers”), a grassroots initiative pairing bereaved families with writers, editors, and designers to preserve the legacies of those killed.

Today, the volunteer network has grown to over 500 literary professionals. The organization has shepherded 65 memorial books to publication, with another 135 currently in production.

National Library of Israel hosts archive

This profound literary archive is currently taking center stage at the National Library of Israel for an exhibition and commemorative event titled Bound in Memory, showcasing the hundreds of biographies deposited at the library since the outbreak of the war.

Among the newly published works is Hineni (“here I am”), a biography documenting the life of Supt. Dan Ganot.

Ganot was a 41-year-old deputy platoon commander in the Israel Police Directorate for Coordination of Enforcement Operations who rushed toward the unfolding massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri and never returned.

For his mother, Cheli Efrat Ganot, turning her son’s life into a tangible book was an act of profound resistance against the finality of death. “The book is a continuation of Dan’s path,” Ganot says. “The most important thing to me is the message within it – giving unconditional love and friendship.”

Angelica Agabayev, a volunteer writer who knew Dan through mutual friends, penned the book. Translating raw trauma into a cohesive narrative proved to be a grueling journey, requiring a rare hybrid of journalistic rigor and deep psychological sensitivity.

“It wasn’t simple,” Agabayev admits. “Not everyone is ready to open up. Some would start talking and break down. You have to walk on eggshells to preserve the story exactly as it was.”

Book's completion provides a structured anchor for bereaved families

For these families left behind, finishing the book has provided a structured anchor in a sea of grief. Despite the heavy loss, Ganot has used the book as a springboard to reclaim her life, choosing to lecture youth groups about Dan’s values.

“I chose life,” Ganot says. “Dan sowed the strength in me to keep choosing life.”

This is the exact transformation Ben Shlomi hoped to achieve.

“A bereaved family gets to choose the narrative of how their loved one will be remembered,” she says. “In doing so, they keep their light burning.”

The "Bound in Memory" exhibit is on level -2 at the National Library of Israel. For more information, visit: nli.org.il/en/discover/books/7-october-books