Meital R. Fishman | December 20, 2024 | Translated February, 2025
On October 7th, members of ELEM’s Anashim Tovim (Good People) project arrived at the Nova Festival to set up a safe and supportive space for young partygoers, just as they had done at dozens of other nature raves and festivals before. But of the nine team members who came to volunteer that day, only six returned home.
“It is a privilege to give back to the community where I grew up,” says Anashim Tovim (Good People) Director Moshe Elad, who survived the Nova Festival and has now returned to work. In the next two weeks, ELEM will launch a campaign designed to illustrate the plight of Israeli youth in the past year, and to raise funds for projects to support survivors of the Nova Festival and victims of the war in the south.
A Partnership with ELEM
Anyone who has been a part of the rave community—also known as the trance community—over the last fourteen years knows them well: the young people wearing bright blue shirts boldly displaying “Ish Tov (Good Guy)” or “Isha Tova (Good Woman)” across the front. Hardly a month goes by without them showing up to at least one party somewhere in Israel.. They spread out rugs, blankets, or chairs near the dance floor to create a safe and quiet space for festival attendees. These Anashim Tovim (Good People)—who volunteer their time to work with festival youth—offer support and assistance to anyone who is in crisis or has been negatively impacted by the use of mind-altering substances, sometimes even continuing to provide care after the party ends.
The safe spaces at raves are a tradition that dates back to music festivals in the United States in the 1960s. In recent years, their significance has been increasingly recognized, and they are gaining momentum all over the world at nature parties, raves, and major festivals. In Israel, this tradition was first established by festival attendees who were familiar with the street outreach volunteers at ELEM, known for their fieldwork among at-risk youth.
“We took the ELEM working principles and adapted them to the world of parties,” explains Amit Perelson, ELEM’s Manager of the Northern Region. Perelson says that since the tragic death of young Tohar David in 2017, ELEM’s volunteers have been attending parties and asking the production teams to have an ambulance on-site. “We are not a medical presence,” he emphasizes. “The idea is to build a relationship with youth. If there is a young man or woman who needs rehabilitation, we will help them get there, but the goal itself is not rehabilitation—it’s establishing a relationship.”
Everyone understands the need for this space.
One of the most well-known figures in the Israeli trance community is Moshe Elad, 33, who has since become the director of ELEM’s Anashim Tovim (Good People) project. “I’ve been in the scene since I was 17, and I really like the community. The people of Anashim Tovim (Good People) were part of my journey both in India and when I returned to Israel for parties. I studied the field of therapy and treatment, and entered this professional world that intrigued me.”
Elad started as a volunteer in the Anashim Tovim (Good People) project, after which he was appointed coordinator. “Our role is to create a safe space for young people who have anxiety attacks and stressful experiences after consuming mind-altering substances. We come from a position of minimizing harm. Education against drugs does not help. Giving information, listening, just being with the young people at these parties, it helps. We are the responsible adults: not a condescending authority figure, not a pimp, not a drug dealer.”
And there is no suspicion towards you?
“Perhaps there was, but only at the beginning, when the project was first established. It is important to understand that in order to enter the parties, you have to know the audience, to convince them that our project is necessary. Today it’s the event producers, who are in the rave communities themselves, who invite us. Everyone understands the need for this space, where there is someone who is not trying to sell you something,” Elad says.
The Anashim Tovim (Good People) project has become an integral part of nature parties and festivals in Israel, as a direct result of ELEM’s core principles, which emphasize fieldwork and building close, trusting relationships with youth in an equal way. “In the psychedelic world, there is a highly developed process of initiation. For every person who enters the community, there is someone who accompanies them. This is the production team’s way of taking responsibility for the people they are bringing in.”
Nine Anashim Tovim (Good People) went out to Nova—only six returned.
Few people know that on the day before the Nova Festival—one of the focal points of the October 7th massacre—another rave in the same community, called Unity, took place in Kibbutz Re’im. “We received a call to come to both parties. Because we didn’t have the resources to go to both, we decided to go to Nova, as we already knew this festival well,” says Elad.
The decision to prioritize the Nova Festival turned out to be fateful. It was also significant for Elad himself, who was supposed to receive the baton from his predecessor, Ma’ayan, to assume the position of project manager, after four years as the coordinator of the Anashim Tovim (Good People) project.
Like everyone else at the party, Elad and his team heard the rockets and Red Alert warnings at 6:30 AM. At this point, the team split into two—some stayed to help partygoers who were experiencing alarms and missiles under the influence of psychedelic substances, while the others, including Elad, began breaking down the equipment and preparing to leave. When they realized they were being targeted by terrorists, the team split up, each person running in different directions.
When they returned to the car, they discovered Sigal Levy (z”l) and Lior Hadad Attias (z”l) shot and lifeless. The body of Yonatan Richter (z”l) was found a few days later after he was initially declared missing. Elad says that all three of them helped people at the festival until their last breath—literally.
You’ve gone from a team of people in the rave scene, to Nova survivors yourself. How do you cope?
“Everyone who survived the incident in the team copes in a different way. My friends from outside the team were murdered, and other friends are still in captivity. What helps me is to talk, to be supported, and to go to therapy. My team helps me. It helps me to go back to dancing. My return to parties was gradual. First I went back to listening to music at home, then I started going to events and places I trust.”
The return to life of the party community in Israel
After less than six months, Elad also returned to his field work in ELEM as the new manager of the Anashim Tovim (Good People) project. “This is my workplace. It is my privilege to give back to the community where I grew up,” he says, explaining the decision to return to work.
Under Elad’s leadership, the “Anashim Tovim” (Good People) project has evolved and expanded its activities. Elad has begun lecturing at conferences and supporting community members in their rehabilitation through Yuvalim: The 10.7 Survivors Project. The project was created to assist survivors of the Nova Festival and young survivors from the Gaza perimeter. “As part of the project, our coordinators accompany survivors who need personal contact, but find it difficult to be in touch, to return to parties, to return to life.”
Amit Perelson expands: “Our part in Yuvalim: The 10.7 Survivors Project* is designed to reach all those who find it difficult to access a supportive place. The survivors received some kind of treatment from National Insurance, but it is not easy to get treatment and build trust with the person who is giving the treatment. We come from a place that understands and knows the festival scene. Through our connections, we can help them survivors access the services that the state provides. We haven’t met a young man or woman who didn’t want to talk, they just need to find the right person.”
Two months ago, we learned about the community’s difficulties after the Nova survivor Shirel Golan (z”l) took her own life on her twenty-second birthday. “There are different types of survivors,” Perelson clarifies. “Quite a few people are carrying difficulties even from before October 7. One of the critical things is the support from the immediate environment, and from the state. Many survivors lack a family or support system, making their recovery journey very difficult. Our job is to help those people who are not receiving support.”
*Yuvalim: The 10.7 Survivors Project is managed by ELEM in cooperation with Israel’s National Insurance Institute, the Ministry of Welfare, and the Yated initiative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, in partnership with more than a dozen other participating organizations.
This article originally appeared in Hebrew on Ynet at https://www.ynet.co.il/activism/article/hkh0once1g
