Since its founding 18 years ago and especially since the October 7 attacks, the Ortech Defense Systems factory in Kibbutz Karmia, less than 3 miles away from Gaza, has provided crucial technology protecting Israelis from missile fire. Although the technology is ultra-modern, many of the workers in the factory are past the age of retirement, performing their work out of a sense of mission.
“To work these days for a company that deals with protection is to work with a mission—especially here in the western Negev,” Doron Blaish, a 69-year-old metalworker at the factory, told Davar. “It’s unfortunate that the state doesn’t look at it like that and doesn’t help people who need to purchase more bomb shelters. It is unacceptable that in places like Ashkelon there are still homes without shelters.”
In the factory’s workshop shed, Blaish and his 68-year-old coworker Daniel Bildosula cut, drill, screw, and arrange the angled metal rods and connectors that will hold the composite material panels, a unique innovation of the company, which aims to turn a regular room in a building into a bomb shelter.
The two work methodically, facing a screen displaying a 3-D model of the structure of the rooms that will be converted—inside a central Israeli hospital.
Blaish was born and raised on Kibbutz Karmia. “By age 17, I was in charge of the metal workshop,” he said.
He later moved to the northern city of Karmiel and opened a factory employing 170 workers. When that factory failed, he came back to the kibbutz in search of work.
“When I wanted to apply, they said, ‘This is difficult work. Drilling all day, standing on your feet.’ I said, ‘I’m here to work.’ I started as a laborer, but, with time, I improved the work methods using my experience.”
Blaish’s coworker Bildosula grew up in Argentina, where he worked in computer systems. In 1986, he moved to the kibbutz with a group of like-minded young people.
After moving to the kibbutz, Bildosula was assigned to work in the cowshed, where he worked on and off for decades. “When I reached retirement age, they let me go,” he said.
After retiring, Bildosula’s son, who works in the Ortech factory, noticed that his father was “going crazy at home” and invited him to join him in the factory.
“Going to work every day lengthens your life,” Bildosula said. “Work keeps you healthy. We both could have sat at home and not done anything, but what would that do for us? To get to retirement age and stop moving is entirely not to my taste. Doron and I both are hyperactive people.”
Laughing, Blaish noted that Bildosula also plays two hours of tennis every day. “Seventy is the new fifty,” he said. “And even if it’s hard — who said that hard is bad? That’s something else you understand with age, that difficulty builds you up.”
Ortech employs 20 full-time workers, nearly one-quarter of whom are past retirement age. “There’s a tendency to think that it’s better to find young workers, but I like people who come with life experience,” Ortech CEO Ran Naor explained. “Older workers are not in a race to find their next job. They look for stability, a place that will respect their life’s journey, a place to which they can contribute. These are people who promote peace in the workplace. They aren’t reckless, they don’t rush, and they’re not negligent, they really care. Beyond that, for these people, a lot of the time, unfortunately, it’s hard to find a job. In my opinion, it’s not just a purely business matter. There is more to life than business. To give a home to someone who wants to work, who wants to give value, it’s a big deal.”
Of course, some adjustments must be made in order to accommodate older employees. “You can’t expect an older person to lift the same weight off the floor as you can from a young person—so you need to invest more in accessible desks and tables,” Naor said. “But it’s not a frivolous expense to invest in better methods that protect the health of employees, both old and young.”
“During the war, our older workers simply saved the company,” Naor said. Most of the company's younger employees were drafted into long-term military reserve service, as was Naor himself. In response, many volunteers came to work at Ortech, whom the older employees, who had not been drafted, trained and supported.
“This was significant because during the war, demand for our products increased sharply but the workforce decreased,” Naor said.
Within two weeks after October 7, 2023, Blaish called Naor asking to go back to work. “For part of the time the kibbutz was a closed military area and it was impossible to come, but as soon as it was possible, Danny and I came here to work,” Blaish said.
Even after his family was evacuated to Kibbutz Nahsholim in northern Israel, Bildosula stayed on Kibbutz Karmia to continue work at the factory. “We’ve been familiar with this situation of sirens and missiles for 18 years,” he explained. “It doesn't scare us anymore.”
“What’s special about this factory is the personal connections between the staff and the sense of family,” he said.
Blaish described a similar sense. “I await the morning every day to continue working,” he said. “Even at night I think about the factory — what needs to be done, what problems need to be solved. I feel responsible for it.”
This article was translated from Hebrew by Tzivia Gross.
