The Tribe of Nova Association — representing the survivors and families of victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova music festival in southern Israel — will open a community center to provide services and support in Netanya, Israel, by the end of the year, following a $2 million donation from UJA-Federation of New York, the organizations announced on Monday.

The UJA New York Nova House, projected to cost nearly $3 million, will provide rehabilitation, sports, cultural activities and workforce development to a community spanning an estimated 3,500 survivors and 2,500 immediate family members of those killed in the attack; 411 festival goers, most of them young people, and 17 police officers were killed at the festival site outside of Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel. The bulk of the project’s funding was provided by UJA-Federation with the support of additional donors, including the Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation, Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the Iranian American Jewish Federation of New York. 

UJA-Federation has collaborated with Tribe of Nova Association on numerous occasions, providing $4 million to those impacted by the Nova Music Festival massacre and for the Nova exhibit in Manhattan. According to Eric Goldstein, UJA-Federation’s CEO, when UJA-Federation was approached with details of the project, the decision to support it seemed obvious. 

“You see how much this community craves and benefits by being together,” Goldstein told eJewishPhilanthropy. “This can make an enormous difference for a large group of people who experienced deep trauma. This is, one of many, but an important way of supporting Israel in this critical moment.” 

The 10-acre campus — which will include a community center, treatment rooms and cultural facilities —- will be located in the Ilanot Arboretum, a 15-minute drive from Netanya’s railway station. The site will also include memorials and a mini museum akin to the Nova exhibition, for visiting groups from within Israel and abroad, and will be the permanent home for the Tribe of Nova Association’s programming, which was taking place in a park in Tel Aviv prior. 

According to Reef Peretz, chairman of the Tribe of Nova Foundation, the lack of a permanent location has made it difficult to expand the organization’s programming, which include community gatherings and healing workshops.  

“Since October 2023, we have operated in temporary spaces, but a permanent House is crucial for the long-term healing and recovery of our Nova survivors,” Peretz said in a statement.