October 7, the morning of Simchat Torah, will now forever be remembered as the beginning of one of the most horrific ordeals in recent history.
Thousands were senselessly murdered as they prepared to rejoice with their families. More than 200 innocent people were taken hostage by the Hamas terrorist organization, tens of thousands have been displaced, their homes desecrated or erased from existence, and millions around the world are feeling anguish as this military and political war enters its third grueling week.
The victims of that fateful Saturday, and those who continue to endure the pain and suffering at the hands of Hamas, are not a statistic or faces and names on a poster. Each victim of these horrendous acts of terror is an entire world in itself, a singular soul that positively impacts countless lives. Judaism’s steadfast belief that every life is precious, that every soul is a gift, is a guiding principle as we embark on the long road to be made whole again.
While the light of the victims of terror and their families may have dimmed, it will never be extinguished. Each soul that has been lost, and those who remain abducted by Hamas, are etched into the collective consciousness of the story of the Jewish people and will continue to be a source of strength.
These are the people behind the faces on the hostage posters, as told by the survivors and their families, who pray for the safe return of their loved ones.
Evyatar David
Galia David sits with her family around their kitchen table in Kfar Saba, reminiscing about the recent family vacation in Italy during the Jewish holidays just a few weeks earlier, with her husband, Avishay, and three children – Ilay, 26, Evyatar, 22, and Ye’ela, 18.
“It had been such a long time since we had been able to arrange a family vacation, and when we found a window of opportunity we took it. Evyatar kept trying to get us to go to Zanzibar, but in the end we succeeded in planning a trip to Italy. The best part was the fact that we were all together,” says Galia with a smile, a pinnacle moment for any mother with three adult children.
But behind that smile, there is a deep sadness in her eyes. “Evyatar had just gotten a new iPhone… and could not stop taking pictures. We took a few, but he was really the one that captured the memories from the trip.”
They are memories that now can only be pictured in her head, as her son was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza on October 7 when terrorists invaded the Supernova music festival in the Negev. For months, Evyatar had been looking forward to this celebration of life, love, and music.
Despite his quiet demeanor, his family says, Evyatar radiates a captivating magnetism that draws in everyone around him, with his deep passion to live life to the fullest.
“Evyatar brightens our lives and those of everyone around him,” Avishay, an osteopath and paramedic with United Hatzalah, explains about his son. “There’s always music. He and his siblings can play for hours on end. He’s a real charmer.”
On most Friday evenings, after Shabbat dinner, Evyatar would passionately strum his guitar, while Ilay accompanied him on the piano and Ye’ela on vocals, enveloping their home in soulful music. There is an introspective pause as each family member forgets, for just one blissful second. The deafening absence of that music has consumed their home.
Evyatar, still uncertain about his life’s direction, had been considering the possibility of furthering his studies in music education or production. But above all else, his family says, he is someone simply filled with a sense of wanderlust and a desire to see the world.
And while they admit that he rarely got up before noon on weekends, they say he would make sure to live every day to the fullest. With many countries left to check off his travel list, his brother says his top two are Zanzibar and Thailand.
Although he could not convince his family to travel to Zanzibar on their recent vacation, Evyatar – whose birthday is coming up in December – had plans to go to Thailand in the coming months, a proverbial rite of passage for many young Israelis as they venture into the world.
Touted by his siblings as the best English speaker among the three, Evyatar shared his passion for Israel and the global Jewish community on three Birthright trips. “He just loves [the participants’] energy, and he told me how the Americans get excited about every little thing they experience. How they love to celebrate, going out every night, and he loved to celebrate with them,” a reflection of his own ability to see the beauty in everything around him, says Ye’ela.
“That’s what he’s all about. He loves to meet people from around the world, and young people who have so much life to them,” Ilay adds.
The Supernova music festival embodied the essence of Evyatar’s being – to love one another, preserve the environment, spread the love of electronic music, and create a genuine connection to a socio-artistic ideology.
“Evyatar went there to celebrate. He’s a person who empowers others, who loves people. These terrorists came and committed [atrocities] that we, as human beings, truly cannot begin to fathom,” says Galia as she fights to keep herself composed.
She learned of Evyatar’s fate from a man named Ephraim, the last person to see him before being taken hostage. Although he had only met Evyatar the night before, the two formed a close bond, standing under the night sky as they ruminated over the beauty of life.
THE EVENTS that unfolded at daybreak are a stark contrast to the idyllic moments that took place just a few hours before. Galia and Avishay were awakened by the red alert sirens at around 6 a.m., which were somewhat dissonant, since such occurrences are uncommon in their hometown of Kfar Saba.
As soon as they understood the situation, Galia texted her son to see whether he was safe. His response, concerned but collected, was that the festival was being shut down and that they needed to head home. He wrote that he was helping others quickly strike their campsites and evacuate. As the true nefarious nature of the situation began to reveal itself, the scene quickly turned to panic and horror.
Evyatar ran for his life, along with his three close friends who had traveled with him to the festival. Two were brutally murdered. Evyatar and his best friend, Guy, who were just in front of them, were abducted by Hamas terrorists while trying to escape in their car.
Mustering the courage to recount the events that followed, Evyatar’s family help each other fill in information they received from lapsed text messages, Israeli intelligence reports and, most importantly, from Ephraim, who made it his responsibility to contact Galia and Avishay after narrowly escaping the festival massacre.
For six harrowing hours, Evyatar’s family had no idea whether he was alive or dead. As Ye’ela and Ilay scoured Telegram and social media apps, searching for evidence of Evyatar’s fate, Galia spent hours calling his friends, clinging to the hope that he had escaped.
At 2 p.m., Ye’ela saw the video of her brother, shirtless and bound, dragged in a headlock by masked terrorists carrying machine guns. “Until that moment, I held on to the hope that he would just walk through the door,” Ye’ela recalls with absolute clarity. “It is something you see but just cannot possibly believe.”
For more than two weeks, this has been the last image Evyatar’s family has of him, seared into their consciousness as they wake up each morning to the same nightmare.
But it’s the small things that leave the biggest hole in their daily lives. Every day, Evyatar would give his parents and sister a hug and a kiss and wish them a good morning. “He has such a presence. Although he is soft-spoken, he has a certain energy that he brings to each of us,” Galia explains. “We are simply missing Evyatar, his entire essence.”
And while the void is palpable, Evyatar’s energy continues to fill their home as his family and friends remain positive through it all. Their community has been a source of strength and hope, and Evyatar’s friends help them see a side of his fun-loving personality that they never knew.
“I remember when we were kids he would always be goofing around, but then he kind of stopped and got a bit more serious,” Ilay says, smiling as he remembers the antics that he and his brother would get into as children.
“Since [the kidnapping], his friends have been sharing all these stories and videos with us, and we see that he never stopped goofing around; it’s just been a side of him that he shares with his friends.”
Adds Ye’ela: “He and his friends erupt in laughter at the stupidest things, and if there is one thing I want to do when he returns, it is to become better friends, to know him like they do.”
She remains hopeful and is focused on his return. “I keep looking at the doorway, imagining that my brother will walk through, waiting for that moment. The first thing I want to do is just hug him and cry,” she says. “Above anything else, we just want him to bring joy and happiness back into our home.”
The Jerusalem Post and OneFamily are working together to help support the victims of the Hamas massacre and the soldiers of Israel who have been drafted to ensure that it never happens again.