Ron Yehudai, 24, from Yehud, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.
He attended the rave with a large group of friends, and when the attack began, he hid in a large trash dumpster at the site of the festival. There he and a group of others covered themselves with garbage bags hoping to go undetected.
One of his friends had been with him in the dumpster, but at 10:15 a.m. decided to dash out and hide under a nearby trailer. Ron kept his family updated, texting them for the last time at 11:39 a.m., writing “It’ll be okay, love you.”
At 11:47 a.m., Hamas gunmen discovered those hiding inside the dumpster and opened fire. Ron and eight others were murdered there: Ilkin Nazarov, Inbar Shem Tov, Yitfah Twig, Hadar Prince, Amit Levy, David Newman, Maya Bitton and Eliran Mizrahi.
A week later, Ron’s family was informed that his body had been identified. He was buried in Yehud on October 16. He is survived by his parents, Yoram and Sigal, and his siblings Adi and Noam.
Ron, a huge soccer fan, played until he was 18 — when he put down his cleats to enlist in the army, where he served as a driver in a combat unit. He was released during the COVID era, and put off his post-army trip until world travel resumed.
He was a devotee of the Beitar Jerusalem team, attending their games around the country and the world, and even cutting short his big trip around South America to attend their game in Thessaloniki in August 2023.
Ron also loved tattoos, and was constantly adding to his collection, and dreamed of one day becoming a tattoo artist himself. He also had plans to become a trance music DJ and possibly pursue a career as a soccer coach.
His sister, Noam, told Maariv that “it’s hard to sum up Ron in a few words because he was a world of magic in himself. From the moment he was born, he understood that this life is lived every day, and you don’t have to wait for a specific moment to do something or have some kind of experience.”
Ron “wasn’t a guy who overthought things or vacillated, he just did what he wanted, when it came to both little and big decisions in his life,” she said.
Noam said the siblings never fought, “not even once… he had no room for arguments, and that’s how it was also with his friends. It was also his motto for life. He made sure to tattoo his life on his body… and he made sure to only do good to everyone around him.”
She said Ron had a special connection to colors, “he was magical and he loved colors and spreading good things with his smile, so everywhere he went he would buy some kind of bracelet with the colors he liked, often yellow and black due to the fact that he was a fan of Beitar Jerusalem – he had a dreamcatcher necklace and bracelets of all kinds that he would swap out depending on the event.”
His mother, Sigal, wrote on Facebook in July 2024 commemorating the moment a year earlier when he had returned from months abroad.
“You ran to me and said, ‘Mom, I’m back, I’m home.’ The excitement was at its peak. I made you the things you requested – stuffed vegetables and chocolate balls… you said ‘Mom, I missed your food.’”
Sigal said she “refuses to believe that it’s over, that it’s real. It doesn’t make sense not to hear your unique rolling laugh. It doesn’t make sense that you won’t walk in the house and ask, ‘Mommy, what is there to snack on?’”
Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.
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