Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

(JTA) -After the deadly attack by Hamas, the Jewish world has joined to share in the grief of the mourners and lament the lives cut brutally short. Below are just a fraction of the men and women who were killed on and since Oct. 7 - some are soldiers, most are civilians, and all helped make up the rich tapestry of the Jewish state.

Omer Balva, 22, graduate of a Jewish day school in Maryland

Omer Balva was on vacation in Maryland, where he was born and lived until graduating from high school, on Oct. 7. The child of Israeli parents who lived in the United States for decades, Balva, 22, recently finished a stint in the Israel Defense Forces and was among the 360,000 reservists called up as Israel mobilized to respond to the attack. Like an untold number of Israelis in the United States, he quickly booked a flight, packed safety gear and headed home. There, Balva was killed Friday by a rocket fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon, just days after he was deployed to Israel's northern border. Balva's death was a blow not only to his family and country but to his friends and teachers from Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland, which he attended starting in second grade. 

Yannai Kaminka, 20, officer who fell defending new recruits

On Oct. 7, Hamas gunmen swarmed an Israeli army base in Zikim, on the north side of the Gaza border. First Lt. Yannai Kaminka, 20, was among the officers killed in the defense of the base, which saved the lives of around 90 new recruits. Kaminka was the son of Eyal and Elana Kaminka of Tzur Hadassah, a village southwest of Jerusalem. His father is a lecturer and consultant who formerly served as director of the International School for Holocaust Studies at the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem; his mother, originally from Davis, California, is active in Tag Meir, a nonprofit that promotes coexistence between Arabs and Jews. Yannai was also a madrich, or leader, in the Israel Scouts movement. In an essay for JTA, one of his former scouts, high school junior Benjamin Siegel of Westchester County, New York, remembered Kaminka as "smart, fun, funny, strong. We always tried to tackle him and take him down, but he was too strong for us. We didn't mind. He was like a big brother to us all."

Sigal Levi, 31, social worker who helped others choose life

On Saturday, Oct. 7, Hagar Levi shared a photo on Facebook of her younger sister Sigal Levi, writing that she was at a party near Kibbutz Reim and had not been heard from since. Sigal, a social worker, had gone to the party as a volunteer with Elem, an Israeli nonprofit that works with at-risk youth, providing counseling, emotional support and individual mentoring. Elem's "Good People" volunteers go to raves and other youth gatherings to distribute literature and encourage troubled young people to "free themselves from drugs and unhealthy home environments."

Sigal, 31, was killed during the Hamas attack on the party. Her funeral was held Wednesday in Netanya. She is survived by her parents, three siblings and her fiance, to whom she was to be married in three months. 

"Sigal was there for the boys and girls - she rose up in the morning and went to sleep at night thinking about them," Elem recalled in a Facebook post. "There are girls that because of her chose life, discovered powers in themselves and knew they had an address, a hug, a shoulder and kind eyes."

Idan Herman, 26, an engineering student who loved the sea

Idan Herman was a first-year engineering student at the Afeka College of Engineering in Tel Aviv. Raised in Palmachim, a kibbutz on Israel's central coast, he loved the sea.

On Saturday morning, Oct. 7, his parents, Revital and Avri, got a call from their son saying that he and his girlfriend, Eden Naftali, 23, were at the Supernova music festival near the border with Gaza and that he and other concertgoers were under attack by Hamas terrorists. At one point he stopped talking and Revital could hear only gunshots.

Avri Herman told the Wall Street Journal that his son was hit with shrapnel in his leg and chest. They later identified his body at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, after first being shown the body of another victim. Idan was buried last week at Palmachim, close to the sea. Survivors include his two sisters, Noa and Nofar. Eden was also confirmed dead.

Yoav Malayev, 19, a soldier who sprinted toward danger

Yoav Malayev, 19, was killed in a battle with Hamas terrorists at the Zikim Army base during the opening hours of the war. On Saturday morning, when his emergency squad was called up, he rushed to reinforce the front gate, which he knew was being guarded by just one soldier. According to one account, he encountered 10 terrorists and engaged in "face-to-face" battle. Four of them were killed before he fell.

Yoav lived in Kiryat Ono, with his mother Maya Cohen-Malayev, father Alex Malayev and siblings Talya, Avner and Harel. "My sister, his mother, grew up in both Israel and Canada," Rabbi Yonatan Cohen of Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, California, told JTA. "She returned to Israel in her early 20s and is a professor of educational psychology at Bar-Ilan University. His father is a retired colonel from the IDF and said to be the highest-ranking Bucharian Jew in in Israel."

"Maya raised Yoav, their eldest, with utmost pride," Rabbi Benjamin Lau, the former senior rabbi of the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem, wrote in a Facebook post. "He finished AP studies in both psychology and physics. A precise, sensitive, compassionate, and mission-driven individual, brimming with a sense of calling, he completed his officer training with honors and was posted to an armored brigade. Israelis are raising the next generation in this place with lots of faith and hope and with a profound understanding of the long, long road ahead."

Debbie Shachar Troen Matias and Shlomo Matias save their son in their final moments

Debbie Shachar Troen Matias, 50, and Shlomo Matias were killed during the attack on Kibbutz Holit. According to their family, the couple were lying on top of and shielding their teenage son, Rotem, who was shot in the abdomen but survived. Debbie was the daughter of Prof. Ilan Troen, emeritus professor of Israel studies at Brandeis and Ben-Gurion Universities.

"My daughter and son-in-law were killed today, but, in their dying, saved [my teenage grandson's] life," Ilan Troen, who had recently returned to Israel upon his retirement from Brandeis, told NPR. "They were all together in the secure room. And they covered his body, and he was saved."

Debbie attended the Berkeley College of Music in Boston and the Rimon School of Music in Tel Aviv, where she met her husband.

"[Deborah and Shlomi] loved music, life, each other, their kids. I would ask [Rotem] to think of the joy that they sought and had in their lives rather than the focus on that day," Troen told WBZ-TV in Boston.

Lior Asulin, star soccer player

Lior Asulin, 43, who over 15 seasons with various teams established himself as one of the top strikers in Israel's domestic soccer league, was among the more than 250 festivalgoers gunned down at a desert rave in southern Israel after Hamas militants opened fire and looked to take many hostage. A native of Ra'anana, Asulin grew up in the youth system of the Maccabi Herzliya soccer club and was signed to a long-term contract with Herzliya after the 2001-2002 season. He also played with Apollon Limassol FC, a Cypriot sports club. Asulin had found peace working on a horse farm after serving nearly a year in prison in 2021 for selling marijuana. "The Hapoel Tel Aviv club bows its head and sends condolences and strength to Lior's family at this difficult time," one of his former clubs said in a statement.

Mai Naim, daughter of soccer royalty

Yannai Kaminka

Mai Naim, 22, the granddaughter of one of Israel's most successful soccer coaches, was also among the more than 250 people killed by Hamas gunmen while attending the music festival near Kibbutz Reim. Friends said Naim decided only at the last minute to attend the festival; when gunmen overran the concert area, shooting into the crowd and grabbing as many hostages as they could, she sought shelter in nearby Kibbutz Be'eri but was pursued and gunned down. Her grandfather Shlomo Sharaf coached Maccabi Haifa to three championships and was manager of Israel's national soccer team from 1992-1999.

Israel's national Football Association issued a statement: "In these sad, painful days, moments that the mind and soul find difficult to contain, we wish to offer our condolences to the families of those killed, wish the injured a speedy recovery and emphasize the commitment of the Football Association to take an active and central part in any assistance required and in any way possible to bring comfort to a wounded and pain-filled country."