Ben Bernstein, 23: Karate black belt who 'was very spontaneous'

Murdered by Hamas terrorists while trying to flee the Supernova music festival on October 7

Ben Bernstein, 23, from Tzippori in the Jezreel Valley, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while trying to flee the Supernova music festival on October 7.

He attended the rave with a group of childhood friends, including his close friend Or Ziv. Ben and Or left the site of the festival via car, but jumped out to try and hide in the forest near the highway when they realized they were under attack.

Ben and Or were both slain along the side of the highway. His family searched for him near the festival and in local hospitals before they were informed that his body had been identified.

He was buried in Tzippori on October 10. He is survived by his parents, Nirit and Eran, his younger siblings Ravid and Liron and his girlfriend Liel.

The oldest in his family, Ben was born in Afula and lived in his early years in Nazareth Illit (Nof Hagalil), according to an online memorial page.

When he was 7, his family moved to Tzippori, a small town in the Lower Galilee, where he attended school in nearby Givat Ela and later Nahalal, enjoying the rural life, especially riding his bike around the community.

The son of a prominent karate instructor, Ben trained under his father from age 4 until he enlisted in the IDF, working his way up over the years to earn a black belt and even spent time overseas with his father training. He also played the drums, and as a teen started working in restaurants to earn money.

After graduating high school, Ben enlisted in the IDF, serving in the 7th Armored Brigade in the Armored Corps. Following his release, he moved to Eilat to work in security at hotels in the city.

A year before he was killed, Ben returned to the Jezreel Valley and lived with his girlfriend Liel in Kibbutz Hanaton, working in sales.

His father, Eran, told a local news site that Ben “loved to dance and loved festivals. At the same time, he worked 12 hours a day because he really wanted to earn money to provide himself with a good life.”

Eran said Ben “was very happy. In recent years he was out all the time. He had many friends. He really lived in the full sense of the world. He was very spontaneous, always going with the flow.”

“Ben wouldn’t want our home to fall apart or for us to fall into an abyss of mourning,” added Eran. “If he could, he would tell me that I need to keep taking care of his little sister, his brother and Mom. So I do everything I can, but it’s hard. Ben was so dominant, his presence was so significant.”

Ben’s girlfriend, Liel, wrote on Instagram a month after he was killed that she was still desperate “to wake up with you every morning and go to sleep with you every night, to add more photos to the album in my phone full of pictures of your sleeping.”

Liel said that she was “never at the level of happiness in my life as when I was happy with you – it really felt like a dream because it was so good.”

“I want to say thank you for taking care of me,” she added. “You were always my balance… always made sure I wasn’t lacking anything, you made me into a happy person, you are a man that every woman could only dream of. Thank you for everything we experienced together.”