Ben Fishman, 21: Combat vet and Hapoel Tel Aviv superfan
Murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7
Ben Fishman, 21, from Kfar Saba, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.
Ben was considered missing for a week until his body was found and identified.
He was buried in Kfar Saba on October 15. He is survived by his parents, Asiya and Arie Leonid, his older brother, Tom, and his girlfriend, Josi.
Born and raised in Kfar Saba, he attended schools in the city and played basketball for the Hapoel Kfar Saba youth team, according to a state eulogy. He was also an ardent devotee of the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball and soccer teams — whose name and logo were even engraved on his headstone.
After finishing high school, he enlisted in the IDF and served in the Paratroopers Brigade. Ben had only been released from the army a couple of months before he was killed. Following his release, he was working as a manager at a pizzeria in Ra’anana.
The Pazzo Pizza Bar wrote on Instagram that Ben “appeared in our world a year ago. You know those loud people whose presence can be felt anywhere they show up? That was exactly Ben. A hardworking guy, young, a crazed Hapoel Tel Aviv fan, happy, drove all our people crazy until he’d get what he asked for with his huge smile that left no room to escape his request… you went out to dance and celebrate life as you always did, and wild animals cut your story short far too soon.”
Ben’s friend from the army, Shachar Harel, described on an Instagram memorial page how when they first met, “we weren’t such good friends because we were two very dominant characters — I had a mouth on me, and boy did you have a mouth of you.”
Shachar said their months of basic training brought them close together, friends both within and outside the army — “I always told you that I was taking you with me for life, you were a true friend and always would be.”
Ben, he said, had a way with words, “you could sell someone a pen and a pencil for NIS 1,000, I don’t know how you did it… My friend, I love you and I will always remember our funny and good moments together.”
Ben’s mother, Asiya, said on social media that she and his father were “proud of his approach to life, how he dealt with challenges without being afraid… how he continued to always be determined and goal-oriented.”
They were also proud, she said, of his “ability to be meaningful to so many people he met along the way. Ben loved this country and had a respect and connection for Jewish heritage.”
