David Newman, 25: Ex-Haredi dreamed of opening his own events hall

David Yair Shalom Newman, 25, from Jerusalem, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

David attended the rave with his girlfriend, Noam Ben David. When the rocket fire began, they ran for their car but decided to head to a less packed area to wait out the heavy exiting traffic. When they realized that terrorists had invaded the festival, Noam and David ran and sought shelter in a large metal dumpster near the site of the rave.

The terrorists realized that a group had gathered there, and opened fire on those inside, killing David and wounding Noam, who was later rescued and survived. “I heard David’s last breath next to me but I was too scared to move,” she recounted.

Many others were killed inside the dumpster, including Maya Bitton, and her fiance, Eliran Mizrahi, Inbar Shem Tov, Hadar Prince, Ilkin Nazarov and Amit Levy.

David was buried in Jerusalem on October 10. He is survived by his father, Moshe Meir, and his four siblings, Batya, Noah, Gavriel and Dvir.

The fourth child in his family, David grew up in the Old City of Jerusalem, studying in ultra-Orthodox schools, including the Yerushalayim Torah Academy. In 2016, when he was finishing up high school, his mother, Chaya, died, dealing a heavy blow to the family, according to a state eulogy. Though David left behind the religious lifestyle he grew up with, he remained close to his family and was a doting uncle to his nieces and nephews.

In October 2017, David enlisted in the IDF, officially classified as a lone soldier, and was placed as a driver in the Air Force, but fought until he was accepted to a combat role with the Golani Brigade. Following his release, he worked as a waiter at the Kedma restaurant in Jerusalem to save up for his travels, later spending eight months touring South America.

Upon his return, David moved to Herzliya and started working at an events hall in the city, already planning to save up for his next trip abroad — this time to India. In the meantime, he met Noam, and the pair quickly became a couple and ended up traveling through India together. David returned to Israel in June 2023, returning to work in the events industry and planning to one day open and run his own events hall. At the same time, he also dedicated himself to physical fitness and had even trained to become a personal trainer.

His girlfriend, Noam, told a local news outlet that the couple had plans to move in together the day after the festival, after being together for a year and a half. Her physical recovery from her gunshot wounds “is the easy part compared to dealing with my psychological pain, the huge hole in my heart, the enormous loss of the love of my life. We were now supposed to be celebrating a month living in our shared apartment in Yaffo, and instead, I’m in the hospital, learning to walk again.”

Noam said that David was “the most incredible and beautiful person in the world, who was always smiling, helping, supporting and loving… He always supported me and told me I was a lioness who could do anything, and now he’s not here anymore.” She said that instead of her family “being at my wedding and celebrating and dancing, they are crying with me at my boyfriend’s funeral.”

David’s younger brother, Dvir, wrote on a memorial page that his older brother “was and always has been a hero to me, was and always has been light to me.”

“You were everything to me, a big brother, a friend, a partner a role model — you were an angel in human form,” he added. “You were the biggest gift in this life, and you always will be. Thank you, rest in peace my brother, my love, my blood, my king, my angel.”

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