Lotan Abir, a 24-year-old American-Israeli living in Utah, was killed while attending the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7.
“He was the sort of person that you would want to call your friend,” Rabbi Avremi Zippel, the Chabad rabbi in Salt Lake City, told the Salt Lake Tribune. “He ultimately gave up his life for the sake of our people at a rave while celebrating some of his greatest passions in life… a kind, sweet, fun-loving, innocent soul who was massacred by a terrorist.”
Abir had moved to Utah not long after completing his IDF service but had been spending time in Israel over the summer and the Jewish holidays.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said in a statement that “news of the loss of one of our own from Utah further tears at our collective heart. I offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Lotan Abir — may he rest in peace.”
Abir is survived by his parents, Naomi and Rami, and his siblings Hen, Dor and Hila, who live in Moshav Gan Haim.
Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.
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