Romi Eliyahu Bernat, 38: Mom whose blended family united in her wake
Murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7
Romi (Ruhama) Eliyahu Bernat, 38, from Modiin, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.
Romi attended the party with her friend and business partner, Gili Yoskovich, where they planned to sell their fashion line of festival attire. When the Hamas terrorist attack began, the two women initially hid together in nearby bushes, but eventually, Gili saw Romi get shot and ran for help, but was unable to get back and try and save her, according to Channel 13.
Romi’s body was eventually identified on October 11. She was buried the next day in Pardesiya.
She is survived by her four children — Ariel, 19, Shira, 17, and Liam, 9, who she had with her ex-husband, Motti Eliyahu — and Emma, 1, who she shared with her girlfriend, Suzi.
Gili told Maariv that “everyone who knew [Romi] personally was in love with [her] and [her] energy.”
“In the name of all your friends, I promise that everyone will hear and know about you and what you went through. You were my light, you always will be. There’s a you-shaped hole in my heart and it will stay there forever,” she said.
Romi grew up in an ultra-Orthodox family, and lost her mother at a young age, according to Ynet. After her father struggled to raise her and her siblings, she went into foster care. When she was just 18, Romi married Motti, who also grew up Haredi, and the couple had their first two children while living in the ultra-Orthodox city of Modiin Illit.
The couple both started to have doubts about their Haredi lifestyle and slowly moved away from it, ultimately moving to the nearby Modiin, where they had their third child. Around five years ago, Romi realized that she was attracted to women, and she and Motti parted ways amicably. Romi then met Suzi, and the couple decided to bring Emma into the world together.
“Romi fulfilled herself, she lived exactly as she wanted to live,” Motti told Ynet. “More than anything else she wanted to be a mom.” She was “beautiful, charismatic, social, and very authentic… it was only during the shiva that I understood how significant she had been in the lives of so many people.”
In the wake of Romi’s death, Motti and Suzi made the unusual decision to move into together and raise Romi’s four children in a shared apartment, something they said they felt she would be overjoyed by.
Writing on Facebook on Emma’s second birthday in May 2024, Suzi said she was celebrating “with a huge missing piece that is an inseparable part of your life. That is suddenly gone.”
“My girl, the longing for your second mom is inseparable, the endless love between you two was always there, it was always moving to see it from the side,” she added. “I want you to know that your mother is always with you, no matter what. She is up above, loving and embracing and celebrating you.”