Rotem Levi, 22: World traveler with plans to visit Mexico and Japan
Murdered by Hamas at the Supernova music festival on October 7
Rotem Rachel Levi, 22, from Yokneam, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.
She attended the rave with a group of friends, three of whom — Sivan Shaarbany, Aviya Genut and Michal Roimi — were also slain in the terror onslaught. The friends tried to hide together in a ditch near the site of the festival, but were cruelly murdered by the terrorists.
Her body was discovered and identified several days later.
Rotem was buried on October 11 in Yokneam. She is survived by her mother, Ariella, and her brothers Elad and Guy. Her father, Ofer, died suddenly of a heart attack when Rotem was 8.
Born and raised in Yokneam, Rotem served in the Border Police during her mandatory military service, and also completed a squad commander’s course, according to a state eulogy. Despite enjoying her time in the Border Police, Rotem decided to leave at the end of the mandatory period and travel the world, intending to return to the police force later, her family said.
In the year and a half before she was killed, Rotem spent several months in the US, then traveled with her mother to Morocco, and in January 2023 she headed off for eight months in South America, returning a few months before the Supernova festival. Rotem had already purchased tickets to Mexico to celebrate her 23rd birthday in December 2023.
Her grandfather, Shlomo, told a local news site that he was especially close to Rotem after her father — his son — died suddenly, “and since her murder the sadness is enormous… we hung photos of Rotem in every room of the house, she is with us, she was really close to me. She didn’t have a father, so I tried to fill that huge void for her.”
Even when Rotem was traveling the world, he said, “she would always call and tell me what she was doing and where she was… I love traveling and she knew that, so maybe that’s why she always updated me and told me, I experienced her trip through our conversations.”
His granddaughter, he said, “was a fighter, she was an athlete and we believe she could have run to save herself, but with her heart there’s no way she would have left her friends.” At her funeral, he said, he introduced himself to her friends “as Rotem’s grandfather, and they immediately said, ‘Oh, Grandpa Shlomo,’ and they told me how much she would talk about me.”
Rotem’s brother Elad wrote online that “there is one thing you left behind you, our little brother. Do you remember how much you wanted the three of us to fly to Japan together? We’re planning to do it and to fulfill your ambition, but we never thought it would be without you.”
“We’ll walk as if we’re walking behind you, we’ll only eat ramen as you demanded, and most importantly we’ll tell Naruto about you — we’ll tell him that you could have fled but you decided not to abandon your friends, we’ll tell him that there was no fear in your eyes, only bravery, and we’ll tell him that the smile on your face could never be wiped away.”
