Shoval Yaakov, 27: Professional fisherman helped set up Supernova stage

Shoval Yaakov, 27, from Mehola, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

Shoval was responsible — along with Dror Bahat, Avidan Torgeman and Oded Abergel — for setting up the lighting at the festival, arriving there on Friday. They worked until late at night, then took a break to sleep for a few hours before returning to the site of the rave around 6 a.m.

When the rocket fire began, the group decided to stay at the festival site, assuming things would calm down quickly and the party would resume. Around 9 a.m. Shoval told a friend that there was gunfire at the festival and they were hiding underneath the stage. That was the last anyone heard from him.

Shoval, Dror, Avidan and Oded were all murdered at the rave that day.

Shoval was buried in Mehola on October 11. He is survived by his parents, Merav and Da’el, and his siblings Hamutal, Aviya, Tzuria and Roi.

The firstborn in his family, he was born and raised in Mehola, a small religious settlement in the Jordan Valley. He bounced between a number of religious and nonreligious schools in Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu and then in Beit She’an, Kibbutz Geva and Kibbutz Ein Harod, according to a state eulogy.

Formal education wasn’t his strong suit, his family said, and he was fiercely independent, moving at age 16 to Kibbutz Maoz Haim, working at a fishery and supporting himself. He was also active in the Bnei Akiva youth group as a kid and played basketball with a local team.

After high school he enlisted in the IDF, serving first in the Kfir Brigade, later trying out for the LOTAR counterterror unit and eventually being placed in the Navy. Following his release, Shoval returned to working at the fishery in Emek HaMaayanot, first as a fisherman and later advancing to managerial roles, including operations manager. He was devoted to the topic of sustainable fishing and supporting Israeli aquaculture.

His family said he and his girlfriend, Noam, were planning to take time to travel around the world and then start planning their future together.

Shoval loved music and music festivals, attending trance raves for many years. His loved ones set up a memorial website, remembering him through the eclectic songs he had shared over the years on Facebook, noting that “music flowed in his veins and he spoke and lived through it… music accompanied him until his last day.”

His mother, Meirav, wrote online that Shoval was “hardworking, a good and loyal friend, a lover of festivals and raves.”

“You couldn’t miss Shoval — tall, handsome, loud, a cigarette in his mouth combined with some juicy curse,” she continued. “If he loved you, he’d curse you in a Shovali way, or as he would say, ‘I can at least stand you.’ But it was just a test he put people through — if you passed the test, you were friends forever.”

Shoval was “a man of contradictions,” his mother added. “Academically challenged as a kid, but smart and always learning independently. He had a tough outside but a soft and kind heart, he was scattered and messy but responsible and took charge. He talked endlessly about aquaculture and edible fish.”

Her eldest son, Meirav said, “was a simple guy, he didn’t need much. A bottle of beer and good friends at the end of the day and he was happy.”

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