Simon Vigdergauz, 21: Ukrainian immigrant planned to pursue medicine

Syoma “Simon” Vigdergauz-Dovzhenko, 21, from Rishon Lezion, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while fleeing the Supernova music festival on October 7.

He attended the rave with his girlfriend, Margarita (Rita) Gusak. When the rocket fire began, Rita told her family that they were planning on leaving via car, and that was the last they heard from her. The couple are believed to have made it to near Sderot before being killed.

Simon was missing for several days before his body was identified, and Rita was not identified until another few days later.

He was buried in Rishon Lezion on October 11. He is survived by his parents, Lena and Sergey Dovzhenko.

Simon was born in Artemovsk (now Bakhmut) in Ukraine, known to his parents as Semyon or Syoma. He was eager and inquisitive, learning to read at a young age, always gathering new information and a voracious reader, according to an online eulogy written by his parents.

He was a gifted student, winning prizes in academic competitions and also excelled in judo. In 2014, Simon and his family decided to move to Israel, a decision he prepared for by studying Hebrew. He finished high school at Revivim in his new home of Rishon Lezion, and took the traditional heritage trip to Poland with his classmates, visiting the sites of concentration camps.

That trip, his parents said, instilled in him a firm desire to serve in a combat role in the IDF, which he did by serving in the Yamas covert counter-terrorism unit in the Border Police. During that time, he also changed his name from Syoma to Simon and took his great-grandfather’s last name, Vigdergauz. Simon also enrolled in the Nativ military pathway to conversion, where he met Rita.

The couple were instantly besotted, his parents said, spending all their free time together, studying together, dancing together and hanging out in Rita’s art studio. When he was killed, Simon had only recently finished his army service, and like Rita was considering a career in medicine — following in the footsteps of his father, a doctor, and mother, a nurse.

“Syoma accepted the world and those around him with love and kindness; from his early childhood Syoma was kind and non-confrontational, sociable and peace-loving, his main ‘tool’ was a dialogue,” his parents wrote. “Syoma was very passionate and thorough, he was not satisfied with facts, he needed causes and effects… Syomochka had an amazing sense of humor, inspiring optimism even in a hopeless situation.”

They wrote that from the moment Rita and Simon met, “these two angels became inseparable, they knew everything about each other, they breathed each other, as if their destinies were connected in heaven… Simon and Margarita were inspired by each other, tenderly took care of each other — and passed together, leaving behind bright memories.”

Emuna, who directed the Nativ course, wrote online that she “got to see Rita and Simon fall in love before of my eyes, pure and exciting love. We would look at their loving glances, one at the other, it was impossible to miss it, even in the cluttered-up schedule of the entire course… I am comforted by one thing — that I am sure that on October 7 at 6 a.m. you were so happy together!”

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