Staff Sgt. Avraham Cohen, 20: Off-duty soldier helped plan Supernova

Staff Sgt. Avraham Nerya Cohen, 20, an off-duty soldier in the Gaza Division, from Jerusalem, was killed on October 7 at the Supernova music festival.

Avraham, who was part of the production team for the rave, was hugely excited for the Supernova festival, sharing posts on social media in anticipation, including a post with the lineup of DJs, writing on October 3, 2023: “This Friday it’s happening!”

A day earlier he shared a post on Facebook about the festival, tagging Eliyahu Berenshtein, Elkana Bohbot, and Michael and Osher Vaknin. Avraham, Eliyahu, Michael and Osher were murdered at the festival and Elkana was taken captive, and remains a hostage in Gaza.

Avraham’s sister said that he, Eliyahu and one of the Vaknin twins tried to leave the site of the rave via car and were shot dead by Hamas terrorists.

He was buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on October 12. His family finished the weeklong shiva mourning period on what would have been his 21st birthday.

Avraham is survived by his parents, Ilanit and Refael, and his siblings Ben, Chen, Hodaya and Yitzhak. On the same day he was slain, his 19-year-old cousin, Sgt. Matan Abergil, was killed fighting in Kibbutz Nir Am. Their funerals were just two hours apart.

Born in Hashmonaim, Avraham was raised largely in Lod and lived for the last years of his life in Jerusalem, at a home for lone soldiers.

He began his military service in February 2021 and was slated to be released just a couple weeks after he was slain.

“Avraham, you were plucked from us at the start of your life, just before you were supposed to finish your army service, and you left us shocked and unable to accept that this is real,” wrote his brother, Ben, on Instagram.

“You had such a huge joy for life that you never let anything hurt you,” Ben continued. “No matter the situation, you would always play music and smile and go with the flow. And I, in my stupidity, didn’t understand how right your path was, and I would ask you why you weren’t serious. I remember you’d always say, ‘everything is good, my brother, go with it.'”

Ben said Avraham “managed to take everything with ease and at the same time to get ahead in life more than I had at your age. And now I understand that I was wrong and you were right.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t spend more time together, that we didn’t talk enough, that I didn’t worry about you enough, that I didn’t hug you enough, and that I wasn’t there for you in the final moments of your life,” he added. “Thank you for 21 years of memories with you, thank you for 21 years that I was privileged to be your big brother, it’s the biggest gift I ever received.”

Marking a year since he was killed, Avraham’s mother, Ilanit, wrote on Facebook how it has been “a year that we didn’t speak, a year that I didn’t get any messages from you, a year that I didn’t make food for you.”

“A year that you didn’t seek advice from me nor I from you. A year that I didn’t wake you up in the morning for work, or you could say argued with you to get up,” wrote Ilanit. “A year that we didn’t argue — I even miss our fighting and yelling. A year that we didn’t work out together after you came home from work.”

“Don’t leave me, I miss you so much and the signs you leave me are so important — they can’t disappear, it’s the only thing that is keeping me going,” she continued. “I promise I’ll continue to memorialize you everywhere in the world, so that nobody will forget your name, your values, the justice you wanted in the world.”

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