Lior Hadad Atias

Lior Hadad Atias, 36, of Rehovot, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival near Re’im on October 7.

Atias was at the festival as a volunteer with the Elem-Youth in Distress organization, which was there to provide counseling and emotional support to anyone undergoing a mental health crisis. They’re known for attending such types of parties and gatherings in their recognizable blue shirts, which read “Good Guy,” to provide services to anyone experiencing distress, which can be common at raves where drug use is widespread.

There were nine Elem volunteers at the Supernova music festival near Re’im on the morning of October 7. Only six made it out alive.

Alongside, Atias, volunteers Yonatan Richter and Sigal Levi were also murdered. Atias’s body was only recovered eight days after the massacre, and she was buried on October 16.

She is survived by her husband, Guy, and 6-year-old daughter, Alma, as well as her parents, Tikva and Yigal, and siblings Mor and Dudi. Friends and family remembered her as a huge animal lover, with a winning smile and a larger-than-life personality.

Atias taught for a while in a Rehovot school before leaving to retrain as a veterinary nurse, working at a practice in the city.

Maayan Shenker Brownstein, a fellow Elem volunteer, recounted to the Kan public news station that as they tried to flee volleys of bullets at the festival, she saw Atias wounded: “I picked her up and I tried to see if she was conscious but she wasn’t. And they were still shooting at us, so I kept going. I kept running.”

In a statement, the Elem organization recalled Atias as someone with “a huge joy for life, who spread light and love to anyone she encountered. She always made sure to be there for everyone — young and old, and always with her characteristic smile… Lior, a good and dear woman, I’m sorry you left us when all you wanted was to do good.”

Mor Hadad, Lior’s sister, said “she really loved” her volunteer work with the group. “She got so excited for every event you attended,” she told the surviving volunteers in a Kan news item. “It was so fitting for her. When she told me that she was doing it, I was so proud of her… I said ‘it’s so like you, to both help people and also enjoy a party.'”

At her funeral, her husband pointed out that Lior’s name — which means “my light” in Hebrew — was perfectly fitting to her personality.

“Lior brought light into every room she entered,” said Atias. “It sounds like the kind of thing you say in a eulogy, but everyone here who knew her, knew well that it was true.”

“Everyone fell in love with her in a second,” he added. “There are so many people here whose lives she only touched for a moment, and they won’t forget her their entire lives.”
 Source: The Times of Israel