Maayan Kalihman

Maayan Kalihman, 22, a native of Moshav Nir Banim, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

Her family searched for word from her for more than a week, until her body was identified. She was buried in Nir Banim on October 15.

She is survived by her parents, Yelena and Gadi, brother Eitan and one grandparent.

Kalichman was a student at the Minshar School of Art in Tel Aviv, where she was studying animation. The animation department remembered her as “talented and radiating light and joy, murdered cruelly while she was dancing and celebrating life… the last thing she completed at Minshar was animating the illustration of a Muslim artist as part of a project aimed at bridging gaps and bringing hearts together.”

“Maayan was a symbol of life,” her mother, Yelena, told the Portfolio art news site. “Everywhere she went, she always immediately gathered with people, everyone was attracted to her light.”

Maayan’s father, Gadi, described her to the site as: “A sun that doesn’t stop shining, and we are here to continue her legacy of a happy life, of the greatness of life.”

Her brother, Eitan shared online the eulogy he read at her funeral:

“Maayan made me laugh so many times, I couldn’t possibly count,” he said. “Maayan made me feel wonder, curiosity and a longing for beauty. She gave me strength to fight for what I had to fight for… She worried about me — sometimes how a big sister worries, and sometimes how a little sister worries.”

“She told me secrets, she told me fears, she told me about scars,” he said. “She told me all the least important details about a story before she got to the point. She made me feel I had somebody to turn to, that she always had my back. That she would always be there for me. She made me feel like this life was worth something.”

“There is a huge hole in the world in the shape of Maayan,” he added. “A hole of all of the things she won’t do. But inside every one of us who ever met her, there is a little piece of Maayan… I’m parting with you now. But I’m taking that piece with me.”
Source: The Times of Israel