Mark Shindel

Mark Shindel, 23, who grew up in Kfar Yona, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

When the rocket fire began, he and his friends fled for their car and tried to leave, but got stuck in the press of others fleeing. When they spotted the terrorists, they got out and ran, trying to hide in bushes on the side of the road. His friends managed to survive, while he was shot dead by the terrorists as they fled.

He is survived by his mother, Julia Shindel, stepfather Igor Shindel, and his stepbrother Guy and younger brother Ben. He was predeceased by his older stepbrother Adam.

He was buried on October 13 in Netanya.

He was slated to begin his studies in civil engineering at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba, following two years of preparatory studies in the city. He had left his parents’ home in Chicago, where they moved two years ago, only a few days before he was killed, returning to Israel to begin the new school year.

“I said to him good luck and see you next summer,” his mother, Julia, told a local Chicago news site of their final goodbye. “Every day we are thinking about him… It’s really terrible because Mark was here [in Chicago]. It was like four days. Four days.”

At his funeral, his close friend Orel Dorf — who was with Mark at the rave and survived — said: “I will never forget the moment that we hid in the bushes side by side under the horrors above us. You looked in my eyes, shook my hand and said, ‘Orel, we will get through this together,’” he said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

On a podcast months later, Dorf said that the pair were friends “through partying, laughter, traveling abroad — our friendship was mostly chilling and fun.” When the rockets began they reacted with surprise but little panic, “laughing about it, Mark was hitting on girls during the rockets — that’s Mark.”

“I never imagined in my life I would write a eulogy for a friend at age 23,” he said. “He’s definitely up there, in heaven, sitting there and laughing at all of us from above, smoking a cigarette, drinking, chilling, he’s definitely having a good time.”

Mark loved tattoos and his arms and legs were covered in many, including one dedicated to his stepbrother, Adam, who took his own life several years ago. He loved playing and watching soccer, especially his beloved team, Maccabi Haifa.

His close childhood friend, Jonathan Senik, wrote on Facebook marking a month since he was killed: “You’re not a friend to me, you’re a blood brother, and if I could have taken the bullet to save you, I would have done it,” he wrote.

“When we were in sixth grade we decided we would be businessmen — 10 years later, when I came to visit you in Chicago, and we looked at the buildings in the city, we thought that the day would come when you would be the one to build a tower,” wrote Senik.

“You told me that was your dream. We even thought that you would build a music school for me, or a concert hall,” he continued. “I promise that I will do everything in my power to memorialize you. Among the Jewish people, we sit for a week after death, to understand the situation, a month to accept the loss, and a year to get used to the new reality. I haven’t accepted. I don’t want to accept. Bye, for now, Mark. See you up there when it’s my turn.”
Source: The Times of Israel