Rinat Hodia Zagdon

Rinat “Rini” Hodaya Zagdon, 23, from Elazar, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

She was considered missing for several days until her body was located on October 13, and she was buried in Kfar Etzion that day. She was slain alongside her friend Tiferet Lapidot.

She is survived by her parents Mechola and Moriel, and her siblings. She was remembered by friends and family for her riotous curls, her beautiful singing voice and her love of global travel.

“One of the things that most characterized Rinat was that she made space for everyone,” her father, Moriel, told Channel 14 news. “One of her mottos in life that she always said was, ‘Mom, Dad, look into the heart, not how a person looks, the heart is where they really are.’ That was Rinat.”

Her mother Mechola said that Rinat “was full of joy, she was always laughing, always making people happy, and that’s what brought her enormous circles of friends of all types,” she said.

“She also had a very beautiful voice, she expressed herself through her voice, anytime someone said something it would remind her of a song and she would sing it,” Mechola told the TV network. “She succeeded in her 23 years in making a big impact.”

Her friend, Ofir Amar, memorialized her on Instagram: “Our Rini, a whole block of endless sweetness. Our light, an angel in the shape of a human, our smile and our embrace, the laugh and the joy, the heart that feels everything,” she wrote. “With magical curls and kind eyes, that see straight into the soul. A ray of sunshine in the big world.”

Her friend Liron Fenigshtein said she wants to “remember the unique soul that you were, your joy for life and the huge light that you brought with you to every place. A wide heart, kind eyes and so much love for every person as they are, with a great deal of simple faith… Rejoice up there with all our other fallen up there, sing to them, play for them and dance. You’re the best at that.”

Rinat’s brother, Bnaya, wrote on Facebook that when she was traveling in India, she would ask him if he missed her, “and I would say ‘of course I miss you,’ and you would ask ‘but why?’ And I answered that ‘I love you and I’m your brother and I want you to come home already.'”

“I’m sorry that I asked you to come back… I’m sorry that I thought only about myself, I was just scared that something would happen to you there, and I wanted you a little closer to me. You are my music in life.”
Source: The Times of Israel