Shani Kupervaser

Shani Kupervaser, 27, of Haifa, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while trying to flee the Supernova music festival on October 7.

When the rocket fire began, Shani and three friends fled in a car and stopped at a roadside bomb shelter, where she was killed when terrorists threw grenades and fired an RPG inside, as was her close friend and roommate Itay Banjo.

She is survived by her parents, Natan and Diana, her siblings Erez and Lotem and her boyfriend Ohad. She was buried on October 13 in Haifa.

Shani had just finished a master’s degree in economics at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba, had lined up a job with an accounting firm and was also pursuing a doctorate in economics, exploring the dynamics of extreme opinions in public debates.

The university’s economics department said she was “a ray of light in the department, and loved by all the academic staff and students. She was hardworking, talented, ambitious, full of energy and joy, and easily overcame any difficulty or challenge — always with a smile.”

Her childhood friend, Shahaf Sigal Dror, wrote a “letter to Shani” in the Journal of Israeli Medical Students, sharing the eulogy she read at her funeral.

“She was a ray of sunlight walking on this earth, as everyone who met her will testify,” wrote Dror. “In recent days, since we learned of your absence, childhood memories have been surfacing, and you are in all of them. All those evenings and afternoons, we spent together — all friends — in the gardens, in our homes, and in playgrounds. Birthday parties in Grandma Hanna’s backyard… like one big family… There are only a few childhood photos in which I am alone. In all of them, you are always there, beside me.”

Dror recalled dancing together as toddlers, playing with Shani’s hamsters, watching the Matrix trilogy over and over again, attending the same high school and going to parties together: “My friend. Who won’t come back from the last party of her life. You will live forever in my memories, in the memories of all of us.”

Her boyfriend of three years, Ohad Malul, told The New York Post that he was in anguish over his last-minute decision not to go with her to the rave.

“She is the smartest, [most] beautiful, kindest person I ever met. Everyone who meets her falls in love with her,” Malul told the news outlet, noting that they had just bought new furniture together and he was planning to propose soon. “She was one of the best in economics. She did two degrees in four years.”

Writing in a local news outlet in January, Ohad recalled that “I fell in love with Shani in the first week of classes as a new student,” noting that she was a teaching assistant “and the only thing I thought the entire class was it’s not logical that I’m falling in love with my teaching assistant on the first day of school, but I immediately knew that Shani would be mine.”

Ohad said that Shani was “strong and independent, a woman of the world, traveled around the globe, loved to go out and drink and found every reason to party.” She was an excellent friend, he said, “the one who was always there for everything, always found time for everyone, because that was Shani — everyone’s best friend with a huge smile, sparkling eyes and a listening ear.”

“My Shanina, so beautiful, smart, sharp and successful, a firstborn who gave so much pride to her parents and the best big sister possible. I love you and I’ll love you always, I miss you with every single breath.”

Source: The Times of Israel