October 07, 2025

Tamar Samet (ז״ל) was murdered while hiding with a friend at the Nova music festival. She was 20 years old. A musician. Someone who walked barefoot through the world and brought home stray cats. At school, she cared for the animals no one else thought to notice. She carried herself quietly, but her presence and voice were unforgettable to those who crossed her path.

Today, we remember Tamar and everyone whose lives were violently taken on October 7 (2023). More than 1,200 people were murdered in a single day in a massacre that was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Families were killed in their homes while preparing breakfast or getting ready for synagogue. Young people went out to dance and never made it home. Children and babies were taken hostage. Lives were stolen in an instant, and lives were shattered in the aftermath.

We mourn not only what was lost, but what will never be. The birthdays. The weddings. The slow accumulation of ordinary days that make up a life. We remember the beauty they carried. The songs they loved. The families they built. The love they gave.

In Jewish tradition, we say zichronam livracha. May their memory be a blessing. It is both a prayer and a promise. A way to say that those who were taken from us are not forgotten, that their lives had meaning, and that we will carry them forward. Today, wherever you are, we invite you to pause. To light a candle. To sit in silence. To remember.

Tamar’s best friend, Ben Ronen, once shared a melody he had written with her that he had never shown anyone else. She called it the most beautiful thing he’d written and she recorded vocals for it. After her death, he finished the song and released it so the world could hear her voice. In Tamar’s voice, we are reminded that what was taken can still be remembered. A song can carry a life. A friend’s memory can hold what violence tried to erase. The beauty of their lives is eternal.

Listen to “איך שרפתי גשר” / “How I Burned a Bridge” – Ben Ronen feat. Tamar Samet

May her memory, and the memory of all who were taken from us, be a blessing.

The Shalom Alliance Team