Nova Party Survivor Returns to Site of Massacre to Honor Victims

Bar Kupferstein, a survivor of the Hamas captivity, returned on Tuesday to the site of the Nova music festival in Re'im, ahead of the three-year anniversary of the October 7th massacre. Kupferstein, who served as deputy security officer at the Nova party, was present on the morning of October 7th and remained at the scene after the Palestinian attack began, assisting the wounded. He was subsequently abducted to the Gaza Strip and held captive by Hamas for 738 days, before being released in October 2025. Nearly a year after his return to Israel, Kupferstein visited the location from which he was taken. At the site of the massacre, he put on tefillin in memory of the victims and urged the public to join him in this gesture. "What do you do on a day like this? How do I come and do something for all those who were murdered?" Kupferstein said. "And I said, I am coming today to Nova and putting on tefillin, for the soul of all the murdered who did not merit to continue living." He added, "I invite all of you, stop for a moment, put on tefillin today, and dedicate it to them."