During the final days of their trip to Israel this past week, pastors visiting as Fellowship Ambassadors toured sites affected by the October 7 attacks. While visiting the Nova Music Festival site and Kibbutz Nir Oz, Fellowship staff and the pastors met with members of the Tribe of Nova Foundation, a nonprofit organization that invited Fellowship staff in Chicago to an exhibit last year.
The organization is made up of survivors of the Nova Music Festival massacre and the October 7 attacks who are dedicated to sharing their testimonies of survival and ensuring their stories continue to be told. Among them is Tribe of Nova outreach team leader Itay Hamer, who shared his story during the visit.
Hamer was attending the Nova Music Festival with a group of friends when the attacks began. He recalled coming to celebrate everything he believed in—freedom, music, love, and deep friendship. They danced throughout the night, and when the sun rose, it felt as though nothing could go wrong. But that was the moment when everything changed. As rockets began falling, Hamer stayed behind to help a girl who was having a panic attack. He became separated from his friends, initially taking shelter in a police van before fleeing into the woods as terrorists approached.
“For four hours I lay in a bush as terrorists hunted us like animals,” said Hamer. “When two of them spotted me, they fired an RPG. I ran through the war zone for what felt like forever until I reached safety. Six of my closest friends never made it out. In the days that followed, I was hollowed out by grief, guilt, and silence.”
Yet amid the darkness, Hamer found comfort in the words of his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, who told him, “We kept our stories to ourselves. You must do the opposite. Speak. Let the world know what happened to you.”
Hamer has been doing just that ever since. From Israel to America, he has shared his story, speaking not only about the horrors of October 7 but also about the difficult days that followed. He has encouraged other survivors to share their experiences. These stories are told out of a sense of responsibility—to honor the light that was lost and the light that a broken but unyielding community is determined to rebuild.