Like an 'angel': Mother remembers son killed by Hamas while protecting friends at Nova music festival
Ron Shemer refused to leave his friends behind after Hamas terrorists entered the Supernova Music Festival on Oct. 7. One of the last things Shemer told his mother was “don’t be afraid,” just before he was killed while using his body to shield his friends.
Sigalit Shemer remembered her son, Ron, as “strong” and devoted to helping his friends and family. He was also passionate about the environment and animals. After completing his military service, the 23-year-old planned to study biotechnology. At the age of 17, he went to the United Nations as an ambassador to speak about Jews and Arabs living together in peace.
“When Ronald was born, he had gold hair and blue eyes, and I said, ‘It’s not mine; it’s an angel,’” the mother told The Christian Post, weeping as she shared her earliest memories of her son. “‘Maybe I made something good in my life because he’s a present.’”
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“I know that every mother says about her child, ‘This is the most beautiful child in the world.’ But he was not just beautiful outside; he was beautiful inside all the time,” she recalled.
The day before Ron was to start college, Hamas terrorists descended on the Nova music festival, slaughtering over 300 attendees and seizing over 40 others as hostages. At first, Ron’s family thought Hamas might have taken him hostage, that was until his body was discovered a few days after the massacre.
On the day of the attack, Shemer was at home in Tel Aviv with her husband after enjoying a night of karaoke with friends. Early in the morning, the mother received an urgent call from her youngest son, who told his parents to get to the nearest shelter because rockets were being fired into Southern Israel.
Shemer said she knew Ron had gone to a music festival in southern Israel with a large group of friends. She became worried when he didn't answer her call, so she kept trying to reach him. When he finally answered, Ron confirmed that he was aware of the rocket fire and assured his mother that he and his friends were seeking shelter.
“He said, ‘Don’t be afraid. My battery is low but I’m going to come home. Don’t be afraid,’” Shemer recalled her son saying during their last conversation.
Traveling the world
Many Israelis travel the world after completing their military service, Shemer told CP, and Ron was no exception. In the summer of 2022, Ron worked as a counselor at Perlman Camp in Pennsylvania, and after that, he spent 10 months in South America.
After entering the shelter with her husband, Shemer discovered that the situation in the South was worse than she initially thought. Shemer had her phone with her inside the shelter and saw media reports saying that terrorists had entered Israel.
“I called my son again and he didn’t answer,” she said. “I tried, and I tried, and then I said, ‘OK, he told me before that his battery is low. Maybe the battery is dead, so I’ll wait.’”
She also tried contacting Ron’s friends who were with him at the music festival, but none answered. Shemer tried to assure herself that Ron and his friends were hiding and didn't want the terrorists to hear them. But in reality, she knew something was terribly wrong.
“Because my son, no matter where he was — Colombia, Brazil or the Amazon — he always found a way to call me and say, ‘Mommy, I’m OK,’” Shemer said.
While her son was at the festival, Shemer saw images and videos on social media of Hamas’ attacks. She heard of people driving to the site of the festival to rescue attendees, and she wanted to go find Ron herself, but her husband wouldn't allow it.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry. Your son is a soldier,’” she recalled her husband saying to console her.
Yet days passed, and Ron still hadn't called to say that he was safe and alive. The Israeli military and police later confirmed to his parents that their son had been murdered at the festival, not abducted like they initially thought. Israeli soldiers later found Ron’s body a couple of hundred feet from a bomb shelter.
Shemer has pieced together a picture of her son’s final moments based on eyewitness accounts. One of Ron’s friends who was at the festival told her that after the rocket fire began, they offered him a ride but he declined. Ron wanted to find two of his other friends, Dan and Omer, and wouldn’t leave until he knew they were safe.
After he found his friends, the three located a shelter but Hamas terrorists saw them and started throwing grenades inside the shelter. Dan and Omer were injured as a result, with Dan later succumbing to his wounds and dying. Omer, who survived, remembered Ron telling his friends to get behind him for protection.
“He said that Ron saved his life because when they sensed the terrorists got inside to grab Ron, he was fighting them. So he took them out of the shelter and he continued to fight with them,” Shemer said.
Ron never returned from his fight with the terrorists who shot and killed him.
At his funeral on Oct. 13, Shemer recounted to CP that she couldn't bear to look at her son’s body but her brother and sister did. They told her that Ron’s body was in one piece, and they recognized one side of his head; the other half had been hit with a bullet.
“But they told me it was in one piece,” Shemer said. “There were legs; there were hands and a head. A lot of my friends do not have a body like this; it’s like a present to get the body full.”
Months later, Shemer learned from a girl who reached out to her on social media that Ron had also saved her life at the music festival. The girl had lost sight of her friends and was left standing in a frozen state during a panic attack when Ron found her, shook her, and ordered her to run.
“She said because of him she survived because all of her friends that ran away were killed,” Ron’s mother recalled.
In the aftermath of her son’s death, Shemer said there's “no life” left in her.
“Before, I was an event producer; I was alive,” she said. “My husband and I had friends and we did karaoke. After his death, I didn’t work for like 10 months. I couldn’t get out of bed or the house.”
“There’s no life,” she reiterated. “I’m feeling like I’m not a wife, not a mother, not anything.”
In addition to seeing a psychologist multiple times a week, Shemer has also received help coping with the loss of her son through OneFamily, an organization that supports terror victims and their families through financial help and retreats. The organization has spent about $7 million on services since Oct. 7, OneFamily Executive Director Naomi Nussbaum told CP.
Shermer said OneFamily reached out to her last November, and she credits the organization for giving her the “strength to go on and live.”
Earlier this year, Shemer spearheaded a memorial at the Israeli Knesset to commemorate the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. She wanted to help organize the memorial due to her experience as an event planner. Shermer organized four events to remember the Oct. 7 victims and plans to hold another memorial on the one-year anniversary of the attacks.
“My husband and I cannot think of anything besides this,” the mother said.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
