Sole survivor of family celebrates bar mitzvah two months after October 7 massacre

(JNS) Two months after his parents and two sisters were brutally murdered in their home by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Ariel Zohar celebrated his bar mitzvah on Thursday.

The tefillin that the bar mitzvah boy placed around his arm and on his forehead were given to him by his Holocaust-survivor grandfather. Despite the charred home, it stayed intact and was recovered by first responders.

Ariel, who turned 13 about three weeks after the massacre, is the son of Israel Hayom videographer Yaniv Zohar and his wife, Yasmin, both of whom were murdered in the early hours of the October 7 terrorist attack on southwestern towns by Hamas, which culminated in some 1,200 Israeli residents murdered. This was the worst terrorist attack in Israeli history.

Yaniv Zohar at the funeral for his parents and sisters, Oct. 17, 2023. Photo by Yehoshua Yosef.[Missing Credit]

Yaniv and Yasmin's two daughters, Keshet and Tchelet, were also murdered. Ariel had just left for a job when the attack began, and found shelter at a different home.