P F ap re er e o We f th ek e ly Y ea r
LI FE Spr Spring 2024
M AG AZ IN E
PROUD VOICE OF OUR COMMUNITY 11 April 2024
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2 Nisan 5784
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Issue No.1362
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@JewishNewsUK
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‘Our daughter was killed – now we live for her son’ Parents of young mum murdered by Hamas at music festival tell Jewish News their grandson gives them reason to go on
The parents of a 26-year-old mum who was murdered alongside her partner by Hamas terrorists on 7 October at the Nova music festival have shared with Jewish News their daily struggle to cope with the grief, saying they carry on ‘only for the sake of our grandson”, writes Michelle Rosenberg in Tel Aviv. Julio and Gloria Vargas’s daughter Yvonne was gunned down as she hid in a roadside shelter on that fateful Shabbat morning. Julio recalls speaking with Yvonne at 7.15am, while she was still at the Nova party. She told him, “Daddy, we’re at war. I’m running to a bunker.” He advised her to “go quickly and find shelter”. That was their last exchange. Gloria sobbed in fear as Julio sent further messages, begging Yvonne to
“let us know where you are”. There was no reply. Julio then called the police, who told him her last known position which was, as he’d suggested to his daughter earlier, close to a roadside shelter. He called Yvonne’s partner but there was no answer. It was days before soldiers arrived to tell them that Yvonne and 28-year-old Antonio Macias, both from Colombian families but born in Israel, had been murdered, leaving behind Antonio’s six-yearold daughter Manuela and Yvonne’s four-and-a-half-year-old son, Aviel. Julio said: “Since 7 October we have had no life. It’s very hard for us to live without our daughter. We carry on only for the sake of our grandson. Watching the news about the soldiers and the hostages breaks our hearts.”
Julio and Gloria Vargas, with their National Organisation for Victims of Terror case-worker Shirel and four-year-old grandson Aviel
Recalling to a Colombian newspaper the poignant farewell shared with Antonio and Yvonne before they left for the Nova party, Antonio’s mother Claudia said: “We hugged and he said, ‘Mum, thank you for taking care of my kids, I love you’.” Yvonne also expressed deep gratitude to Claudia, who she “considered like a second mother, entrusting her with the care of their children”. Like so many families broken by the events of 7/10, the Vargas family is being supported by the National Organisation for Victims of Terror. Based in Tel Aviv, NOVT, which is supported by UJIA here in the UK, assists victims of terror and their families, helping them to start healing and put their lives back together. Aviel, who was with Julio and Gloria Continued on page 3