OCTOBER 10, 2023 – a volunteer driver for Yad Sarah helped a recuperating survivor of Saturday’s Supernova music festival massacre get from Jerusalem to Beer Sheba for the funeral of his best friend, who was killed while working as a security guard at the same party after managing to save the lives of at least eight others.
Elkanna Federman, who also saved the lives of several people, and his best friend Yaniv had been in the same IDF unit together and were both working security at the festival when the atrocities erupted.
Elkanna was shot in the legs by a Hamas terrorist during the infiltration of the large outdoor music event near the Gaza border, where more than 200 Israelis were killed. Elkanna was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital, where he underwent surgery on Monday. While in recovery, Noa, a Yad Sarah volunteer visiting the wounded as part of the nonprofit One Family Together, met with Elkanna – who it turned out was her neighbor in Jerusalem. He explained that he was devastated because he wanted to attend Yaniv’s funeral but the doctors had forbidden him from traveling, particularly for such a long distance and to the South which was still under rocket fire.
Within 10 minutes of hearing about Federman’s desire to attend the funeral nearly two hours away, Yad Sarah volunteers at the hospital arranged travel permissions and located a driver who safely took Elkanna in one of the organization’s wheelchair-accessible vans.
“It was really thanks to Yad Sarah that he was able to go to the funeral and back without great physical pain,” said Elkanna’s sister, Sapir. “This trip was so important for him. I’m not sure how Yad Sarah arranged it all with just 10 minutes’ notice. I want to thank the driver, Eliyahu, with all my heart”
