Margarita Gusak, 21: Artist with plans to attend medical school
Murdered by Hamas terrorists while fleeing the Supernova music festival on October 7
Margarita “Rita” Gusak, 21, of Gan Yavne, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while fleeing the Supernova music festival on October 7.
She attended the rave with her boyfriend, Simon Vigdergaus, who was also murdered that day.
Her mother told the Telegraph that after the rocket sirens sounded, Rita texted her to say that they were planning on leaving via car. That was the last they heard from her.
Her family waited desperately for news for a week until they were informed that her body had been identified. She was buried on October 15 in Givat Brenner. She is survived by her parents, Valentina and Yigal (Igor).
According to media reports, she had moved to Israel from Russia more than a decade before she was killed. Her Facebook page identified her as originally hailing from St. Petersburg.
Both her parents are doctors, and Rita was planning on following them into the medical field.
Her father, Dr. Yigal Volodarsky of the Kaplan Medical Center, noted that “she dreamed of being a doctor, and she never got to find out that she got the [entrance exam] score she needed to be accepted, which came out three days after that dark Saturday.”
In high school, Rita was part of a STEM initiative and was a leader in the school’s robotics team. She was also a talented artist who shared her paintings and drawings on her Instagram page.
Her friend Shanie Kagan wrote on Facebook to “my friend, my sister.”
“The smartest person I knew, talented and intelligent, always dealing with the deep things in life,” she wrote. “A free and complicated soul, always searching for what is hidden.”
Asya Bobritskaya, a photographer and artist who often photographed Rita, wrote on Instagram: “Dear Rita, you were a dream.”
“It seems to me that I can reach out and touch you, but my hand draws emptiness,” she continued. “Somewhere in the universe, you are free and can do whatever you want. Any art. You were art yourself, God kissed you on the top of your head and took you for himself.”
