Nir Oz marks birthday of Johnny Siman Tov, killed on October 7

Kibbutz friends, neighbors and family members celebrate together in Karmei Gat

Family and friends celebrated the birthday of Johnny Siman Tov, a Kibbutz Nir Oz resident who was killed alongside his wife and their three young children in their home on October 7, 2023.

His surviving sisters and community gathered to mark the day in Karmei Gat, the Kiryat Gat neighborhood of high-rise buildings where much of the Nir Oz community now lives.

They decorated an open space with giant stalks of wheat and a John Deere tractor for serving JohnBeer, the brew created by Siman Tov’s sisters in their brother’s memory.

The beer’s name plays on the tractor that Siman Tov drove in his role as operations manager of equipment at Nir Oz, and is one of several products in Siman Tov Spirit, a concept created by the surviving Siman Tov family to commemorate their loved ones.

The ale is made from wheat grown in the Western Negev, one of the kibbutz crops that Siman Tov helped cultivate.

Avital Dekel-Chen, a friend and Nir Oz neighbor whose husband, Sagui Dekel-Chen, was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 and released from captivity in February 2025, shared details of the party on social media, including photos of Siman Tov with his friends, Tamir Adar and Dolev (Dudu) Yehoud, during happier times.

Adar and Yehoud were also killed on October 7, leaving behind their wives and children.

“More and more people arrived, people who simply wanted to come hugely celebrate your birthday,” wrote Dekel-Chen on Instagram.

She included references to a speech by Siman Tov’s sister Koren, who spoke about the need for courage to dance at an event marking the birthday of a brother who was killed.

“Some people came onto the dance floor in tears and started moving as much as their bodies allowed them to,” wrote Dekel-Chen. “Some of us needed a few glasses of alcohol to take that step, and some needed darkness to fall before they felt comfortable enough.”

Yonatan “Johnny” Siman Tov, 36, his wife, Tamar Kedem Siman Tov, 35, their 5.5-year-old twin daughters, Shahar and Arbel, and son Omer, 2, were all murdered by Hamas terrorists in their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.

Johnny’s mother, Carol Siman Tov, an American citizen living in Israel for many years, was also killed in her own home in the kibbutz.

One of Siman Tov’s sisters said at the time that the family were shot through the window as their house was set on fire.

A joint funeral for all six members of the family was held in Kibbutz Lahav on October 19, 2023.

Siman Tov was raised on Nir Oz and met Tamar Kedem, a Jerusalemite, during their army service.

The couple settled on the kibbutz.

Kedem Siman Tov, an artist, was also running to be mayor of the Eshkol region in elections that were supposed to be held in October and were delayed by the war.