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