Friends and family told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that 29-year-old, Noi Marudi, was killed when the terrorist organization, Hamas, launched a surprise attack on Israel Oct. 7.

Rabbi Yosi Gordon told KSTP he worked for six years with Marudi at Talmud Torah School in St. Paul, beginning in 2015 until Marudi moved back to Israel in 2021.

“He was so profoundly good. I have known lots of good people. He was like pure good,” said Rabbi Gordon. “This last week has been five days of tears and not eating, not sleeping. You know, this is family.”

Rabbi Gordon said Marudi loved his six years in Minnesota and cherished his time with the children he taught at Talmud Torah.

“The older kids, teenagers and so on, he was a big brother to all of them and to all of the kids he was this lovely, caring human being who was so wise and so funny and so energetic,” said Rabbi Gordon.

Rabbi Gordon said Marudi was attending a music festival in southern Israel near the Gaza border when the attack occurred and 260 people died at the start of the conflict on Oct. 7.

“And then we got the message on Tuesday that they found his body and I was shattered and for a couple of hours I couldn’t talk to anybody,” said Rabbi Gordon. “He died along with his brother-in-law and two of his close, close friends, who were both brothers, and they were all dead, murdered in their car.”

Rabbi Gordon said Maudi’s 17-year-old nephew was at the music festival.

He has not yet been located and the family fears he has been captured and is being held hostage by Hamas.