Lior Waitzman, 32, from Sderot, was killed by Hamas terrorists while bike riding early in the morning on October 7.
He called his wife that morning and told her that he had been shot, but nobody managed to reach him in time and his body was found a day later. He was buried on October 9 in Sderot.
He is survived by his wife, Limor, and their son Kfir, 4, as well as his parents, Tamar and Baruch, and his four older siblings, Ronen, Emmy, Daniela and Irit.
Waitzman, a sound technician, had a bachelor’s degree in sound and film arts from Sapir College in Sderot, and had worked on shows including “Fauda,” “Tehran,” “Unorthodox” and “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem,” among many others.
He had also been working on “Bros,” the Hebrew-language comedy which had been slated to hit Netflix in November and was delayed due to the war.
Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, paid tribute to Waitzman during a Bloomberg event a few days after he was killed: “One of the victims of this terror attack, Lior Waitzman, was working on our first Netflix original series there, called ‘Bros’… our hearts go out to Lior and his family,” Sarandos said.
On October 7, Waitzman was out biking to train for a half Ironman contest he was planning on competing in just a few weeks later.
“Tehran” co-creator Daniel Syrkin told Deadline that “Lior was just 32 years old, and a really sweet guy… It was a normal day and he went out on his bike smiling. He was a beautiful person.”
At the unveiling of his headstone a month after his death, his 4-year-old son, Kfir, climbed on top of his grave so he could hug and kiss his father one more time. The photos of Kfir’s grief went viral in Israel as the nation continued to grieve its losses.
״אני רוצה לנשק את אבא״ ילד שליהלוואי שהייתי יכולה להגיד לך שלא תחווה מחסור לעולםהלוואי שהייתי יכולה למלא את החסר בלב… Posted by Limor Waitzman on Thursday, November 9, 2023
״אני רוצה לנשק את אבא״ ילד שליהלוואי שהייתי יכולה להגיד לך שלא תחווה מחסור לעולםהלוואי שהייתי יכולה למלא את החסר בלב…
Posted by Limor Waitzman on Thursday, November 9, 2023
Lior’s sister, Daniela Peretz, described him on Instagram as “the salt of the earth, talented and modest. You died as you lived — determined, brave and doing the thing you loved most — sports. And you loved, you loved the way that people don’t even know how to love anymore.”
“Alongside all of the friends and the family who came to honor you today [at his headstone unveiling], I will shout in a loud voice how much you are missed by everyone, forever,” she wrote. “Everyone here misses you.”
Lior’s wife, Limor Waitzman, told Channel 12 that they met more than a decade ago and got married in 2015: “Already during his degree at Sapir College he started working in the industry, he was a meteor in everything he did. Over the past three years, he was training for long-distance running and took part in half-marathons and marathons, when he finished he decided he wanted a change and started [training for] triathlons.”
On October 7, when the rockets started firing, Limor texted Lior to stay safe and find somewhere to hide out. He sent her one final selfie of him lying on the ground with his head on his hands next to his bike, “with a sort of half smile,” she said. After he called and said he had been shot, she went out to try and find him and was shot at by terrorists and ended up turning back.
After they received news that he had been killed, Limor said their little family is shattered: “The connection between [Lior and Kfir] was incredible, so much laughter and games, he was just teaching him how to ride a bike and we signed him up for a swimming lesson because he wanted to be just like Dad.”
“Kfir asks a lot of questions,” she added. “I explained to him that bad people killed Dad and he really wanted to come back to Kfir but he couldn’t, and now it’s just Mom and Kfir.”
