Raya Ahrak, the late Omri Ahrak’s mother 's Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

“A Place at the Table” is a commemorative project that documents the favorite dishes of those lost on October 7 with the help of their families.   

In the last year of his life, Omri Ahrak focused solely on the things he loved, says his mother Raya Ahrak. He left his computer science program, moved to Tel Aviv, and spent much of his time playing footvolley — a hybrid of soccer and volleyball — on the beach. He brought his guitar with him everywhere — he played and wrote songs. And he hopped between cafes and restaurants meeting up with friends.  

“Thankfully, he didn’t listen to me and stayed true to himself,” Raya says while warming the sweet-and-sour chicken sauce she used to make for Omri whenever he came home on weekends. “He lived the last year of his life his way.”

She vividly remembers their last conversation on the evening of Friday, October 6. At 6:30 p.m., she called to ask when he would be coming over for the holiday dinner. He knew how much it meant to her to have the whole family together, but this time, he asked for a one-time “pass” so he could rest before heading to the Nova music festival in the south with his friends. The next morning, when she tried to call him, he didn’t answer.

Omri arrived at the festival at 3:30 a.m. with his two best friends from the army, Almog Sarusi and his partner Shachar Gindi, along with Noam Shai and his partner Danielle Waldman. At 6:30 a.m., when the sirens began, they got into the car, trying to escape as quickly as possible. In the last video Omri filmed at 7:25 a.m., he’s smiling, reassuring the girls in the car, saying, “Don’t worry, it will be okay.” A few minutes later, they encountered a terrorist ambush on Route 232. Omri, Noam, Shachar, and Danielle were murdered. Almog was kidnapped to Gaza, where he was held captive for almost a year before he was murdered in early September 2024, along with five other hostages.

Omri was Raya and her husband Tsfania’s eldest, born in 1997. He was an older brother to Gal and Meital and grew up  in Elyakhin, near Raya’s parents, who were like a second set of parents to him. “He was a bright boy with a deeply sensitive soul,” Raya says. He often fought for justice. His friends called him “a child of love” because he was always smiling and radiating warmth. “He could walk down the street, strike up a conversation with a stranger, then invite them for coffee and arak and play music,” she recalls. “He couldn’t see evil — he believed in free love and compassion.”

In the army, Omri served in ‘Orev’ Givati, an infantry brigade, where he met Noam and Almog. For the three years he was in the army, his mother worried about him. 

“He wasn’t a big eater,” she says, “but during his big post-army trip to the East, he fell in love with Asian food.” From then on, whenever he came home on weekends, she would spoil him with what she calls the “Omriki special” — chicken in a sweet-and-sour sauce made with orange and lemon juice, sweet chili sauce, and maple syrup.

“On some days, we struggle to find strength to get up and move forward, but life is stronger than anything,” Raya says. Commemorating Omri helps them to keep going. “We dance the tango — one step forward, two steps back. The dance of our lives.”

Now, they are focusing on their most significant commemorative project: a footvolley school in Elyakhin, on land given to them by the local council. “Omri believed that a ball had the power to bring people together,” she says. They will fulfill his dream of making footvolley accessible to everyone in his memory.

Did you prepare the dish? Share a photo of it and tag it #A_Place_at_the_Table  to honor the memory of the late Omri Ahrak.