A Jewish New Yorker who survived Hamas’ attack on the Nova Music Festival reunited with the man who saved her life — but admits she’s still nervous in the US.
Natalie Sanandaji, 28, of Long Island, returned to Israel for the first time last week since surviving the Oct. 7 massacre to reunite with Israeli hero Moshe Sati.
Sati, alongside his son, saved more than 100 festival-goers by driving into the terrorist attack and carting people out of the festival grounds by the truck-full more than 10 times.
“Not many people would do what he did,” Sanandaji told The Post Thursday after landing back in New York. “He was honestly one of the kindest souls I’ve ever met.”
Sanandaji only learned Sati’s name recently as the chaos and the dire urge to get to safety preoccupied her at the time of the attack and rescue.
Upon her return to Israel, one of her friend’s fathers found out who he was and sent Sati’s number to her. Then they arranged a meeting.
“I’m very lucky that he is who is he and he was there that day to save me,” Sanandaji said. “He’s the guy in his hometown that anytime someone needs help, they always come to him and he always says yes. He doesn’t think twice, it’s just who he is.”
Sati never wanted the recognition for his heroic act, Sanandaji said, as he is a “modest person.”
“That’s the biggest thing a person could do for you [is save your life],” the Long Islander said. “I didn’t even know how to thank him.
“It was incredible, it kind of goes against human nature, because human nature can be so selfish, and to just meet such a selfless person who was really willing to risk his own life — not once, but risk his life over and over again… To meet someone like that who has such a big heart and is so selfless, it’s not something you see every day. It was really amazing to meet him.”
Sati’s son — who practices Shabbat, meaning he cannot drive gas-powered vehicles on Saturdays, among other things — never hesitated to get in his own truck and help his father save terrified festivalgoers on Saturday, Oct. 7.
The son and father caught up to attendees — like Sanandaji — who had been running from terrorists for several hours and threw them in the back of their pickup trucks.
Sati had found Sanandaji after she and her group of friends had been running for four hours, she told The Post in October.
At the time, they didn’t know if Sati was coming to kill them or save them. He drove them to the neighboring town of Patish, less than 10 miles outside of the Gaza Strip, before heading back to the festival to save more people.
They met for the first time outside of Sati’s home, and “he started tearing up and he got emotional,” Sanandaji said. Their touching reunion was filmed by CNN.
The pair quickly developed a deep bond from their shared trauma — so much so that the father-of-four invited her to his table every time she visits Israel. The New Yorker said she plans on taking him up on his offer as soon as she can.
The Iranian-Israeli, who has lived on Long Island her whole life, also visited the festival grounds for the first time since the attack.
Photos of the faces of the more than 350 people killed at the festival have been attached to sticks and erected on the grounds in a memorial. One of the faces belongs to the brother of Sanandaji’s former boss, who was a DJ at the festival.
Despite the terror Sanandaji faced that day, she said she feels safer in Israel than in the US, echoing what she told The Post in October.
Since that interview, the Big Apple has seen countless acts of antisemitism, including people tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis, vandals spray-painting a swastika on a Jewish deli and a man slugging a woman in the face over her Jewish heritage on a subway car.
As Sanandaji has watched this all unfold in the Big Apple — which has the highest Jewish population outside of Israel — she believes she’s the “safest as a Jew in Israel,” she said.
“I’m more anxious to be home right now,” she said over the phone just an hour after landing back in the Empire State. “I just arrived back in New York today and I don’t feel comfortable speaking Hebrew in very public places, and I definitely feel more cautious walking around here.”
She said it’s “sad to see” the amount of antisemitism happening in the US, especially on college campuses.
Several colleges have seen their presidents in hot water, including UPenn’s Liz Magill who stepped down over backlash. Others, including Harvard and MIT, are now calling on similar actions.
“When any type of leader shows that they think it’s okay for these antisemitic attacks to be happening, it gives any lone wolf or any average person who has antisemitic thoughts the feeling that it’s okay to take actions and that they won’t be reprimanded, and that’s scary,” Sanandaji said.
But she says it’s not just the US that is seeing the rise in hate towards Jews.
While traveling, Sananaji noticed hateful graffiti in Barcelona and encountered a group of nervous Jews at a coffee shop in Germany.
“It made me really sad,” she said. “It’s really everywhere right now.”