Jacqui Vital in Alberta: My daughter Adi was a lioness

by Maxine Fischbein

(AJNews) – Her name means jewel, but Adi Vital-Kaploun is also fittingly recalled as a lioness. On October 7, 2023, The 33-year-old mother of two sons—Negev, not quite yet four years of age, and Eshel, six months— rushed with her boys into the family’s saferoom at Kibbutz Holit when missiles began to rain down at 6:29am. Hamas terrorists then infiltrated Israel, initially killing some 1,200 Israelis, wounding hundreds more, taking 250 into captivity in Gaza, and sparking the ongoing lethal war in Gaza.

Adi Vital-Kaploun—who, like her mother, was both an Israeli and Canadian citizen—was one of 15 people murdered at Kibbutz Holit that day; her children and father survived, thanks, in large part, to her quick thinking and incredible bravery.

With remarkable composure, Adi’s mother, Jacqui Vital, shared her family’s story in Calgary at a September 3 talk at the Calgary JCC. For Vital, it was part of an eight-week tour during which she also spoke in Winnipeg and Edmonton. While in Calgary, she also addressed Hillel students at a Shabbaton on Friday, September 6 and participated in the Walk with Israel that kicked off the 2025 Calgary UJA campaign on Sunday, September 7. The week prior, on August 29, she spoke at a special Shabbat Dinner at Beth Shalom Synagogue in Edmonton and again the next day following Shabbat  services.

In speaking about her third-born daughter, Vital reveals a remarkable young woman who deserves to be remembered not only for the gruesome manner in which she died, but for the meaningful and loving way that she lived.

“Smart, serious, self-disciplined, talented, quiet, modest, sensitive, gentle, strong, independent, non-judgemental, accepting of others,” are some of the adjectives identified and amplified by friends of Adi and her family and shared by Vital with her Calgary audience.

An engineer who worked in cybersecurity, Adi had diverse interests and talents. She was a dancer, musician and basketball player who had served in an IDF intelligence unit.

She loved living in the desert, which she referred to as her Gan Eden – the Garden of Eden.

In front of an audience so still that it seemed nobody was breathing, Vital—herself a lioness—punctuated her talk with images including family photos and videos capturing good times prior to October 7; news footage of the terrorist attacks; and videos shot by the terrorists themselves.

Adi’s husband Anani was on a nature walk with friends that Shabbat and Simchat Torah morning and hid from the terrorists in the fields. Her father, Yaron Vital, who was visiting from Jerusalem, had stayed at a vacant kibbutz guesthouse just across the lane at Adi’s suggestion. She did not want his sleep disturbed due to the nocturnal cries of a hungry baby.

In the midst of the air raid, Adi’s father called her to say he would come over to help. Adi told him to stay where he was and to lock himself in the saferoom there.

The fact that the missiles kept coming was unusual. Adi called her husband and asked for a refresher on how to reload the rifle locked in their saferoom (due to Anani’s role on the kibbutz security squad).

It was not long before the Hamas terrorists broke through the kibbutz security fence. When the monsters burst into Adi’s house, it was not without a fight. She courageously opened fire, killing one of them. Eventually overpowered, she was then murdered in front of her sons.

All of this happened while Jacqui Vital was in her native Ottawa visiting her sister. Amidst a lovely visit, she noticed multiple urgent messages on her cell phone. Though she knew things were terribly wrong, it took hours and then days for all the details to emerge.

One video, from Israeli TV, shows the pioneering role Adi and her husband Anani had played in breathing new life into Kibbutz Holit, located just three kilometres from the Gaza border. There, together with a group of friends, they built what Adi considered an idyllic life. She inspired others who shared a similar mix of idealism and work ethic to embrace kibbutz life on the frontier.

Another clip, this one filmed by the perpetrators, shows the back of the Vital-Kaploun home where the terrorists entered.

Another horrifying image captures what the safe room looked like after the terrorists murdered Adi and then boobytrapped her body in the hope of multiplying their carnage.

Some photos and videos show the family celebrating holidays and lifecycle events during happier times. The juxtaposition tears at the soul, reinforcing the enormity of but one family’s loss.

Jacqui and Yaron Vital are the parents of three daughters, a son and eight grandchildren. The last photo of this clan was a selfie taken by Adi who smiles broadly in the foreground.

“It was taken on Rosh Hashanah 2023, three weeks before Adi’s murder,” Vital said.

Then there was the gorgeous photo of Adi on her wedding day.

“She was a beautiful bride, inside and out,” her mother recalled.

Here a photo of Adi as a child with her siblings, there an image taken when she cut her long hair so it could be fashioned into a wig that might improve the life of a cancer patient.

One photo is exceptionally precious. It is the only one that Jacqui Vital has of Adi, Anani, Negev, and Eshel together as they celebrated at a Brit Milah (Bris) just three months before disaster.

In a video made by the terrorists themselves—likely as a propaganda tool —they “tend” to Adi’s children after her murder. One rocks Eshel in his stroller. Another gives Negev a glass of water after perversely—no, obscenely—forcing him to say Bismillah, Arabic for “In the name of Allah.”

It makes one’s skin crawl.

Vital recounted how the terrorists then took the boys and a neighbour, Avital, across the border as hostages.

In what is now understood to have been a publicity stunt, the terrorists let them go just before the notorious tunnels at Rafah, videotaping their made-for-TV “humanitarian” effort. In one of the most searing images, little Negev stands alone on the border.

During her talk, Jacqui Vital described how Avital, who had been Adi’s friend, carried Eshel as the three made their way toward home. The journey was perilous. Negev, who had been shot in the foot, was in pain and at one point refused to go any further. Eshel was struggling to breathe due to smoke inhalation. Avital sheltered the boys, hiding behind dunes as other terrorists headed to the bowels of Gaza with more human prey.

Eventually rescued by IDF soldiers, Avital, Negev, and Eshel were taken to Kibbutz Gvulot. Soon after, the boys were taken to Jerusalem where doctors operated on Negev’s foot and Eshel was given oxygen.

Adi’s father, Yaron, survived the massacre at Holit. The guest house where he had spent the night was never entered by the terrorists, who were armed with intelligence about Holit and assumed the house was vacant.

When the IDF went through the pockets of dead terrorists, they found maps that indicated, “…who lived where, who had dogs, where the safe room was in each house, who had children, etcetera,” Jacqui Vital said.

When he eventually heard voices in the guesthouse, Yaron listened carefully for any hint of an Arabic accent. But he figured that after 11 hours, his time was up, said Vital who quoted her husband as having said, “Either they’ll kill me or they’ll save me.”

Fortunately, Yaron emerged from the safe room into the presence of IDF soldiers moving house to house to clear the kibbutz of terrorists.

At first, Adi’s body was not discovered, and the children were nowhere to be found.

Yaron called Anani who told him where to look for other hiding places but found nobody.

He went to the safe room but saw only a mess. It was dark…the terrorists having shot out most of the lights.

All three were presumed to have been taken hostage.

The IDF soldiers suggested that Yaron return to his home in Jerusalem, which he did, wisely driving a circuitous route after a friend living at a nearby Kibbutz told him that there were still terrorists on the roads.

Vital shared photos of other family members who survived on October 7, including her second-born daughter Ayala and her family. They had moved to Kibbutz Kissufim, also on the Gaza border only two months earlier, in part because Ayala wanted to be closer to her sister Adi.

“They were locked in their safe room for about 14 hours,” said Vital. “There were terrorists around their home all day long, but for some reason, the terrorists did not go into their home, and they were evacuated by the Israeli army.”

The rest of the family did not know whether Ayala and her family were dead or alive until 3:00am the following morning. Their power had been cut and, following their rescue, they were evacuated to the Dead Sea area.

Adi Vital-Kaploun was among the first victims of the October 7 attacks to be buried. Following her October 15 funeral, the soldiers who found Adi attended her shiva to pay their respects and share with her family how they had found her, Jacqui Vital said.

‘When they got to Adi’s safe room, they noticed that there was a grenade on the door, so they asked Yaron if he had tried to open that door,” Vital said.

He had.

“You were very lucky,” Vital quoted the rescuers as having said. “There was a grenade there, but you were lucky. Because it was defective, it didn’t explode.”

Assuming that there were other grenades, the soldiers had exited the home and pulled a window from the wall. It was then that one of them saw Adi’s hand sticking out from under a bed, closet, and crib that had been piled on top of her.

“Her body had been boobytrapped with 50 grenades,” Vital said. “If someone would have walked into that room, the whole room would have exploded.”

After Adi’s remains were carefully recovered, “She became a number,” Vital added. Between the rings on her fingers and her IDF dental records, she was later positively identified.

Jacqui Vital told her audience that she and her family are grateful for the outpouring of kindness and support they have had from countless people since October 7.

An ice cream shop in Herzliya that buys pineapples from Anani and his business partner honour Adi’s memory by adding to their merchandise a QR code that takes their customers to a webpage where they can learn about Adi, for whom the pineapples are named.

An Ottawa couple, who Vital did not previously know, created a line drawing of a lioness. Imbedded in the head of the lion is a likeness of Adi and incorporated at the bottom is the word haleviah (Hebrew for lioness).

The drawing links Adi to the Biblical verse Behold, a people that rises like a lioness and raises itself like a lion. (Numbers 23:24)

Proceeds from the sale of T-shirts and sweatshirts will go to a trust fund for Negev and Eshel, Vital said. Readers can go to www.irvingrivers.com for more information.

Ending her talk on an uplifting note, Jacqui Vital said, “The boys are fine, and I will put a smile on your face,” said Vital, adding that today Avital continues to look after Negev and Eshel together with Anani.

“Everyone is good. They all have each other,” Vital said.

That is not to say that their Adi is, or could ever be, forgotten. Negev, said Vital, treasures his own photo album filled with images of his Ima Adi, the lioness who remains the pride of all those who knew and loved her and countless others who now feel honoured to know and share her story.

Maxine Fischbein is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.