EVANSVILLE, In. (WEHT) – Some relief comes to an Evansville family tonight after 85-year-old Yocheved Lifschitz is now back home. Yocheved and her husband Oded were abducted from their home during the October 7 terrorist attack orchestrated by Hamas in Israel.
We’d previously spoken with Lifschitz’ nephew, Mark Vyvoda and his wife Tory Schendel-Vyvoda about their missing relatives on October 13. “The first couple of hours were a little bit of a shock,” Mark said, “As time is going on now, it’s becoming real.”
The family received pictures of Yocheved, or “Yoshki” as they call her, in a hospital with a smile on her face. “There was just radio silence, there was really no communication for a week or two,” Mark says. “That was the hard part. There is hope for all of the other hostages.” One of those hostages is their uncle, Oded.
Their aunt managed to survive for three weeks without additional oxygen, which was a large part of the family’s concern when she was taken. “It’s been three weeks,” says Tory. “And to not have oxygen for three weeks and be alive, and be okay, that just gives me some shred of hope that there was humanity and dignity involved in this.”
Although they still await word on their uncle, they can’t help but feel relieved for the release of Yoshki and the family reunion that’s sure to follow. They say this is far from over and they hope no one else has to experience anything like this. Yoshki’s daughter, who lives in London, is on her way to Israel right now to reunite with her mother.
