Community
JW3 invites community to attend shiva today for murdered hostage Oded Lifschitz
‘It would be wonderful for Sharone to be completely surrounded by love’
March 16, 2025 11:38
‘It would be wonderful for Sharone to be completely surrounded by love’
March 16, 2025 11:38This afternoon, the UK Jewish community will be holding a shiva for the family of Oded Lifschitz, who was murdered in Hamas captivity.
Oded, 84, a peace activist and one of the founding members of Kibbitz Nir Oz, was murdered after being taken hostage during the October 7 Hamas massacre. His body was returned on February 20, along with those of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, and he was buried in Israel, where the family has just finished sitting shiva.
His wife, Yocheved, 86, was also abducted by terrorists, but she was freed after just over two weeks in captivity. On her release, she described being tied up by terrorists and beaten with a wooden pole.
The shiva in London will be held today at JW3 between 3.30 and 5.30pm, and mourners will be able to offer their condolences to Oded’s daughter Sharone Lifschitz, who is a UK-based artist.
CEO of JW3 Raymond Simonson said that he would like to see strong attendance from the UK Jewish community. “It would be wonderful for Sharone to be completely surrounded by love and support from across the community,” he told the JC.
Born in Haifa on May 11, 1940, Oded worked as a journalist and a peace activist. In 1972, he campaigned for Bedouins who were expelled from the Sinai Peninsula by Israeli authorities.
A decade later, he was one of the first journalists to report on the Sabra and Shatila massacres, when Israeli-backed Christian militias killed between 800 and 2,000 Palestinians in Beirut refugee camps.
In February, Yocheved received a peace award for campaigning for the hostages. She said: “Oded was a great fighter for peace. He had very good relations with Palestinians, and the thing that hurts the most is they betrayed him.”
At the news of his death, his family said that after relentless campaigning for the release of Oded and the other hostages, they could now grieve for a husband, grandfather and great-grandfather, but after “503 agonising days of uncertainty”, they had “hoped and prayed for a different outcome”.
Sharone Lifschitz will be receiving visitors at JW3 on the Dorfman Piazza between 3.30 and 5.30 on Sunday March 16