The Jewish Community of Vienna, Austria is helping to search for the Israeli mother and daughter who went missing there this week, leaders of that community said Thursday, as an Israeli court issued a gag order on details from the investigation.
“All the Jewish groups here have circulated online a missing person’s banner and we’re waiting for further updates,” Ariel Muzicant, a former president of the Jewish Community in Vienna, told JNS. “I must have received a dozen calls on this subject but unfortunately we don’t have any new information.”
The family of Mali and Liel Yahalomi, aged 50 and 23, issued a statement on Wednesday, Ynet reported, saying that “no unusual use was made of Mali and Liel’s bank accounts, and the last use was on August 3.” The gag order issued on Thursday prohibits publication of any details from the police’s investigation or information that could identify suspects.
The last time that the Yahalomis had contact with their family in Israel was on Friday afternoon, Ma’ariv reported. They did not board their flight from Prague, the Czech Republic, on Tuesday. Israeli and Austrian police are looking into their whereabouts. The two women observe Shabbat, and their family was not concerned about them until Sunday, Israel Hayom reported.
Rabbi Jacob Biderman, a top Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Vienna, told JNs the local community “shares the great concern of the rest of the Jewish world and the people in Israel with regard to the safety and well-being of the mother and daughter, but all we can do is stay vigilant and help look for them. That’s what we’re doing.”
Biderman added that any speculation about the fate of the two women would be “irresponsible and unfair” to their family. “We are following, we are praying, we are keeping our eyes open and we hope for a happy conclusion,” he said.
Mali and Liel Yahalomi, whose home is Modi’in in central Israel, had traveled together abroad before their trip to Europe, having spent close to a month traveling in the United States, a family member told Ma’ariv.
