Dr. Margarita Mashavi, a physician at Wolfson Hospital who is the head of the department treating the returned hostages, told Ynet on Tuesday morning that Israeli historian Alex Dancyg, 75, who was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, was held together with some of the hostages that have been released.

One of the hostages said that Dancyg helped pass the time in captivity by giving two to three-hour lectures on Israeli history to his fellow hostages.

His family is relieved that Dancyg is feeling relatively well, and his son-in-law even quipped on Israeli radio: “Well, at least he now has a captive audience.”

Dancyg, a world-renowned Holocaust educator who was born in Poland, sent a message to his family through one of the released hostages. She reported that he is doing fairly well, a huge relief to his family as he underwent bypass surgery two years ago and takes life-saving medication.

“It was a great relief to receive the regards from Alex, to know that he is alive, that he is okay, and that he is receiving his medications,” his son-in-law Yaron Maor told Ynet. “He underwent coronary artery bypass surgery about two years ago, and he needs daily medications. We were happy to hear that he is receiving his medications and that there is someone from his kibbutz with him in captivity who is a nurse by profession and is helping him.”

“The moment we heard that he’s delivering lectures we understood that this time he has a ‘captive audience,’ and it made us laugh. He’s an expert in history and loved giving us lectures, until we almost ran away from him and from the table at home. Now, where will his audience escape to? This is what they mean by ‘captive audience’ – they can’t run away from his lectures.”

“We were happy to know that he is receiving his medications. We were also happy that members of the kibbutz are together there and supporting each other. That’s a big relief  and there’s hope that he will return home.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)