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Stamar community taking away yemen children.



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sayinghi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 5:19 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbXqOOPYYrg
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shabbatiscoming




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 5:44 pm
this is from almost 3 years ago. I remember watching it then and thinking of posting but I didnt.
This was one of the saddest things that I ever watched. Terrible and despicable.
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sayinghi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 5:57 pm
I know this is from a while ago but I just came across it and it is mind blowing. Have these parents gotten their children back???

Apparently this is not an isolated incident, is this YouTube documentary there is another Yemen couple who had their 6 kids taken away too.

Here’s the NY times article about it for those who can’t access the clips.




Child's Death Spotlights Culture Shock Among Yemeni Jews

By DAVID W. CHEN
Published: July 15, 2001



In 1994, Yahia and Lauza Jaradi left Yemen for a stab at life in America. As devout Jews in a Muslim land, they were eager to practice their religion freely. As poor teenagers with little education, they were grateful that their Hasidic sponsors, the ultra-Orthodox Satmars, had promised a nurturing environment.

Since then, however, their Yemeni dreams have crumbled into an American tragedy.

On a cold December day in 1998, in an unheated basement apartment here, their 1-year-old daughter, Hadiya, suffered head trauma and fell into a coma. The Jaradis insisted that Hadiya had fallen accidentally. But last year, a judge determined that she had been abused, and the Jaradis lost custody of Hadiya and their five other children.

Two weeks ago, Hadiya died at a hospital in Paterson, N.J. She was 4 years old. Preliminary autopsy results suggested that her death was a homicide consistent with shaken-baby syndrome, according to the Passaic County prosecutor's office. The Rockland County district attorney, Michael E. Bongiorno, said he was investigating the death to see if criminal charges were warranted. But this week, friends of the Jaradi family said that Mrs. Jaradi, heartbroken over her daughter's death, had left New York to take refuge in an undisclosed location.


















''I can't eat,'' Mrs. Jaradi said in an interview a day before her reported departure. ''I can't sleep. It's very hard for me.''

Whether the Jaradis are child abusers or victims, their story provides a rare window into the plight of the 100 or so Yemeni Jews who have been brought to Jewish enclaves in New York in the past decade or so. Scrutinized and sometimes ostracized because of differences in language and culture, many Yemeni Jews have adjusted poorly to their new surroundings. And while their friends say that this does not excuse criminal behavior, it does place them in a sadder context.

''This is a thousand light years from what they know,'' said a social worker in Rockland County who has assisted Yemeni families. ''They are overwhelmed. Most of them do not adapt, and they are living in very difficult circumstances, with a lot of psychological stress. It's easy to blame, but I don't know if anyone can be blamed for this tragedy.''

Throughout their 2,500-year history, Jews in Yemen have often been regarded as outsiders or outcasts. Most settled in villages, working as craftsmen and adhering to strict religious rituals that include, to this day, the reading of the Bible in Aramaic. But Jews were sometimes discriminated against and set apart by law. In the late 19th century in Yemen, Jews were typically forced to remove excrement from public toilets and to discard animal carcasses.

After Israel gained independence in 1948, roughly 90 percent of the 60,000 Jews in Yemen were airlifted there in an endeavor called ''Operation Magic Carpet.'' But for some Yemeni Jews, Israel did not prove to be the paradise they expected. Some found the more secular orientation disquieting, and others felt as if they were treated like second-class citizens.

In the 1960's, Yemen essentially closed its borders, cutting Jews off from the outside world. Two decades later, representatives of the Satmars, an ardently anti-Zionist Hasidic group based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with a major outpost in Kiryas Joel, in Orange County, were allowed to send representatives to Yemen, where they encouraged Yemeni Jews to study in New York or London instead of in Israel. In 1991, diplomatic efforts led by a Yeshiva University professor, Hayim Tawil, resulted in the exodus of 1,000 or so Jews, with most settling in Israel or America. Today, only about 300 Jews remain in Yemen.

About 100 Yemeni Jews have settled in New York under the aegis of the Satmars, said Ephraim Isaac, president of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. Some express tremendous gratitude to the Satmars. But others criticize Satmar leaders for promoting a rigid, Yiddish-only orthodoxy and punishing nonconformists.

A few years ago in Brooklyn, the Satmars quarreled with a Yemeni family that, after sending a son to America to study the Torah, wanted him to return home. The Satmars resisted, and ''kept coming up with red herrings,'' said Detective Allen Presser of the Brooklyn district attorney's office. ''I think they wanted to convert him to become more religious.'' Ultimately, law enforcement officials defused the standoff, and the boy was happily reunited with his father, the detective said.

Yahia Jaradi, now 27, first traveled from Yemen to Kiryas Joel on a student visa in 1993, he said, after Satmar recruiters in Yemen told him they would pay for his religious studies in America, his housing and his food. A short while later, he said, he returned to Yemen to collect his wife, now 24, and their two daughters and bring them back to New York.

But this time, Mr. Jaradi said, he was told that there was no house for his family. Instead, they had to live with a Satmar family in Kiryas Joel. There wasn't much time to study, either, he said, because he was required to spend many hours collecting donations for the Satmars. Mr. Jaradi said he was allowed to keep only a small part for living expenses.

''The Satmars, they say you have to collect money, collect money,'' Mr. Jaradi said in an interview on Tuesday at a friend's house here. ''It's not easy. But what can you do? You have to listen.''

Mr. Jaradi said he soon realized that Yemeni Jews stood out within the Satmars' insular world. Most have dark olive-toned skin and speak Arabic and a Yemeni-Hebrew dialect. Their traditional clothing is colorful, festooned with elaborate embroidery or jewelry. They favor foods more apt to be found in a Middle Eastern spice bazaar than in an Eastern European delicatessen.

Once, the Satmars demanded that Mrs. Jaradi shave her head as Satmar women do, Mr. Jaradi said. She did, but vowed never to do it again.

The Satmars also insisted that the couple's children be educated according to Satmar custom. ''Only Yiddish, only Torah,'' Mr. Jaradi said. ''No English.''

Concerned that their ethnic identity was being erased, he said, the family began to act more independently. Mr. Jaradi took a job as a taxi driver, against the wishes of his rabbinical teachers. Mrs. Jaradi cared for the children, but her husband said they had to fend off Satmars who offered to buy their children for as much as $20,000 apiece.
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Maya




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 6:06 pm
Whenever I see these boys from Yemen in Satmar garb, my heart goes out to them. It's true they are forced to conform, but then completely shunned from the society. It's heartbreaking.
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ectomorph




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 6:09 pm
"The Satmars"

Yeah, this person clearly has her hand on the pulse of the Satmar and Yemenite community.
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sayinghi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 6:19 pm
ectomorph wrote:
"The Satmars"

Yeah, this person clearly has her hand on the pulse of the Satmar and Yemenite community.


ectomorph, by this person do you mean me?

also, care to elaborate if you feel there is something about this situation that I am missing?
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groisamomma




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 6:22 pm
Posting this here was a real mitzvah, the kind that gets you a special place in Gan Eden. Rolling Eyes
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Lady Bug




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 6:27 pm
I know that the satmar community probably meant good, but they succeeded in distancing good Yemeni Jews from yiddishkeit rather than bring them close. It is a very sad when someone loses their mesorah, and no one should have understood that as much as Satmar.
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sayinghi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 6:36 pm
groisamomma wrote:
Posting this here was a real mitzvah, the kind that gets you a special place in Gan Eden. Rolling Eyes


groisamomma, why? do you perfer to ignore realities such as these?
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flowerpower




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 6:48 pm
Posting it here will change things that happened 20 years ago? Come on!!!!! I know there are yeminites living in satmer communities but they have contact with their families. The parents agreed to it for a reason. My sisters sil is a yeminite girl that was raised here but very close to her parents. I don't know the inside stories nor do I care in the least bit. If it bothers you then find a parent and discuss in with them. Maybe you can help them find their lost children.
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sayinghi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 7:11 pm
flowerpower wrote:
If it bothers you then find a parent and discuss in with them. Maybe you can help them find their lost children.


it really does bother me. I cried my eyes out watching this documentary. flowerpower, you are right! I need to see if there is anything about it that I can do.

Thanks
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groisamomma




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 8:29 pm
sayinghi wrote:
groisamomma, why? do you perfer to ignore realities such as these?


No, I prefer to search through YouTube in an effort to dredge up 3-year-old shmutz on Satmar.

Please keep us posted on your helping efforts.
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sayinghi




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 9:26 pm
groisamomma wrote:
No, I prefer to search through YouTube in an effort to dredge up 3-year-old shmutz on Satmar.

Please keep us posted on your helping efforts.


What makes you think I went looking for shmutz? The few satmar pple that I know wouldn't ,don't strike me as the kind of pple who would participate in these kind of things. I'm actually surprised by the responses here on imamother. With the exception of one reply all the other replies ignored the plight of these poor poor parents and assume anyone who wants to discuss this must have a bone to pick with satmar. If you all want to look the other way that's fine but don't hate on someone who feels bad watching other pple suffering.
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sleepless mom




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 9:36 pm
When I watched it I cried and cried and couldn't believe it. Towards the end there is a lady talking I saw her a few times she livesnin Williamsburg and I remember people talking about how she didn't know how to raise her kids and she was babysitting someone's baby for money I remember thinking to myself why do people let her babysit when she is such an unfit parent.
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sleepless mom




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 13 2014, 9:38 pm
sayinghi wrote:
it really does bother me. I cried my eyes out watching this documentary. flowerpower, you are right! I need to see if there is anything about it that I can do.

Thanks

For the people who live in Williamsburg and know this lady you can do a lot you can visit her and help her at least feel normal in society
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myself




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Feb 14 2014, 5:45 am
I didn't check the clip but all I can tell you is that Jews in Yemen were and are under enormous threat and danger, with many girls being kidnapped. Taking them out is saving them. Perhaps some are unhappy but many are very grateful.

I didn't watch the documentary so apologies if I'm completely off the mark here.
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imasoftov




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Feb 14 2014, 6:06 am
myself wrote:
I didn't check the clip but all I can tell you is that Jews in Yemen were and are under enormous threat and danger, with many girls being kidnapped. Taking them out is saving them. Perhaps some are unhappy but many are very grateful.

I didn't watch the documentary so apologies if I'm completely off the mark here.

Perhaps you misunderstood the title of the documentary as being about taking the children away from Yemen. It's about taking them away from their parents.
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Feb 14 2014, 8:18 am
Some of the taken children (by Satmar and Temani) over time were taken because the secular authorities wanted to make them frei. Read holy woman.

I must point out that many "less insular" groups would not have let the kids stay so Temani and/or marry into their group as openly as Satmar did.

Now, of course I don't know what this precise story is about.
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DrMom




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Feb 14 2014, 8:38 am
http://www.jewlicious.com/2009.....rael/
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