It was an emotional reunion on Tuesday in the Jerusalem Family Court between a mother and her 19-year-old daughter after the two were apart for several months. The mother claims the “Shawl Women” abducted her daughter. She petitioned the court asking that a guardian be appointed to ensure the welfare of her child.
The daughter arrived in her full regalia, burka and all, but when she saw her mother she ran to embrace her and the two hugged and cried for a period of time. Security personnel tried to remove the mother from the courtroom but the judge permitted her to remain due to the emotional situation at hand.
Kikar Shabbat quotes attorneys Rivka Schwartz and David Helfer, representing the parents, as saying they cannot comment on the ongoing case in keeping with the court’s instructions. They were permitted to say the court has ordered an investigation into the “dangerous cult and its members”.
About eight months ago, the daughter of the Yerushalmi family disappeared from the family home and the frantic parents only heard from her 48 hours following her disappearance. During the phone call, the daughter explained she is staying with a friend and will be home soon. That was the end of the connection between the parents and their child.
The distraught parents turned to police for assistance. Police explained their child is no longer a minor and there is nothing they can do. Through a chain of events, the parents learned their child was now a member of the Shawl Women cult. Askanim were brought in to assist, seeking to find the apartment where the daughter was living. This took over three months during which time there was no word from the child.
About Sukkos time the parents learned the cult leaders decided to marry off the child to a convert ten years her senior. The parents learned of this and beseeched askanim to try to intervene to persuade her not to go through with the shidduch. An appeal for assistance was also made with Eida Chareidis Gavaad HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss Shlita, who became very involved. The Gavaad released a letter forbidding the chasenah without the consent of her parents.
The case continues in court.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
Mods: please get it straight once and for all – shawl and burka women are NOT one and the same. Please correct this article. You are misleading the public and misrepresenting facts.
They say she has her mother’s eyes…….
And did these wackos listen to the Gavaad? What a sad case…tragic.
from the video, it seems that the mother also wears a taliban outfit, too.
Amen vAmen, may we hear bsoros tovos.
Who runs the shawl cult? Do they listen to rulings of the Eida? Do they listen to some other beit din?
sick story!!! But so typical of these emotionally disturbed shawl women. All of them, either have shalom bayis issues, are divorced, on pills or are extreme balei teshuva. I know a few of them. All the same story. Very sad indeed.
This is about a family squabble, and really isn’t something that should be “in the news.” There aren’t public personalities. Their own personal problems should remain “personal”.
Some women wear shawls when they go out as an extra layer of clothing to enhance their tsnius. While some consider this extreme, and I personally do not do so, I think it is admirable to try to improve one’s tsnius. As far as a burka is concerned, is that the thing that covers one’s face? If it is, I think it is not the way to go because it never was part of our culture, but, of a culture that is alien to us.
#9 Your point is not actually a good one as all so called “jewish dress” is not Jewish in nature we adopted it from our non-jewish neighbors. i think your point would be better if you said how all the rabbanim are coming out against this wearing of a Burka as completly not Tznius