וועגן די פילם "בחזקת סאטמאר" תימן
 מצורף קובץעס איז בשעתו געווען א אשכול וועגן דעם
איך טרעף דאס נישט
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Yahia Jaradi in a film about members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect.
April 6, 2005
MOVIE REVIEW | 'IN SATMAR CUSTODY'
A Refuge as Nightmare for a Jewish Family From Yemen
By ANITA GATES
ome people refer to them as missionaries. Others call them recruiters. They are members of the Satmar Hasidic sect who encourage Jews from Yemen to move to the United States, with their help. In the case of Yahia Jaradi, they promised to pay for his food, shelter and religious studies, so he accepted the offer. To say that the arrangement turned into a nightmare is an understatement.
Mr. Jaradi and his wife, Lauza, tell their story in Nitzan Gilady's modest, disturbing documentary "In Satmar Custody." The tragedy began to take shape after the Jaradis had been in the United States for several years. One day in 1998, at home in Monsey, N.Y., their daughter, Hadiyah, fell from her chair and lost consciousness. A neighbor tried to rouse the child by shaking her, Mrs. Jaradi says in the film, but to no avail. When Hadiyah was taken to a hospital, comatose, bruises were found on her, the Jaradis were charged with child abuse, and their other children were soon taken from them and placed with Satmar families. Hadiyah died in 2001.
The same thing has happened to native-born American parents, of course, some guilty and some completely innocent. But the Jaradis' ordeal was intensified by the constraints of the life they had been able to make in the United States. The Satmars, who are ultra-Orthodox and also fervent anti-Zionists, took away Mr. Jaradi's passport, he says, and forced him to work for them, fund-raising door to door. The children were not allowed to learn English, which, as the film notes, effectively made them even more isolated in their new home and dependent on the religious leaders.
A good bit of the documentary follows the Jaradis through the almost unbearably frustrating process of trying just to see their daughter and, when she dies, to be able to claim her body and bury her. But the message of "In Satmar Custody" is much more ominous than a lament about red tape.
When Shlomo Grafi, a Long Island man identified as chief executive of the Yemenite Heritage Fund, is asked in the film what the Satmar sect does, he says, "Mostly they like to take children." One man says of Mr. Jaradi, "He was offered $20,000 for one of his twins." Another tells of having lost all six of his children to Satmar leaders. Mr. Jaradi replies, "God help us."
The Jaradis now live in Israel and are fighting for custody of their children in the United States.
'In Satmar Custody'
Opens today in Manhattan.
Written (in English, Hebrew, Yemenite and Yiddish, with English subtitles), produced and directed by Nitzan Gilady; director of photography, Yaron Orbach; edited by Ron Goldman; music by Ophir Leibovitch; released by Yona Productions. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street, at Avenue A, East Village. Running time: 70 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Yahia Jaradi and Lauza Jaradi.
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