Another documentary that premiered this week at the Jerusalem Film Festival --
Looking for Yadida, directed by Israela Shaer
Meoded, is about the missing children chapter of our
history. This is a tragic and terrible part of Israel’s history from the years
of mass immigration just after the establishment of the state.
Looking for evidence of what happened to her own aunt (who
disappeared as an infant in the early part of 1950), the director becomes
involved, perhaps obsessed, with her research.
It leads her to expose a silenced trauma, one which involves the condescending attitude of a nation vis-à-vis the Yemenite and Mizrachi
communities. Because it was generally
believed that the mothers of the babies of these immigrant communities were not
capable of taking care of their multiple children, the babies were hustled away
and placed in baby housing facilities, which were staffed by professional but overworked
nurses. Anyone with a brain would know
that these babies would have been infinitely better off being cuddled, fed and
loved by their own mothers. So many of
these babies died, and so many were kidnapped and disappeared into the hands of
shady adoption deals. The enormity of
the tragedy is hard to bear.
The filmmaker uncovers testimonies in front of legal commissions, documents which have been doctored, unbelievable photographs of dozens and dozens of children housed in these WIZO baby institutions, and chilling testimonies by doctors about medical research performed on dead babies.
Looking for Yadida (documentary, 64 minutes)
is available from Stav Meron at Pardes Films, stav.meron750@gmail.com
On the same subject, I would recommend the fiction book by Ayelet Tsabari, entitled Songs
for the Broken Hearted. The book tells the story of Zohara,
a recently divorced academic, working towards her doctorate at NYU in
literature. When her mother passes away,
Zohara returns from abroad to Petach Tikva.
As she discovers that her mother had not only a secret romance as a
young woman, and that she was a second wife in a traditional Yemenite family,
but that also her mother was a wonderful singer and wrote her own songs about
unrequited love, Zohara finds herself drawn to her Yemenite roots. This is a
book about family stories, about questioning your own identity and about the
lost Yemenite and Mizrahi children who were kidnapped by “well-meaning” medical
staff. The story takes place on the
background of two historical periods – 1950s ma’abarot and 1995 Oslo accords
and anti-peace demonstrations leading to the incitement and ultimate violence
that led to the assassination of Rabin.
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