Mother Brings Son to Bris Milah, Two Months After Escaping Arab Village
July 13, 2016
Photo credit: Yad L'Achim The extraordinary circumcision.
Every Bris Milah is emotional, but this one didn’t leave a dry eye in the house. The child, who was named Eli-Or, is the son of G., a Jewish woman who until recently was living with an abusive Arab husband in the village of Kara. After 10 years of living as a Muslim, she succeeded, with Yad L’Achim’s help, in escaping the village with her daughters.
G. was born 30 years ago to a large family and educated in religious-chareidi schools. She suffered for years at the hands of parents who mistreated her and in her early teens married an Arab who worked in her neighborhood. She saw him as a way out of her miserable home life and moved in with him and his family in a village in the north.
Over the years, she had three daughters and raised them as Arabs, giving them a strict Muslim education.
Two years ago, after enduring a prolonged period of abuse at the hand of her husband, G. escaped to a shelter for battered women in northern Israel, where she lived with her daughters. Her Arab husband pleaded with her to return to him and after he promised that he’d changed and would treat her differently, she returned with him to his village.
But it wasn’t long before the violence returned and even intensified. She realized that she’d made a mistake and turned to Yad L’Achim in a desperate plea for help. One of the organization’s social workers was placed in charge of her case, delving into the complicated circumstances of her life, while a team set about planning a rescue. Two months ago, Yad L’Achim rescued G. and her children and brought them to a safe house, out of reach of her Arab husband.
A week and a half ago, she gave birth to her fourth child, a son. Despite all she’d been through, it was clear to her that she would hold a Bris Milah for this child, in full accordance with Jewish law.
At the emotional ceremony, G. explained why she chose the name Eli-Or. She said that after the difficult life she’d led, she wanted to see some light. “I chose the name to symbolize light, in order to add light to my life,” she said. (Eli-Or means “to me light.”)
Yad L’Achim continues to actively help G. “We are moved together with her at the birth of Eli-Or and happy about her decision to bring him into the covenant of Avraham and raise him in Torah,” said an official.
