Israel- 3 years of age, Pieter still vividly remembers being an eye-witness to the execution of a Jewish family Nazis found hiding with his neighbors back in Ukraine. The neighbors too were murdered for aiding the Jews.
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Mere days later, two Jewish boys – David and Buszia Schmeigel – entered the Senevich family’s backyard. Their mother, who had been deported to the camps, was able to allow the boys to escape, telling them they must run and try to immigrate to Palestine, which was under British mandate at the time.
The Senevich family did not hesitate; they risked their lives and hid the two children in their home. After the war, the boys made it to Israel and currently reside in Beersheba.
In 1993, the Israeli consul in Ukraine managed to locate and reconnect the two families, which resulted in Yad Vashem granting Pieter the title of ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ – bestowed on non-Jewish men and women of all religions who helped saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust. ‘We thought this was our home’
Five years ago Pieter and his wife Olga immigrated to Israel with their 29-year-old daughter Rosa. They settled in Beersheba, wishing to live close to David and Buszia.
But the Senevich family was dealt a devastating blow after Rosa’s visa expired and the Ministry of the Interior informed her she must leave.
Rosa has already established herself in Israel, having found a job and giving birth to her daughter. She lives with her parents and provides for them.
“How are we to remain here without Rosa, who is our sole supporter?” asked Pieter. “Why are they asking her to leave? We thought this was our home.”
Shmaya Shushan, a family’s friend who employs Rosa in his factory, is trying to help the family reverse
the State’s decision. So is the ATZUM (Avodot TZdaka U’Mishpat – or ‘Justice Works’), the agency involved with aiding those recognized as Righteous Among the Nations; but so far to no avail.
The Ministry of Interior said in response: “Senevich has a permanent resident status for humanitarian reasons, and due to his Righteous Among the Nations title. His daughter has been living in Israel on a work visa, which has expired. She can visit her parents whenever she wants.”
Is that how they treated the boys. Telling them they had no visa. Why dont we treat their child the way ours was treated?
what do you expect from Isreal?
If somebody came to Satmar it would be differemt
if the zionists abandon their own why would you expect them to do the right thing here?
it is well known that the zionist’s leaders wished for many jews to be killed during the war, and stoped anyone who tried to save them. Their intent was that the world should feel bad for them and give them a state. Perhaps, this payback for a descendant of someone who saved jews is in line with their old established policy.
If she would be Arab they wouldn’t dare kick her out!
Anonymous Says:
what do you expect from Isreal?
If somebody came to Satmar it would be differemt
06-25-2008 – 2:15 PM
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Is that so? i have to disgree on this one. Look at what the satmarers did to those yemenite families. What a shanda!!
uu:
The Yemenites are thanking their Satmar benefactors until this day.
On top of everything else, they saved the Yemenites from being shmadded by the zionists ym’s.
uu:
please let us know what the satmars did to the yemenite families.
Look what the Tziyoinim did to the Yemenutes!
February 11, 2006
K.J. Satmarstry to block wife’s leaving
Family dispute involves 7 kids
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
[email protected]
Kiryas Joel – When police arrived at the apartment building that Sunday afternoon in December, a crowd had gathered on Lizensk Boulevard for what appeared to be a domestic dispute that had somehow aroused a lot of attention.
Since then, a curious tale has emerged, one of a teenage Jewish couple spirited out of the Middle Eastern country of Yemen 11 years ago and absorbed into this insular Hasidic community. This is where they had seven children in rapid succession and then found themselves at loggerheads.
What went wrong in the Alnahari household is a matter of dispute, soon to play out in Family Court. Seven young children are caught in the middle, pawns in a larger struggle involving the Satmar Hasidim and the Yemenite Jews they rescued from persecution.
The Satmar hosts are cast as sinister prison guards, bent on separating Yemenite children from their parents; the self-described rescuers are reviled for seeking to corrupt fellow Jews by dispatching them to a secular Israel.
The story might have stayed within the Satmar world, but for the repeated police involvement. The conflict rose a notch when state troopers arrested three men who allegedly forced their way into the Alnahari apartment to berate the 27-year-old mother, Sanaa, and two women who have been helping her.
Felony burglary charges were filed against Israel Grunhut, 27; Issac Weinstock, 29; and Israel Rolnitsky, 44. The three Kiryas Joel men were briefly held in the Orange County Jail in Goshen until each posted $25,000 cash bail.
Virtually no one involved in the case wanted to discuss it yesterday. The lone exception was Barbara Strauss, a Goshen lawyer representing Sanaa’s 29-year-old husband, Youssef, in his pending custody battle with his wife.
“It would be nice,” she said, “if everyone got out of Mr. and Mrs. Alnaharis’ business. It’s just a sad situation.”
What keeps drawing crowds to the Alnaharis’ basement apartment – including yesterday – is the presence of two women determined to help the wife: Yocheved Mauda, a Yeminite immigrant who lived in Kiryas Joel for 17 years; and Rina Birnbaum, an Israeli immigrant who lives in New City.
They claim the husband conspired with Satmar authorities last year to commit Sanaa to a psychiatric ward for six weeks and place the couple’s 2-month-old baby and six other children with various families while she was away. They have shuttled her to the state police barracks to file complaints and to Family Court, where they helped her petition for custody.
The husband, meanwhile, has told police and the court that his wife suffered post-partum depression and threatened suicide before she was committed to a New York City hospital last year. He claims he temporarily placed the children in other homes so she wouldn’t be overwhelmed when she came home.
In Kiryas Joel, residents familiar with the situation believe Mauda and Birnbaum are trying to spirit Sanaa Alnahari and her children off to Israel. Satmar members regard Israel as an abomination and a secular society. They believe the Bible dictates that Israel shouldn’t exist until the Messiah comes.
Their revulsion for Israel induced some community members to visit Yemen in the 1990s and collect its remaining Jews, whose customs held a unique link to the world of the ancient Jews. Most Yeminite Jews had fled to Israel decades earlier to escape persecution in the predominantly Muslim country.
Interviewed in December, Sanaa Alnahari, who speaks little English, gave no indication she actually wanted to go to Israel. She didn’t seem at all certain what she wanted, except to have her children back. At that time, four of the seven children had been retrieved by Mauda or found their way home. Two more were returned.
The baby, who is reportedly disabled, was brought home, but is now in another foster home.
uu:
So the Alnaharis’ had an ugly custody battle. And the Mrs. tried to make false allegations against her husband, who lives in Kiryas Yoel, in order to gain custody. These ugly custody battles are, unfortunately, a dime a dozen.
But the facts remain, Satmar alone is credited with warmly welcoming the Yemenites who came to (and still live in) Kiryas Yoel because of the Torah lifestyle that they practiced for 3,000 years could be continued.
Instead of the zionists who forcibly would cut off the Yemenites payos, kidnap their children, and force them on kibbutim to take them away from their 3,000 year old Torah lifestyle.
Satmar helped save the Yemenites, and help them save their Yiddishkeit. The “others” wanted the Yemenites as soldiers and wanted them to throw away their beliefs and practice of our holy faith.
There is also a large group of Yemenites living in Lakewood. They have their own Shul and keep their minhagim.
the yemenite community in lakewood was also organized by the satmars. i happen to know some of the people involved; all working l’shem shomaiyim.