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(A7) N., born and raised in a large settlement in Judea and Samaria, lost her father when she was just a child. As the firstborn, she was expected to help her mother shoulder the burden of raising the family.
An Arab who worked in the settlement’s maintenance department picked up on her distress and befriended her, to the distress of her mother. He promised her the world and showered her with expensive gifts, and she responded by converting to Islam and marrying him in the Sharia religious court.
After the wedding, N. was brought to her husband’s home and received the shock of her life. In the home, located in a village near Shechem (Nablus), she discovered his Muslim wife and six children. If that weren’t enough, the house had no running water or electricity.
“It was like going back 200 years,” she later told a social worker from Yad L’Achim.
For their part, the Muslim wife and children decided to show N. exactly how they felt about her. They called her “stinking Jew,” vowed to kill her and her Jewish family and did everything they could to remind her that was not wanted.
N. was in an impossible situation. She wanted to run away, but feared for her life is she were caught by her Arab husband. However, when she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, she decided to make a run for it, come what may.
“I can’t raise my daughter in this place,” she told herself.
She mustered the courage and called her mother, for the first time since her marriage. The mother, who had been in touch with Yad L’Achim, matched N. up with the rescue organization’s social worker, who was already familiar with the story.
Child named after Jewish uncle who was buried as a Muslim
The rescue was arranged two days later. N. asked her Arab husband to drive her to the mother-child health center in the settlement where he worked in order to open a file for the baby.
Right after she was dropped off, a Yad L’Achim rescue pulled up and drove her and her daughter to a secret safe house. A few days later, N. went to a nearby police station and filed a complaint against her husband, resulting in his entry permit to Israel being canceled.
Last week, N. came before the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court and took part in a moving “Return to Judaism” ceremony.
“The war spurred me to return to Judaism,” she told the dayanim (religious judges). “I felt that every second I didn’t take this step I was acting against the interests of our people. It was clear to me that I had to take this step for the wellbeing of Am Yisrael (the nation of Israel).”
After hearing from the social worker about the mitzvos (Torah commandments) she had accepted upon herself and the Torah classes she was attending, the dayanim were impressed by her sincere desire to return to her people and signed her Return to Judaism document.
A Yad L’Achim official said: “As a result of the security situation, more and more souls are returning to the G-d of Israel. It is clear to us that N.’s return to Judaism is making big waves in Shamayim (Heaven) and helping to protect Am Yisrael and our people’s security.”
