Once again, Israel’s liberal High Court of Justice has ruled in favor of tearing children away from yiddishkeit, ordering the return of two children, members of the Chabad community, to their non-Jewish father.
In this case, the Hadera Family Court and the Haifa District Court which heard the appeal felt there would be “no significant harm” to the children by sending them to France, to live with the non-Jewish biological father Miguel Manrique, 41.
The High Court did not overrule the decision of the lower courts.
The story unfolds in the Ramat Tzvi neighborhood of Zichron Yaakov this past Thursday as Israel Police officers and social workers appointed by the court arrived, along with a film crew from France’s TF1, to remove the two innocent neshamas from their mother’s arms.
The officials placed the children in the Hertz rented car as neighbors looked on, some crying, including the area Chabad Shliach Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Freiman, horrified with the realization that these young innocent children are being torn away from their frum lifestyle, their mother, Eretz Yisrael, to be sent abroad to live with a non-Jew, as ordered by Israel’s highest court.
The friends of the children were playing nearby, unaware of the harsh realities taking place, kept a distance by police. The mother collapsed, unable to endure the sight of what was taking place.
It is difficult to believe this story gained such notoriety, even involving French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but at home, once again, the High Court has decided against the Jewish parent, as has been the case many time when children have been ordered taken from Jewish mothers to honor Islamic law, which determines the religion of a child by the father.
The story began seven years ago, when Lior Gonen, a resident of Kibbutz Magan Michael traveled to France for a film festival. The visit resulted in her involvement with a non-Jew, and a first child was born. This followed trips back and forth between France and Israel, as well as a civil marriage in Cyprus.
The family lived in Lior’s kibbutz for five years, and in 2006, they returned to France for a one-month visit. After being refused another request to leave kibbutz for vacation, Lior and her husband announced they would be leaving, taking their payout money and then heading to France, where life was difficult.
Mom returned in 2008 and decided to give birth to their second child here. When her husband appeared in Israel for the birth, he was served with a court order prohibiting him to come near her, as she maintained he was abusive.
Citing the Hague Convention, the dad requested from the family court to have his children returned to France, also citing his wife did not even bother to inform him of the birth of their second child. In the midst of their travels, the mom decided to return to the fold and she became a member of the chareidi community, further complicating matters perhaps.
The family court stated allegations of cruelty were not established and the court gave little credence to testimony from members of the mother’s family, that taking the children away would cause them irreparable emotional damage. This opinion was also accepted by the Haifa District Court and ultimately, the High Court of Justice.
Some of the kibbutz members went so far as to say she “despises chareidim” but felt by joining the community, if the courts are against her, the chareidim would side with her since the father if a goy.
The father first took his case to a French Court and then, only in Israel, was he able to emerge with a ruling in his favor, against the mother of the children.
Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled to send the older brother back to France on July 3, 2009. This was to have taken place by July 15th. Mom took her children and ran, and they were only discovered about eight months later.
The father insists he loves his children and will do everything possible to permit them to maintain their frum lifestyle if this is what they wish, adding he has many Jewish friends and he will inquire as to their needs.
The dad also expressed fears that he does not want his sons to feel they were abducted, as their mother did when she took them from him. He admits he is not a religious man, but now that his sons are on this path, he does not plan to do anything to compel them to change their way of life.
it makes no diff, how much of a not capable mother she is. the bottom line is that they are being torn away from there Jewish roots. and besides. who knows maybe the mother got some social help and the children were being taken care of. also it makes no differences what kind if a mom she is whats important to know is that TORAH is like home and very comforting. now that they were taken away from there mother they don’t have the life torah and mitzvose.
the mother was phsyco and abusive. sad story but there more safe with the father
Remember the physical wellbeing of the children, let’s daven that they are not abused in any way by their father who may get annoyed by the children wanting to daven or have kosher food to eat, or wear a yarmulka and tzitzis. or…. Hashem please watch over these children – they should grow up safely and happy and somehow miraculously keep their faith until able to lead their own lives as adults.
For some reason this disgusts me more than suicide bombings and other such cases. I shall explain. In those cases you often can’t stop it once the plan is in motion. It can be quite sudden and then there is the cleanup…but here…what was it that happened in this case? Did a car come up beside the child, nab him, and speed off to a waiting plane heading to France? I think not. The Jewish people had an ample opportunity to stand up. The Jewish people need to learn to break away from their pacifist (cowardly/faithless) nature or do you… Read more »
there are only 10 who are using their heads. I’ll leave it to readers who those 10 are. No. 39, if the father had a yamulka on would you still make such unkind comments. Perhaps the children want to be with their father. Perhaps he is even a Jew but doesn’t know it. Perhaps the mother used her entry into Yiddishkeit as a ploy to keep her children. We don’t know too much or the whole story either. Although I do feel great sympathy for the mother she has made bad choices and ,as we all know, we have to… Read more »
First of all courts in the US differ from state to state. For example a liberal state like California takes fathers rights to an extreme and very likely will award a father custody if he proves to be a decent parent. Most states award joint custody. Nowadays a woman is not the more natural choice in a custody battle. Anyone who thinks that is living in the dark ages!! Read up on things and educate yourself before posting idiocy. Been there, done that – from first hand experience I know that there is no slam dunk in the court of… Read more »
BS”D The father said that he wouldn’t object to helping them continue to live a frum life. I’m sure that the Chabad in France will help any way that they can. I don’t know the situation there, but I am sure that they will have to charge some sort of tuition, (unless someone is sponsoring) there are 58 passionate comments here and I’m sure much more very caring people reading. let’s each give generously to make it eazier for the Chabad school to accept the children and so that the father has not reason to object. in fact perhaps we… Read more »
why are you judging the mother? mind your own business and thank hashem you dont get involved with these things. and if you feel the need to say something then say “i feel bad for the mother” why start judging?
Obviously not growing up frum, the mother made several poor judgments. It is understandable that in order to protect the children from an abusive father, she ran to Israel. However, it seems that the mother then got involved in yiddishkeit and realized her mistake, which by then was too late to rectify, but did her best by returning to her heritage. As for saying that the American Courts always give children back to the mothers… THIS CANNOT BE FURTHEST FROM THE TRUTH! MAYBE THEY DO, EXCEPT IN THE CASES WHERE THE FATHER LITERALLY BUYS EVERYONE OFF FROM THE LAW GUARDIANS… Read more »
this is sooooo sad where is moisach we need him now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Although the children are Jewish, this does not give Israel the right to let a woman “steal her children”. Israels High Court, however liberal, still has to uphold DINAH D’MALCHUSAH DINAH. They have to listen to the Hague convention. She obviously didn’t have enough proof to prove that he was abusive. A goy also has rights, and I am pretty sure that the Courts decision still concurs with Halacha. If she really cares about the education of her kids, she will return to France, and help them keep being Jewish. The courts decision was to make them to live in… Read more »
i don’t usually cry about sad news,
but this got me very close to
Correction: we have held onto our Yiddishkeit ALL THE WAY, not “for the most part”. Not sure why I wrote that, B”H we are able to live a fully Jewish lifestyle and keep Torah and mitzvos. Even so, it is very very hard and there are a lot of challenges and confusion…and I’d never ever recommend to anyone to ever marry a goy. For any reason or excuse.
This is a very manipulative article with unclear information. It assumes the father is a villain, and gives conflicting reports about the mother. Poor children.
We also grew up with a non-Jewish father and it was less than fine…yes, B”H we survived (so far…we’re all still in school) and we have held onto our yiddishkeit for the most part, since we are in Jewish schools and have a strong influence from our mother. However, it’s SO hard sometimes to not have a Tatty to look up to, to learn with us, to show my younger brothers how to live as a Jewish boy should live. True, my father is still a great guy and I am thankful for that, but nothing replaces having a Jewish… Read more »
1. “she could not have been normal if she married a “goy”…
how small minded honestly.
2. “the kids have no chance to grow up stable”
what on earth? you mean when confronted with struggles,
it is a one way street to instability. I disagree totally.
struggles can make someone attach themselves to Hashem in ways that a person without struggles cannot fathom. Hashem put struggles in the world….not to be bogged down by them.
where is Gd in this picture, or in 98% of the comments.
It is so disapointing to read all these empty minded comments.
pure nnocent children,,taken way
hashem please have mercy on them !!!!!
and all of us
The Israel High Court also ruled to take 2 girls away from their baal tshuvah mother and give them to the Italian Catholic father.
my heart is aching!!!
WHERE’S MOSHIACH????
If the mother was not Jewish, then neither would the children be Jewish. That is very different to a Jewish child being brought up solely by his non-Jewish father.
obviously i feel terrible for these innocent boys! anyone who has a way to get invovled- i hope they do!! but think about this story switched around that the father is jewish and mother is not…( whuch unfortunately happens all too often!!) would everyone STILL say that a child belongs with the mother?!? she made some very big mistakes and her poor sons are suffering! may Hashem help them!
the picture makes me cry!!!!!!
hashem has to help, i was crying sooo much that i couldn’t finish reading!!
the poor children! who cares what the mother is like! a mother is a mother and she still is a yid! how a can a goyishe father compare to that!
to # 16 you mamish should stop harassing yiddishe kinder its not their mothers fault that their father is a nit yid. she was oblivious to the fact tat he was a french man. ad mossai ad mossai ad mossai. maybe hes not really french, he actually looks israeli. he could be a yid.
In my opinion, the father looks like a real scum bag,
……and please do take a moment to notice the thugs who are with him. Just the looks of them all make my teeth chatter.
Poor poor children.
You’re right : 2 wrongs don’t make a right , but 2 “rights” make an airplane !!!
if the children would be adopted by frum chareidi jews.
from the way the article says it all, the mother is crazy (she married a goy), and the father is a goy who will not end up raising his children in a frum way so i dont even know why he wasted his breath saying that!
and to #6:
if youre such a chossid why do bash people who daven to hashem for moshiach?! get a life!
Here is a story where the mother kidnaps the children and then you blame the father for wanting a relationship with his children!! It takes 2 parents to create a child. She decided – wrongly I believe – to have children with a goy. Once she did that, she can’t just backtrack and pretend it didn’t happen. To Esq., number 12, I believe you are wrong. NY often give joint custody; it is Israel which almost unilaterally gives the mother custody. In this case, she violated the Hague convention by stealing the children from her husband/ex husband. She then tried… Read more »
theyre both wrong but 2 wrongs dont make a right
All of you commenters who can’t spell and can’t seem to post without capslock on- stop making a chillul hashem. Just b/c the dad is not Jewish doesn’t mean he is a bad guy. We grew up with a nonJewish father and it was fine.
Both parents have the right to their children and just b/c the mother suddenly found religion doesn’t give her any more privileges than he has.
father are you crazy.give your children to a jew .or be a yid and when your kid came home he had to be non jew.its so sad
NOTHING HAS CHANGED. ISRAEL IS A STATE LIKE ANY OTHER STATE IN AMERICA, FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES. THEY DID THE SAME THING WITH YOSSELLE SHUMACHER BECAUSE THEY HATE FRUM PEOPLE. ACTUALLY IN AMERICA THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH SOMETHING LIKE THIS. CHILDREN ARE ALWAYS GIVEN TO THE MOTHER, UNLESS SHE IS TOTALLY INCAPABLE. THIS IS ONE REASON WHY I WOULD NOT WANT TO LIVE IN ISRAEL BEFORE MOSHIACH COMES. IT WOULD HURT TOO MUCH TO SEE A YID DO THINGS LIKE THIS TO A FELLOW YID. WHEREAS HERE IN THIS “GOYISHE MEDINA” YOU DON’T HAVE THE SAME… Read more »
the french judgment is that the children should go to the mother!
that this boy will try to stay Jewish ( if not frum ). look in the pic. hes holding a sidur under his arm
Well said!! i agree!
o vey AD MOSAI!
They are nuts!
look what the child holds in his hands…
It’s not her fault she grew up Frei. Once she found Yiddishkeit, she came back. Aibershter: AD MOSAI!!! AD MOSAI!!! AD MOSAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you have to understand that under the hague convention the sons have to be returned to the parents that the other one and the children ran away from . . . I agree that it is very sad and that we should try to prevent this as much as we can but i understand the logic of the Israeli courts and dont forget the social pressure . . .
this is retarted we need to get this kid back
These kids will suffer for the rest of their lives
the French Shluchim should befriend the Goyish Father and take over the chinuch of the children and witrh Hashem’s Help…
I know nothing of any pertinent facts in this sad story other than what this post provides, but for the sake of modulating the comments: to I feel bad for the children. They stand little chance of being stable. That said, there’s little logic provided in the story that would make me feel that the kids are worse off with their father. Halachically these are presumably Jewish children who will now be in a non-Jewish environment. And that’s an emuna-faith issue, not secular court one. Can’t blame anyone, but the Mom, I guess. She tried running away from the consequences… Read more »
There is two sides to a coin, the same for a story. Here you have the side of the chareidilm, the mother of coursee told to you by the media! The truth about this story is that the mother got involved with this french guy as a non pratiquant jew, she knew nothing. Later on she fled to Israel, and there to “hide”, she decided to become religious. Why? So that, she can change there name, their way of living, getting support from the “frum community” and make a livng. People, be realistic, why did the mother all of the… Read more »
How about reading his suggestions?
the mother played a stupid game, it is totally her fault
and kids that started to attend a chabad school a few months ago are not chabadniks
I only wish there was a way of publicizing these kinds of “b’cheeya l’doros” tragedies among Israeli youth to minimize the chances of similar tragedies,chas v’sholom. Even those teenokote sheneeshbi’u who were raised without Yiddishkeit would understand the tragedy of possibly losing their children to a foreign (in more ways than one) father. Such cases could be used to demonstrate to these Jewishly undereducated young women that such a father will ultimately feel a closer connection to HIS people than to the mother with whom he will eventually not have-and b’ruchnius obviously never had anything in common
The only way to correct this problem is to uproot it from the source.
These secular self hating Jewish judges were educated in an Anti Torah enviroment ,so the solution is to be mekarev all of our non frum Yidden and do it with Achdus.
Unless a mother is, c”v, abusive, courts should give custody of children to the mother. The mother is more connected to her children emotionally and should be more responsible for their care.
In the United States Family courts, this would never happen by default the Mother gets custody.
What a twisted wiered story.
the mother is obviously not stable enough to raise these children. after all, she married a goy.. doesn’t that say much about her? is it better for these boys to be raised by an abusive, unstable, and obviously crazy mother?
What was the basis of giving the kids to the father? Don’t courts normally award the kids to the mother? Curious to know the legal reasons.
So what exactly are YOU doing?? (Besides bashing people who at least are crying out to Hashem)
You mean ultra liberal. Libertarian means people who are in favor of a very small and limited government, and not an israeli court giving Jewish kids away… OMG, this is truly horrible horrible horrible.
What a deep and horrible golus!
This is a new low.
why do they have to go to a non jewish father in france?
Instead of the typically useless cries of ad mosai that are usually at the end of these types of comments, how about concrete action? Our rabbonim are obligated to tell us what behaviors of the klal need to be rectified that caused this. We are each responsible to do a sincere cheshbon nefesh and be msaken whatever needs tikkun. Teshuva is what’s needed, not the stupid comments about the hisgalus of the rebbe.
that guy is a mamzer
y r u doing that givinig him to them get a life
Hashem should help those poor innocent children
AD MOSAI??????????????????
hello these people are crazy! they are taking him away from his parents and from being Jewish! that’s ridiculous! how can they do this!? 🙁 🙁 what is wrong with these people!? GASH!