In Satmar Custody

In Satmar Custody is a 2003 film of the Jaradis, a Jewish Yemenite family, one of many that were brought from Yemen to the US (Monroe, NY) by the ultra orthodox Satmar Community which advises against the immigration to Israel. The story exposes a deep cultural gap between the Yemenite families and the Yiddish Satmar Community that became distractive and tragic to families who have traveled thousands of miles to a place with strange rules, norms, morals and lifestyles. The film follows the life of Yahia and Lauza Jaradi who were brought from Yemen into the Satmar Community. It starts on the day that the Jaradi couple received an urgent phone call notifying that their two and a half year old daughter, Hadia, died in a hospital in Paterson, N.J. Through their search for their daughter's body, they are getting closer and closer to what seems as the very painful truth about her faith.

Contents

• In satmar custody the unspoken abuse of yemenite jews part 1 5
• In satmar custody the unspoken abuse of yemenite jews part 2 5
• References

Review: ‘In Satmar Custody’ Dennis Harvey NY Times Film Critic'''' APRIL 30, 2004 | 05:50PM PT

Exploitation of Jewish Yemenite immigrants by an extreme, anti-Zionist sect of Orthodox Jews is indicted in Nitzan Gilady’s “In Satmar Custody.” But potentially shocking expose is weakened by one-sided reportage that leaves too many questions unanswered. Whether results are due to filmmaking ineptitude or a deliberate omission of input from all sides, pic’s tabloid flavor won’t encourage wide broadcast sales outside Israel.

Opening titles inform that Satmar sect recruiters lure Yemenite Jews to the U.S. on guarantee of work and education, warning that moving to Israel instead would mean godlessness and forced military service. This is the first of many suppositions we must take on faith, since no outside observers are tapped to confirm or deny them — and no Satmar officials are interviewed. Emigrating with wife Lauza and their family, Yahia finds those promises empty. Worse, an infant’s apparent death from shaken-baby syndrome leads to Lauza being suspected of murder, their remaining five children shuttled off to other Satmar families. There’s definitely injustice going on, but poorly assembled film — with lensing often appearing clandestine — advances a predetermined agenda with suspect lack of clarity or balance.