Last evening, I watched the shocking life story of Chanie Werzberger that was previously presented in series by Ami Magazine. She is a fantastic strong woman, that despite the tragedies she went through, she is able to embrace the day with resilience and emunah. Her story was recently published by ArtScroll and I am definitely curious to find out more about all the details of her life.
There were many thoughts that stayed with me or developed shortly after watching the interview. The story itself, and the way in which Chanie is telling it, is traumatic.
Born in Argentina in a non-religious family, when she was 4, her parents separated. Her mother was a bohemian and apparently used to leave her and her sister (6 at the time) alone at home for long amounts of time, including by night time. Following a phone discussion with the Satmer Rebbe in NYC - there is a significant number of Satmer Hasidim living in Argentina, result of post-WWII immigration, a community Askenazi by name and Sephardi by customs -, decided to kidnap the girls and take them to the US. It took Chani 21 years to meet her mother again. The mother´s side on the story is not known as for now.
During their stay in NYC, they were hosted in different foster families across NYC - she doesn´t say it but probably it was a way to lose their trace - , and joined their father lately, living in precarious, rat-infested basements. They received new names.
It takes a lot of courage to share such a story, and although she is not accusing anyone for what happened, this is a clear example of parental alienation and it is no wonder that the religious argument was used as a subterfuge for the kidnapping. Altough I may have a more radical critical take on the situation, I deeply respect this pious courageous woman.
The events took place almost six decades ago therefore also the rules and awareness about such cases was lower. The fact that her father got the support of Satmer Rebbe is another level of interest though, that may require a bit of more journalistic inquiry. If it was so easy to bring two girls from Argentina and alienate them completely from their non-religious family, what about from other countries, or from the USA? Satmer used to be very active in Yemen from where they brought Jews to the US and integrated into the sect, so maybe there is much more to search about this case, and maybe many similar others.
Hopefully, to be continued...
