The Yad L'Achim organization has been helping an Israeli woman smuggle matzah to her grandchildren in the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to "expose them to Judaism."
The story began 40 years ago when Sarah (not her real name), a young Jewish woman from Ashkelon, met and married a man from Gaza. The two lived in Gaza for 10 years and had two children. The family then moved to Jaffa, but a few months later, the father decided he wanted to return to the Gaza Strip.
Sarah refused to go back, so her husband arranged for her to spend a few days abroad. While she was away, he told their children that she had died and that they must go back to Gaza. Sarah tried her find her children, but shortly thereafter Gaza was transferred to the hands of the Palestinians and it became impossible for her to locate her children.
Two years ago, Sarah reached out to Yad L'Achim, an organization that rescues women who have become involved with men from local villages and find themselves trapped there. The group managed to find her children through the use of social media. Sarah learned that her daughter had married a Muslim man and had five children with him. Her son was still unmarried.
Yad L'Achim contacted Sarah's children without their father's knowledge, and they were able to speak to their mother online.
On Passover eve, a moving family reunion finally took place. One of Sarah's grandchildren left Gaza for Israel to receive medical treatment. The child's father, Sarah's son-in-law, who wanted to gain from the renewed contact between his wife and her mother, agreed to the meeting, which took place in a public square in one of Israel's mixed Jewish-Arab cities. Sarah gave her grandson and his aunt, who had accompanied him to Israel, matzah to take back to Gaza.
Yad L'Achim decided to make the story public despite its sensitive nature, in the hope that making the situation public would allow the grandson to be treated at an Israeli medical center.
