A young woman hospitalized after being raped and violently attacked by her husband was recently rescued by nongovernmental Jewish organization Yad L'Achim.
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"Rebecca," 18, grew up in a Haredi household in the south of the country. Her parents divorced when she was five years old, and by the age of 15, she was living on the streets.
Rebecca met with Sari Laufer, a social worker with Yad L'Achim, after her friend contacted the organization, who offered her support.
Shortly after their meeting, Rebecca stopped communicating with Laufer. She had met a man from an Arab village in Samaria who was 20 years her senior. The two married and she moved in with him. Laufer continued to try and contact Rebecca, but with no success up until a few days ago.
Rebecca had called Laufer and informed her she was hospitalized in Jerusalem and was suffering from lacerations after being raped and physically abused by her husband.
"I rushed to the hospital," Laufer said, "and there I heard from Rebecca that since her husband watched her all the time and even slept with her in the hospital bed, she did not reveal the real reason she asked for medical treatment. And now that he had left on a few errands, she took the opportunity to call me."
Rebecca told Laufer she was frequently subjected to violence from her husband and explained to her that her husband had told her she could not leave him.
"I realized that if she return to this village with him, it could end in murder. So I called one of the security people from the organization, and together, we contacted the hospital staff for help," Laufer explained.
"If we hadn't acted quickly, it may have ended in disaster," she said.
The two contacted the head nurse and the director of the hospital ward and explained Rebecca's delicate and complex situation, and the staff helped her escape. "We agreed that the head of the ward would tell the husband his wife needed to have emergency surgery and that up until then, he must avoid making any visits," she said.
The next day, the man accompanied Rebecca as she was brought into the operating room to supposedly undergo surgery. He later heeded the doctor's advice and left the room. Yad L'Achim and hospital security took advantage of his absence to smuggle Rebecca through the hospital basement and underground hallways to an emergency exit. From there, she was taken to a safe house where she remains. When the husband returned to the hospital, he was surprised to learn his wife had disappeared and tried to find out where she had fled to. Ultimately, though, he sent Rebecca a message informing her that from his perspective, she was divorced.
Yad L'Achim plans to hold the man accountable for his actions despite a legal issue that could complicate the situation, the organization said.
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