Self-taught filmmaker Nitzan Gilady's deeply troubling documentary offers a rare glimpse into the hermetic world of the Satmars, a relatively small and virulently anti-Zionist sect of Ultra Orthodox Hassidim whose missionaries devote themselves to convincing Yemenite Jews to emigrate to the U.S. rather than Israel. Yahia and Lauza Jaradi are two such Jews who, along with their two young children, relocated from the town of Raida to Rockland County, N.Y., where Yahia was promised work and housing. But once in New York, Yahia was stripped of his passport and, for a 10 percent cut, was used to solicit donations from sympathetic American Jews. Five years and three more c...
Released:
2003
Rated:
NR
Length:
70 mins