Mrs. Yadi recently spoke in the United States at the National Council of Young Israel Dinner. The following is a transcript of her moving address to Young Israel.
". . . I must admit that it has not been easy for me to agree to leave my husband, Eyal, and my two young children, Avia, two years old, and Yoavi, nine months old. But I am glad I came!
"I feel honored and appreciative that the National Council of Young Israel has enabled me to come, and I feel especially thankful to Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive Director for his encouragement about the importance of sharing my own personal story with you, who are wonderful and caring community leaders.
"Although I am only 27 years old, my life story includes episodes of war, loneliness, rebirth, and faith that led me from Croatia to Gush Katif / from Catholicism to Judaism / from destruction to creation / and from loneliness to a world of Kol Yisrael Areivim zeh Lazeh, (our Jewish mutual support base).
"Today we live in a most beautiful blossoming and flourishing place. It is a place that I pray sincerely will be our home for many years to come. I have lived in Gush Katif for only one year, but already I can feel that my roots are very deep here, like the roots of the people that live there and work the land. When you work the land, you gradually become part of the land, and you love it even more. The children of Gush Katif who work the land, are among the best soldiers in the Israeli army because their love for Eretz Yisrael is even stronger.
"It is difficult for me to believe what the old-timers of Gush Katif tell me: When they were encouraged to move here by the Yitzhak Rabin government only 30 years ago, this now-flourishing area was filled with bald, empty, sand dunes with no birds, insects or even weeds. Even the amount of rain was small compared to today's rainfall measurements.
"It is difficult for me to believe that this obviously blessed area is the very same area that our Moslem neighbors called the "cursed land "of El G'erara. They have told me that nobody lived in this area from the time that the last Jews left because there was not enough rain, and nothing could grow properly. They were happy when the Jews returned because the rain started again, and the land began to produce.
"Yet it is so easy for me to believe and feel from deep within, that this is in fact, the very same "Gerar" where our forefathers, Avraham and Yitzchak lived. It is the very same claim of Shevet Yehuda that Yehoshua conquered, and where Jews have lived throughout the generations of our history.
"My story begins in Croatia, where I was born into a wealthy, warm and supportive Catholic family and lived a comfortable life. This was 27 years ago, when Yugoslavia was a calm and peaceful country. Perhaps my lifestyle then was similar to that of your own children. I clearly recall many enjoyable ski trips and summer boating vacations, and remember a life of endless opportunities.
"When I was ten years old, my father passed away. Exactly two years later war broke out in Yugoslavia! This war turned me, suddenly, into a "Croatian," the evil enemy of my best friends, who I now discovered were "Serbians."
"The Yugoslavian peace collapsed and the area was torn to pieces! The fictitious unity had no real national or religious bonding, and the so-called Yugoslavian people had no base of "Arevim Zeh LaZeh."
"Yet we, the Croatians, tried to make a minimal commitment to each other to stand united and strong against this cruel Serbian enemy. This commitment did not hold out, as each Croatian group worried only about itself.
"My family and a few acquaintances found ourselves deserted, and within days we became hostages in a now-Serbian ruled area. We somehow survived, only thanks to our hopes that we would be saved by our Croatian leaders. Our belief in Croatian unity and nationalism was a nice dream, but it did not come true: We were abandoned and betrayed. We experienced hunger, cold, and death. I saw many of my friends dying in front of my eyes.
"It was very difficult for my mother, my younger sister, who was then 15 years old, and I, who was 17 to survive. Because of my endless, hard work we were able to save enough money to buy passports to escape to the now-Croatian side of the border after five years of being hostages in a Serbian-occupied area. However, when we finally reached our "promised land," nobody there could believe that we had survived under the circumstances, and worse yet, they did not care; there was no support and no help for us.
My sister and I found ourselves in an orphanage, broken by the struggle, the uprooting and the relocation. During a war many families are destroyed when they are taken from their homes and their lands. Amazingly, even after seven years, these divisive Croatians would not give up on any of their "promised land," the land that they had developed and built up for the future of their people.
"Everything in my life was unreliable and false. I felt a strong yearning to find something that would be meaningful and truthful, but I had no one to turn to for guidance. I felt a compulsion that to start my life all over again from the very beginning! I hoped for a new a new beginning-today I realize that this was prayer.
"I found myself working as a cocktail waitress on a luxury cruise ship. Maybe you, my fellow Jews, even vacationed on this cruise and perhaps we met? What is certain is that on this cruise I met my future husband, Eyal, an Israeli security officer of the ship.
When I began to speak with Eyal about our future together; he revealed that he would only marry a Jew. I was not upset with his answer - I just knew that he was born with strong commitments to his people. This is I what I had been praying for before I ever met him! What could be stronger than true love between two young people? Only a true belief in HaShem.
"I asked Eyal about the process of religious conversion, and I gladly began to learn the details of this new way of life that I had yearned for; the life of a people where all really care about each other with devotion.
"As I became closer to becoming a true Jew, I told Eyal, that I would now only marry a man who would live with me as a true Jew. So Eyal began to study more about Judaism. We finally wed as two Torah-true Jews.
"We decided to start our family in Eretz Yisrael, and the perfect place for our home and education of our children is Gush Katif. The day that we moved to Gush Katif was the day that the immoral plan for disengagement was announced.
"I had not heard the news and was confused when journalists began knocking at my door, demanding to know why my family was settling here. I responded that we wanted to live in Gush Katif because of the wonderful people in the community. The reporters could not believe this; they assumed we had moved to receive the money that the government would pay for the houses of anyone leaving this area. I told them that, as renters, we would receive no compensation. The reporters did not trust our sincerity and challenged me, "Don't you know that Kassam rockets are being shot at you every day?" I told them,
"But the people here are wonderful; the community is wonderful. This is where I want to raise my family. I am used to Kassam rockets --I am from Croatia."
"Today again my home is being threatened, as well as the homes of all of my 9000 friends in Gush Katif, including their playgrounds, schools, and kindergarten. A world of Torah is being threatened, a world of Jewish education on all levels, a world of Chesed, a world of yeshivas, kindergartens, schools, 36 beautiful synagogues, where we pray in unison. It is threatened with destruction. An Eretz Hachaim (cemetery) of 46 graves that had been brought to everlasting rest is threatened with exhumation.
"It is a world of 1000 acres of greenhouses, filled with insect-free leafy vegetables according to the most stringent Halachic demands, filled with a vast variety of organic vegetables; cherry tomatoes, peppers of all colors, eggplants, cucumbers, and herbs, houseplants, and flowers. Fifteen percent of the agricultural export from Israel comes from Gush Katif. Sixty percent of the organic vegetables exported from Israel come from Gush Katif, many of the herbs, and 70% of the chives exported from Israel are grown in Gush Katif.
"My town of Netzer Hazani is one of the 21 towns that are in Gush Katif. But, in fact, it is not only my home that is being threatened; it is our dear Medina, our dear State of Israel. Hundreds of thousands of citizens in Israel realize this, and every day more and more people are expressing their support and are acting on it with mesirut nefesh, with devotion. Just this week tens of new families are leaving their homes and jobs to move into temporary housing in Gush Katif with only basic facilities, no electricity or water, just to be part of this Kiddush HaShem. They often come to give us strength, but end up realizing that Gush Katif is, in fact, an overflowing source of faith and strength to them.
"In the last five years the people of Gush Katif have had the zchut, the privilege, of experiencing endless miracles. Many people have been murdered by terrorists on the roads, but many more have been saved from the cruel Islamic enemy.
"During the past two years 6000 mortars and rockets have been shot into the towns of Gush Katif. One would think this would certainly be a good enough reason for everyone to leave. But, yet, everyone in Gush Katif has remained and has proven their devotion to HaShem, to Eretz Yisrael, and Kl'al Yisrael!
"Almost every family in Gush Katif has many personal, heroic miracle stories to tell. My family has also felt HaShem's Hashgacha pratis, personal intervention.
"Exactly one year ago, Eyal, Avia, and I, pregnant with Yoavi, were driving on the road out of Gush Katif. Suddenly, we saw two men with rifles running towards us. My husband reacted immediately and floored the gas pedal. Yet they kept running in our direction. I looked at their faces - they were young men who looked calm and peaceful. They knew that they would be killed, but they did not care.
Just before we passed them, they took their rifles out, and started shooting at us. "SHMA YISRAEL!"-this was our only thought as we heard the shooting. Five bullets penetrated our car; each bullet was a personal miracle for each member of my family, missing each of us by millimeters. We now know that these were not men, but cruel Islamic animals, because less that a second later, they murdered the passengers in the vehicle behind us. They destroyed the entire Hatuel family, leaving only David Hatuel, waiting for his dear pregnant wife and daughters.
"I, Mayan Yadai , know that all that I experienced in these twenty seven years has led me to be here at this Young Israel organization dinner. I am here because I want you to feel in your hearts that truly kol yisrael arevim zeh lazeh. We are responsible for each other, and we need to take care of each other. We are not Americans or Israelis-We are Jews.
"I, Mayan Yadai, together with all my friends in Gush Katif want to know and feel that each and every one of you really cares. We want you to pray to HaShem to change this dangerous and immoral plan. HaShem blessed each of us with special purpose so please use your abilities to help Eretz Yisrael. We do not have another place to go. We need to keep each millimeter of our Land and not let our killers celebrate their victories in our homes and in our land.
Your care and support will give all of us the strength to continue. And pray because HaShem listens to our prayers. If He heard the prayer of a young non-Jewish girl in a small Croatian town, then He will certainly listen to the prayers of His Chosen People.
"Thank you so much my fellow Jews!"
". . . I must admit that it has not been easy for me to agree to leave my husband, Eyal, and my two young children, Avia, two years old, and Yoavi, nine months old. But I am glad I came!
"I feel honored and appreciative that the National Council of Young Israel has enabled me to come, and I feel especially thankful to Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive Director for his encouragement about the importance of sharing my own personal story with you, who are wonderful and caring community leaders.
"Although I am only 27 years old, my life story includes episodes of war, loneliness, rebirth, and faith that led me from Croatia to Gush Katif / from Catholicism to Judaism / from destruction to creation / and from loneliness to a world of Kol Yisrael Areivim zeh Lazeh, (our Jewish mutual support base).
"Today we live in a most beautiful blossoming and flourishing place. It is a place that I pray sincerely will be our home for many years to come. I have lived in Gush Katif for only one year, but already I can feel that my roots are very deep here, like the roots of the people that live there and work the land. When you work the land, you gradually become part of the land, and you love it even more. The children of Gush Katif who work the land, are among the best soldiers in the Israeli army because their love for Eretz Yisrael is even stronger.
"It is difficult for me to believe what the old-timers of Gush Katif tell me: When they were encouraged to move here by the Yitzhak Rabin government only 30 years ago, this now-flourishing area was filled with bald, empty, sand dunes with no birds, insects or even weeds. Even the amount of rain was small compared to today's rainfall measurements.
"It is difficult for me to believe that this obviously blessed area is the very same area that our Moslem neighbors called the "cursed land "of El G'erara. They have told me that nobody lived in this area from the time that the last Jews left because there was not enough rain, and nothing could grow properly. They were happy when the Jews returned because the rain started again, and the land began to produce.
"Yet it is so easy for me to believe and feel from deep within, that this is in fact, the very same "Gerar" where our forefathers, Avraham and Yitzchak lived. It is the very same claim of Shevet Yehuda that Yehoshua conquered, and where Jews have lived throughout the generations of our history.
"My story begins in Croatia, where I was born into a wealthy, warm and supportive Catholic family and lived a comfortable life. This was 27 years ago, when Yugoslavia was a calm and peaceful country. Perhaps my lifestyle then was similar to that of your own children. I clearly recall many enjoyable ski trips and summer boating vacations, and remember a life of endless opportunities.
"When I was ten years old, my father passed away. Exactly two years later war broke out in Yugoslavia! This war turned me, suddenly, into a "Croatian," the evil enemy of my best friends, who I now discovered were "Serbians."
"The Yugoslavian peace collapsed and the area was torn to pieces! The fictitious unity had no real national or religious bonding, and the so-called Yugoslavian people had no base of "Arevim Zeh LaZeh."
"Yet we, the Croatians, tried to make a minimal commitment to each other to stand united and strong against this cruel Serbian enemy. This commitment did not hold out, as each Croatian group worried only about itself.
"My family and a few acquaintances found ourselves deserted, and within days we became hostages in a now-Serbian ruled area. We somehow survived, only thanks to our hopes that we would be saved by our Croatian leaders. Our belief in Croatian unity and nationalism was a nice dream, but it did not come true: We were abandoned and betrayed. We experienced hunger, cold, and death. I saw many of my friends dying in front of my eyes.
"It was very difficult for my mother, my younger sister, who was then 15 years old, and I, who was 17 to survive. Because of my endless, hard work we were able to save enough money to buy passports to escape to the now-Croatian side of the border after five years of being hostages in a Serbian-occupied area. However, when we finally reached our "promised land," nobody there could believe that we had survived under the circumstances, and worse yet, they did not care; there was no support and no help for us.
My sister and I found ourselves in an orphanage, broken by the struggle, the uprooting and the relocation. During a war many families are destroyed when they are taken from their homes and their lands. Amazingly, even after seven years, these divisive Croatians would not give up on any of their "promised land," the land that they had developed and built up for the future of their people.
"Everything in my life was unreliable and false. I felt a strong yearning to find something that would be meaningful and truthful, but I had no one to turn to for guidance. I felt a compulsion that to start my life all over again from the very beginning! I hoped for a new a new beginning-today I realize that this was prayer.
"I found myself working as a cocktail waitress on a luxury cruise ship. Maybe you, my fellow Jews, even vacationed on this cruise and perhaps we met? What is certain is that on this cruise I met my future husband, Eyal, an Israeli security officer of the ship.
When I began to speak with Eyal about our future together; he revealed that he would only marry a Jew. I was not upset with his answer - I just knew that he was born with strong commitments to his people. This is I what I had been praying for before I ever met him! What could be stronger than true love between two young people? Only a true belief in HaShem.
"I asked Eyal about the process of religious conversion, and I gladly began to learn the details of this new way of life that I had yearned for; the life of a people where all really care about each other with devotion.
"As I became closer to becoming a true Jew, I told Eyal, that I would now only marry a man who would live with me as a true Jew. So Eyal began to study more about Judaism. We finally wed as two Torah-true Jews.
"We decided to start our family in Eretz Yisrael, and the perfect place for our home and education of our children is Gush Katif. The day that we moved to Gush Katif was the day that the immoral plan for disengagement was announced.
"I had not heard the news and was confused when journalists began knocking at my door, demanding to know why my family was settling here. I responded that we wanted to live in Gush Katif because of the wonderful people in the community. The reporters could not believe this; they assumed we had moved to receive the money that the government would pay for the houses of anyone leaving this area. I told them that, as renters, we would receive no compensation. The reporters did not trust our sincerity and challenged me, "Don't you know that Kassam rockets are being shot at you every day?" I told them,
"But the people here are wonderful; the community is wonderful. This is where I want to raise my family. I am used to Kassam rockets --I am from Croatia."
"Today again my home is being threatened, as well as the homes of all of my 9000 friends in Gush Katif, including their playgrounds, schools, and kindergarten. A world of Torah is being threatened, a world of Jewish education on all levels, a world of Chesed, a world of yeshivas, kindergartens, schools, 36 beautiful synagogues, where we pray in unison. It is threatened with destruction. An Eretz Hachaim (cemetery) of 46 graves that had been brought to everlasting rest is threatened with exhumation.
"It is a world of 1000 acres of greenhouses, filled with insect-free leafy vegetables according to the most stringent Halachic demands, filled with a vast variety of organic vegetables; cherry tomatoes, peppers of all colors, eggplants, cucumbers, and herbs, houseplants, and flowers. Fifteen percent of the agricultural export from Israel comes from Gush Katif. Sixty percent of the organic vegetables exported from Israel come from Gush Katif, many of the herbs, and 70% of the chives exported from Israel are grown in Gush Katif.
"My town of Netzer Hazani is one of the 21 towns that are in Gush Katif. But, in fact, it is not only my home that is being threatened; it is our dear Medina, our dear State of Israel. Hundreds of thousands of citizens in Israel realize this, and every day more and more people are expressing their support and are acting on it with mesirut nefesh, with devotion. Just this week tens of new families are leaving their homes and jobs to move into temporary housing in Gush Katif with only basic facilities, no electricity or water, just to be part of this Kiddush HaShem. They often come to give us strength, but end up realizing that Gush Katif is, in fact, an overflowing source of faith and strength to them.
"In the last five years the people of Gush Katif have had the zchut, the privilege, of experiencing endless miracles. Many people have been murdered by terrorists on the roads, but many more have been saved from the cruel Islamic enemy.
"During the past two years 6000 mortars and rockets have been shot into the towns of Gush Katif. One would think this would certainly be a good enough reason for everyone to leave. But, yet, everyone in Gush Katif has remained and has proven their devotion to HaShem, to Eretz Yisrael, and Kl'al Yisrael!
"Almost every family in Gush Katif has many personal, heroic miracle stories to tell. My family has also felt HaShem's Hashgacha pratis, personal intervention.
"Exactly one year ago, Eyal, Avia, and I, pregnant with Yoavi, were driving on the road out of Gush Katif. Suddenly, we saw two men with rifles running towards us. My husband reacted immediately and floored the gas pedal. Yet they kept running in our direction. I looked at their faces - they were young men who looked calm and peaceful. They knew that they would be killed, but they did not care.
Just before we passed them, they took their rifles out, and started shooting at us. "SHMA YISRAEL!"-this was our only thought as we heard the shooting. Five bullets penetrated our car; each bullet was a personal miracle for each member of my family, missing each of us by millimeters. We now know that these were not men, but cruel Islamic animals, because less that a second later, they murdered the passengers in the vehicle behind us. They destroyed the entire Hatuel family, leaving only David Hatuel, waiting for his dear pregnant wife and daughters.
"I, Mayan Yadai , know that all that I experienced in these twenty seven years has led me to be here at this Young Israel organization dinner. I am here because I want you to feel in your hearts that truly kol yisrael arevim zeh lazeh. We are responsible for each other, and we need to take care of each other. We are not Americans or Israelis-We are Jews.
"I, Mayan Yadai, together with all my friends in Gush Katif want to know and feel that each and every one of you really cares. We want you to pray to HaShem to change this dangerous and immoral plan. HaShem blessed each of us with special purpose so please use your abilities to help Eretz Yisrael. We do not have another place to go. We need to keep each millimeter of our Land and not let our killers celebrate their victories in our homes and in our land.
Your care and support will give all of us the strength to continue. And pray because HaShem listens to our prayers. If He heard the prayer of a young non-Jewish girl in a small Croatian town, then He will certainly listen to the prayers of His Chosen People.
"Thank you so much my fellow Jews!"