Ma’ayan Yadai, a 27-year-old mother of two, lives in the Jewish town Netzer Hazani in Gaza. She traveled 6,000 miles to the Young Israel dinner in New York City to tell the story of how she, a Croatian Catholic, converted to Judaism, fled Yugoslavia, moved to Gush Katif, and now hopes and prays that she and her family won't be uprooted from their homes.
Yadai was born to a wealthy Catholic family. “Perhaps my lifestyle then was similar to that of your own children,” she told the crowd. “I clearly recall many enjoyable ski trips and summer boating vacations, and remember a life of endless opportunities.”
She and her sister lived in luxury until she was 10, when their father died. The Serbian-Croatian War broke out when she was 12, resulting in the killing of many family members and the confiscation of their property. “This war turned me, suddenly, into a ‘Croatian,’ the evil enemy of my best friends, whom I now discovered were Serbians,” she said.
"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.”
Ma'ayan said that although she had grown up with the Communist philosophy, she began to realize that the ideology was empty. "The Yugoslavian peace collapsed and the area was torn to pieces,” she said. “The fictitious unity had no real national or religious bonding, and the so-called Yugoslavian people had no base of responsibility for one another.”
Through hard work and several close calls with death, Ma’ayan, her sister and mother acquired passports and escaped to the now-Croatian side of the border after five years of being hostages in a Serbian-occupied area. “When we finally reached our ‘promised land,’ nobody there could believe that we had survived under the circumstances,” she recalled, “and worse yet, they did not care. There was no support and no help for us. There was nothing of the Jewish concept of Kol Yisrael areivim zeh lazeh - All of Israel is responsible for one another - in the society."
"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 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.”
She said she then cried out to G-d. She was never taught about G-d, she said, but she knew He must exist because everything else she had learned until now was false.
She eventually found a job on a leisure boat. “There I met my future husband, Eyal, an Israeli security officer of the ship,” she said. “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 G-d.”
Ma'ayan continued on to Israel, where she converted according to the strictest aspects of Jewish law and tradition. "As I became closer to becoming a true Jew," she said, "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.”
They decided to make their home in Gush Katif. “The day that we moved to Gush Katif was the day that the immoral plan for disengagement was announced,” Ma’ayan recalled. "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 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 here 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 G'erara where our forefathers Avraham and Yitzchak lived. It is the very same claim of the Tribe of Yehuda that Yehoshua conquered, and where Jews have lived throughout the generations of our history.”
Ma'ayan and her family experienced one of the many miracles of Gush Katif. "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… Five bullets penetrated our car; each bullet was a personal miracle for each member of my family, missing each of us by millimeters.”
The terrorists who attacked her family went on to murder passengers in the vehicle behind the Yadais' – pregnant mother Tali Hatuel and her daughters.
”I am here because I want you to feel in your hearts that truly we are responsible for each other, and we need to take care of each other. We are not Americans or Israelis - we are Jews,” Ma’ayan said.
She encouraged all those present to use their G-d-given talents and strengths to join the struggle for the Land of Israel. “Hashem blessed each of us with a special purpose, so please use your abilities to help Eretz [the Land of] Yisrael. 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.”
Yadai was born to a wealthy Catholic family. “Perhaps my lifestyle then was similar to that of your own children,” she told the crowd. “I clearly recall many enjoyable ski trips and summer boating vacations, and remember a life of endless opportunities.”
She and her sister lived in luxury until she was 10, when their father died. The Serbian-Croatian War broke out when she was 12, resulting in the killing of many family members and the confiscation of their property. “This war turned me, suddenly, into a ‘Croatian,’ the evil enemy of my best friends, whom I now discovered were Serbians,” she said.
"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.”
Ma'ayan said that although she had grown up with the Communist philosophy, she began to realize that the ideology was empty. "The Yugoslavian peace collapsed and the area was torn to pieces,” she said. “The fictitious unity had no real national or religious bonding, and the so-called Yugoslavian people had no base of responsibility for one another.”
Through hard work and several close calls with death, Ma’ayan, her sister and mother acquired passports and escaped to the now-Croatian side of the border after five years of being hostages in a Serbian-occupied area. “When we finally reached our ‘promised land,’ nobody there could believe that we had survived under the circumstances,” she recalled, “and worse yet, they did not care. There was no support and no help for us. There was nothing of the Jewish concept of Kol Yisrael areivim zeh lazeh - All of Israel is responsible for one another - in the society."
"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 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.”
She said she then cried out to G-d. She was never taught about G-d, she said, but she knew He must exist because everything else she had learned until now was false.
She eventually found a job on a leisure boat. “There I met my future husband, Eyal, an Israeli security officer of the ship,” she said. “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 G-d.”
Ma'ayan continued on to Israel, where she converted according to the strictest aspects of Jewish law and tradition. "As I became closer to becoming a true Jew," she said, "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.”
They decided to make their home in Gush Katif. “The day that we moved to Gush Katif was the day that the immoral plan for disengagement was announced,” Ma’ayan recalled. "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 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 here 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 G'erara where our forefathers Avraham and Yitzchak lived. It is the very same claim of the Tribe of Yehuda that Yehoshua conquered, and where Jews have lived throughout the generations of our history.”
Ma'ayan and her family experienced one of the many miracles of Gush Katif. "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… Five bullets penetrated our car; each bullet was a personal miracle for each member of my family, missing each of us by millimeters.”
The terrorists who attacked her family went on to murder passengers in the vehicle behind the Yadais' – pregnant mother Tali Hatuel and her daughters.
”I am here because I want you to feel in your hearts that truly we are responsible for each other, and we need to take care of each other. We are not Americans or Israelis - we are Jews,” Ma’ayan said.
She encouraged all those present to use their G-d-given talents and strengths to join the struggle for the Land of Israel. “Hashem blessed each of us with a special purpose, so please use your abilities to help Eretz [the Land of] Yisrael. 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.”