From Abuse and Isolation to a Rebuilt Life, Ortal's Escape from East Jerusalem

Ortal, a pseudonym, has spent years hiding a life marked by severe violence, humiliation, isolation, and separation from her children and family. Months after escaping the abusive relationship, she is now trying to rebuild her life and telling the story of how she reached freedom.

Her difficulties began in childhood, when her father suffered serious health problems and her mother was mostly occupied caring for him, leaving Ortal without a stable family support system. At 15, through work, she was exposed to Arab society and began building connections there. She later married a Jewish man and had several children, but the marriage was filled with tension, humiliation, and violence. After divorcing, and with her children living with relatives and in different educational settings, she entered another relationship that quickly turned abusive.

According to Ortal, she was cut off from her surroundings, beaten, humiliated, and eventually taken to a village in East Jerusalem, where she was held in a locked home away from her children and family. During that period she searched for something to hold onto, praying daily for a sign. She found a nail near the locked door, fixed it in the frame like a makeshift mezuzah, and would stand there each evening reciting Shema to remind herself of who she was and that she might still start over.

Her turning point came after a particularly severe assault, when she said she was badly beaten and dragged by her hair. She called the police, who arrested her partner. People connected to him later tried to pressure her to withdraw the complaint, using both promises and threats, but she refused. She also reconnected with Yad L'Achim, which had kept intermittent contact with her for years and is now supporting her through a social worker. Ortal says her goal is to bring her children home and build a stable, safe house, while also repairing ties with her relatives. She recently joined a Yad L'Achim visit to graves of righteous figures in northern Israel and bought a pair of candlesticks for her parents as a gesture of reconciliation.