Why we opened this campaign
My name is Shulamit. I am a mother of three children, and right now I am fighting for the chance to be with them again.
I got married very young — at 18. In 2017, my husband, our little daughter, and I made aliyah to Israel. Our sons were born here, and this is where we built our family and our home. In 2021, through the “Mechir LaMishtaken” program, we purchased an apartment in Harish.
I could never have imagined that just a few years later, I would be left with almost nothing and forced to fight to get my own children back.
In 2023, our family ran into financial difficulties, and my health deteriorated significantly. My husband suggested that we temporarily move to Bucharest, where we were promised support, help placing the children in educational institutions, and an opportunity to recover financially. We could rent out our apartment in Israel and use the rental income to cover the mortgage.
At the time, it seemed like our salvation.
In August 2023, we gave away and sold almost everything in our apartment, packed our belongings, and moved to Bucharest with the children.
In reality, that move was the beginning of the end.
The children could not be placed in the schools and kindergartens as we had been promised. My daughter had to start second grade immediately instead of first grade. My middle son, who has a severe allergy to several foods that can potentially be life-threatening, was refused admission to kindergarten. My youngest was also not accepted because of his age. Throughout that entire period, I was alone with the children.
Then events began to unfold that ultimately destroyed our family.
In January 2024, we traveled to Israel for what I believed would be a temporary visit. While my husband returned to Bucharest with the children, I stayed in Israel for a few extra days to finish arranging the documents needed to transport our pets.
I was left in Israel literally with nothing but the clothes I had arrived in. No belongings, no proper financial reserve, and no permanent place to live.
When I needed money for basic expenses, my bank card suddenly stopped working. The bank told me that it had been reported as stolen. Access to my bank account was also available on a laptop that was with my husband.
At the same time, my husband stopped answering my calls and blocked me — I was left without money and with almost no contact with my children.
My mother was the one who helped me. Despite suffering from stage IV cancer, she was the person who gave me money when I had no one else to turn to.
A few days later, I was able to restore contact with the children, and I began speaking with them for about an hour each day.
I was planning to return to Bucharest, but then another tragedy happened.
Because of metastases, my mother suffered a pathological fracture in her leg in two places. Since there was no one else to care for her, I practically moved into the hospital. We waited for surgery, and then rehabilitation began. Later, my mother was transferred to a rehabilitation facility, and I had to urgently find another place for her to live because after surgery she could only move with a walker, and her previous apartment was no longer physically accessible to her.
And it was at that very moment that my husband told me he wanted a divorce.
At that point, I realized I had nowhere to return to: I had no home and no job in Romania, while my children remained there with their father.
I filed for divorce and at the same time went to court regarding custody and the return of the children to Israel. However, the Israeli court ruled that the custody matter had to be heard in Romania, because by that time the children were already living and studying there.
That was how my fight for my children began — a fight I simply cannot give up.
At the same time, I lost the income from our jointly owned apartment in Israel, because it turned out that only my husband was listed as the landlord in the rental agreement. The tenants were instructed to transfer the rent directly to his account.
Today, I have to handle legal matters in two countries at the same time, rebuild my own life, and fight for the chance to once again be a full-time mother to my children.
I am not asking for a beautiful life.
I need help paying for lawyers and court expenses so I can continue the legal fight for my children.
For me, this is not just a court case. These are Yocheved, Shmuel, and Mordechai — my children, whom I raised, cared for every day, and who deserve to have both of their parents by their side, not only their father.
I am asking for your help so I can continue this fight.
Every donation, even a small one, will help cover legal expenses and bring me closer to the possibility of being with my children again. I am asking for your help so I can continue this fight.
And if you are unable to help financially, please share my story. Sometimes a single share can reach the person who is able to change the situation.
Thank you to everyone who has read my story to the end, supported me, or simply did not look away.
