The date was Friday, October 27th, 1961. The place was Kaplan hospital in [the city of] Rehovot. The time was midnight. My mother, may she live long, was [already] in labor when she and my father, blessed be his memory, arrived at the delivery room. As the midwives were examining my mother, they claimed that there were two fetuses – twins. Then they asked my father to leave the delivery room, as was the custom at the time. To my mother’s utmost surprise, before the birth started, the midwives asked her whether if she would agree to give them one of the twins. My mother, naturally, answered decisively that she would not. The midwives said nothing and continued with the birth process. The first child was a girl, whose name today is Ilana. When the second child was born, the midwives informed my mother that it was also a girl, and took the baby to an adjacent room for further treatment. After 5 or 10 minutes the midwives returned to my mother and claimed that the new baby suffocated to death, since the umbilical cord wrapped around her obstructing her breathing. This serious condition was not mentioned during the birth itself, and my mother did not notice any change in the midwives’ behavior during birth, compared with the birth of the first twin. My mother was tired and aching from the double birth but she was nonetheless fully conscious of everything happening around her. To this day my mother does not believe them and is positive that Ilana’s twin sister was stolen from her. Furthermore, two weeks after giving birth my mother received an additional childbirth allowance for the second baby, which testifies to there being no record of the baby’s death.

As the years went by, and after the loss of innocence and the reconstruction of events, all the while being ridden with incessant thoughts, the sad and heart-piercing image becomes clear: My mother’s second child, the twin, was kidnapped and stolen from her for the profit of a stranger. It is needless to mention that at that time dozens and even hundreds of children - all of Mizrahi ethnic groups - were kidnapped and given – with inhumane cruelty – to other people. I pray with all my heart that this story, together with the pictures, will assist us in finding the lost child.

May God help us.