PRESENTED BY RINAT ABASTADO
Since the early days of the Zionist moment, children mostly from Yemen but also from other Arab and Muslim countries, where kidnapped from their families and given over for adoption. To this day, families are not reunited. Today we have more than 2,000 testimonies of families who lost their children as well as some testimonies of children who were kidnapped.
In this talk, Rinat Abastado will share part of her own story as well as some of her dissertation to bring to the fore the “other Jews” — Jews that are outside of the Ashkenazi identity — both in the context of Israel and in our own context at Ner Shalom.
Rinat Abastado was born in Israel, where she earned a degree in physics and philosophy, and did political work. She then encountered Mizrahi feminism and moved to San Francisco to pursue a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies, focusing on race and colonialism. She has a certificate in Waldorf education, works in high tech, and is the mother of two.