“I wanted to get to ‘Big Brother’ so that people would know my work. I am versatile, I wanted them to learn from me,” says this week Dina Simchi (58) from Rosh Ha’Ein, one of the prominent tenants of the “Big Brother” season, who was evicted last week from the most famous house in the country.
According to her, she came to the program to feel the taste of fame and has no regrets about her conduct at home. “I was me in every sense of the word,” she clarifies. The next stop for her is the reality show “The Race to the Million”, but before that she has something to say about the harsh reactions on the net about the tenants: “People have lost it. It’s just a game”.
4 Viewing the gallery
“I wanted people to know me.” Dina Shamchi
(Photo: Ryan)
Simchi, a cashier at Israel Railways, feels like a rock star. “What can I tell you, I went to the market for a minute and came back after three hours,” she says. “People wanted photos and selfies. I really felt like a queen, the queen of the world.” While we are talking, people are constantly turning to her, knocking on the door, entering the house, calling. A company of people, and as much as possible, this is the natural state for her.
Why did you come to the “big brother”?
“I wanted people to know me, not to show off, I have a lot of sentences, sayings, rules for life. These are things that people can take as homework. I have celiac disease and I also wanted a representation of that. I told myself: if someone takes something good from me, I did something in the program”.
4 Viewing the gallery
Shamchi, just before entering Big Brother
(Photo: Micah Loubton)
She speaks Hebrew, English, Arabic and Yemenite Arabic, and even sign language. She has five biological children, and over the years she has raised over 20 foster children. “They are my national pride,” she says.
Why did you decide to take children in foster care? How did you get to that?
“I was orphaned at a very young age. I am the ninth child out of ten brothers and sisters. I was in boarding schools until a very old age and I decided that when I matured financially and mentally I would take children like me and help them. I started with this thirty years ago when I was still married. I continued the project even after I got divorced.”
In the show you were kind of the mother of the house, especially for Kazem, Sharin and Riva. Why did you connect with them?
“It wasn’t planned. I was everyone’s friend, who was more, who was less. If someone did something wrong or that I didn’t think, I talked to them on the side quietly. I didn’t fight with anyone. Throughout the program I was like a kind of mother because I saw them Children. Don’t forget that there is a very big age gap between us. I expected that there would also be a group of my age, but there wasn’t. Still, I got along because I have a young character.
4 Viewing the gallery
“I didn’t fight with anyone.” happy
(Photo: Ryan)
“The friendship between us was based on giving, true love, giving up and being sensitive to each other. In my eyes, this is true friendship for heaven’s sake of an Arab, a Lebanese and a Moroccan. In every person there I found something that could be related to me.”
How do you summarize the experience?
“Special, hard and good. I enjoyed myself and I was surrounded by a lot of love, both from the production and from the people. It’s very difficult to be in a house like this. I go outside and see people judging with a light hand on the keyboard.”
Were you surprised you got kicked out?
“Very much. As far as I’m concerned, I wasn’t supposed to be in this eviction at all. That’s why I went out with slippers and didn’t wear the exit outfit. I was sure that one of the newcomers would leave. Who puts a person who has been in the house for 67 days for eviction? Only unfaithful people. As soon as they said that one of the newcomers stayed I knew it was me, I just felt it. But this is the game, I’m not complaining. It didn’t just surprise me. Everywhere I go, there’s no one who doesn’t say that the elimination was surprising and unrealistic.”
Who do you want to win and who do you think will win?
“I want everyone from my quartet, but the truth is I have no idea who will win. This season is very surprising and strange.”
Before the season started Simchi did not tell anyone, including her children, that she would be in the “big brother” house. “I knew they would tell me not to go because they know their mother can be blunt and it might hurt them more than me because I’m closed and they’re exposed,” she explains. “I wrote everyone a lot of letters with instructions, each one is responsible for something different. When I kicked them out, they were very surprised because they knew their mother was a star, but they all came to me, I cried and hugged them.”
4 Viewing the gallery
“Let every man look at himself in the mirror”
(Photo: Ryan)
Friends and family members were waiting for her at home with balloons, cakes, songs and dances. Her son, the singer Avitar Simchi, sang her the song “Mother” that he wrote in her honor. “I wish every child would sing it to their mother,” she says. “My daughter Osher is also a singer. She has a song called ‘If You Come’, which really moved me and talks about how God shines a light on people. To me, everyone is beautiful and talented, even the foster children. They are all successful and it’s important for me to say that. They are of all types and genders.”
In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently at home?
“I don’t think so. Even when my children saw me, they said, ‘That’s our mother.’ Everything and sometimes parts are interrupted due to lack of time.”
Along with the love and support, Shamchi also received a lot of insults online with harsh words along the lines of “ugly”, “evil”, “slanderous” and “disagreeable”. Shamchi says about this, “Every person should look at themselves in the mirror. Don’t forget that I am a mother of children. Fortunately, I am a strong woman and my children are strong and heroes. I saw how people talk on the Internet and I am ashamed for them. All in all, I participated in the game. Why do you push it to poor and low places? I pity such people more than I am angry with them. If this is what they see, they are unhappy.”
Do you answer the difficult comments?
“Usually not. I upload live on Facebook every day, and about 8,000 people watch them. A few days ago someone wrote to me: ‘How ugly.’ I stopped the live and said I had to respond to this woman. She was ashamed of herself, not me. Like God created me and I’m proud of this creation, I don’t want cosmetic surgery. This is who I am and the one who should be ashamed is her. This is a poor level of an unhappy person. By the way, I’m not ugly at all.”
Another response etched in her memory is about her foster children. There were those who claimed on the network that she was doing it for money. When she talks about the foster children it is evident that this excites her and her tone of voice rises. “How do they allow themselves to be humiliated like this?” she asks. “I want them to come in front of me and tell me this. Only people who do nothing in their lives for others can talk like that. I am not accountable to anyone, only to the Creator of the world.”
“My heart is with her. I am very sad for her. People have lost proportion. You are allowed to express criticism, but don’t forget that these are human beings. I intend to talk to her and strengthen her hands.”
Finally, what is the next step for you?
“I lecture about my life story in small and large groups. I wish I also had a small corner in some TV show. I will soon return to work on the train and hope to combine everything together.”