Mary Peretz, an 82-year-old woman who began her life in Casablanca, Morocco, not knowing how they were going to shake her again and again. Out of six children, Mary and her husband, the late Makhlouf, lost four of them, three were sold to rich sons in an unclear manner, and the fourth – Esther, was also taken at the age of only two and a half after the housekeeper went with her to buy a donut and did not return.
This is how the new season of ‘Lost’ begins under the direction of Zovit Grant and directed by David Deri, which will return to the screen in the first episode with the sad story of the Peretz family, people who, after all, dreamed of building a home, and instead experienced countless disappointments. In 2017, when the previous episodes of the search attempts were aired, the skilled program team managed to locate Shulamit, Victor and Zahari, the brothers who were kidnapped as children, and reunite them with Mary and her two children Raymond and Maxim. Part of the puzzle has indeed been completed, in a task that seems to be impossible, but that is not all, and since then they have been searching with candles for the toddler Esther who left a huge hole in her mother’s heart. And that’s exactly where we continue in less than a week.
“It’s not just a new season, it’s really the biggest story we’ve had of all time” a scout told me when I asked her about her mindset on the eve of continuing this incredible journey. “This is perhaps the greatest achievement. One of the most important mitzvot in the world is Shabbat lost, and certainly in the soul. We have been in this story for almost 10 years. This woman, Mary Peretz, is a visible miracle,” she concluded. After what I saw yesterday, with sparkling eyes, you don’t even understand how right she is. Speaking of glittering, just before the viewing, Shimon Buskila came on stage with his songs ‘Ya Mama’ and ‘Ohati’, and definitively melted every particle of pason left in me. And everyone with me.
I’m trying to think for a moment how do you even digest such a line, that you have a brother and that someone made great efforts to separate him from you. “You can’t describe it in words”, she tried to convey to me, if only a little, the moment of receiving the good news about the three brothers somewhere five years ago. “It’s bigger than life and reality. What can a mother who went through such a mask of abuses, whose chicks were taken from her more than 50 years ago, feel?” And as if taking the words out of my mouth, she added: “It may not be possible to bring justice for this crime committed against her, but I hope that at least now we have managed to put the whole puzzle back together.”
- Netanyahu’s beehive, threats and crises: all the updates on the way to the formation of the government
In recent years, more and more evidence has surfaced about the story of the abduction of Yemeni children, which remains a kind of unclear but very painful scar in Israeli history. Here too, at least at the beginning, there are quite clear hints that someone knew about the kidnapping, even apparently a body that is supposed to aid and help Jews overseas. If this is the answer and even if it is a completely different event, what screams out most during the viewing is the heartbreaking disconnection of a mother from her children. It almost sounds unlikely to try to understand what a mother feels in such a situation, especially when the longings come with horrible criticisms like the one Mary received.
I reached so many layers of emotions while watching. Part of the time I laughed at the healthy and inspiring spirit of Mary, who even at the age of 82 remained lucid and charismatic, the rest of the time I found myself moved to tears by this agonizing search, and mostly I was pained by the impossible situation that was revealed to me. The terrible pain in my throat hearing these things, the jarring concealment, made me cry out in my heart and ask how it makes sense that for decades the story was about Miut. I did not understand how I, as the daughter of a father who also grew up in these urban landscapes of Morocco, was not exposed myself to these amounts of information that seemed to pass over our heads. There is no doubt that there was a big omission here, which of course you will argue about yourself, and more than that – even the joy of the discovery does not easily fill the deep holes created by the suffering while waiting for the longed-for moment.
“I don’t have enough words to describe the intensity of the pain that still grips this woman and the children who were kidnapped and had to live for years with roots that were not theirs,” concluded Scout. When I asked if it was even possible to feel this catharsis, this pat on the back, despite the enormous amounts of injustice, she emphasized: “There is catharsis in the part that closes the circle, trampled on a woman and her husband’s life for one small crime – for being destitute poor, and for the unbearable ability of humanity to erase transparent people. It doesn’t stop, the world is full of injustices.” On a personal note, she shared: “The frustration doesn’t let go of me, I feel it’s my doing. I couldn’t ask for something that connects me more to my essence as a person than dealing with the lost.”
I have to admit that although it’s been a while since I watched the journey of ‘Lost’ with Mary Peretz, coming soon to you, it just can’t get out of my head. The sensitivity with which the dedicated team treated this deep-rooted family that was doomed to split up, the thoughtfulness that led to the operation crossing countries and cultures, even those that prefer to be swept under the carpet, all of these simply make it clear as soon as this is not another TV show, but an absolute right. And that right is ours.