'Smuggling mother' affair • grandmother: "causes me immense suffering"

5 days have passed since the family of the 'smuggling mother' went underground. Israeli police and welfare authorities are still searching for the Lederman family from Mea Shearim – and there are no leads on the hiding place of the family.

Since Behadrey Haredim exposed the affair over the weekend, the family refused to talk to the media.

Tonight, for the first time, the grandmother, Hannah Lederman, mother of Dov Berish Lederman, the father of the family which got caught in the storm, gives an exclusive interview to Behadrey Haredim, in which she refers to her son's lifestyle within the 'shawl cult', and the affair which thrills the Haredi public.

"We do not favor this way our son is going," she says and adds: "The relationship between me and my son and his family cut off a while ago, when he joined the shawl cult. We talked last time four years ago, and since there is no contact between us."

Last Thursday Chanah came to the funeral of her grandmother who died at two and a half months in his home. During the conversation she reveals her request over the toddler's deathbed - the circumstances of which are unclear: "I asked that when he goes to the heavenly court, he should advocate for his parents to return their sanity."

• If you are against the lifestyle of your son, why did you appear at the funeral?

"I went to the funeral of my grandson, my son is not of interest to me at that funeral."

Elements within the 'Eida Hareidis' believe that the parents and their nine children are hiding in different apartments. "They're not together." On the other hand, the grandmother believes that it is impossible to know where they are hiding and whether one of the children is sick. "How do people know? This is a closed community, the lifestyle is closed to the point that outsiders, even those of our own, can not know what happens there."

Lederman spoke with the police over the last days, but she refuses to reveal the nature of the investigation and its contents. "This is between me and the police, in any case you fill whole pages of our story, even without knowing what I told the police."

There is no certainty
During the call we tell Lederman the argument raised by an activist, that she testified to the police that another child is sick with the flu and that there is a fear of her life, only to create pressure on the family.

"It's a lie," she says, "Not everything they say is true."

• Does this affair cause you much suffering?

"The whole thing causes us great suffering, it hurts and shames us."

In the last 24 hours, since the ruling of the Badatz Eida Hareidis that the duty of the parents is to send the child for a medical examination, to remove fear of her life, Eida activists are working to send a private doctor to the house where the girl is staying with her parents so that she can check the child and thus bring to an end the affair which continued for nearly a week.

The connection is done through a chain of people, only the last of which makes contact with the parents.

A senior Jerusalem Police official told Behadrey Haredim that so far there is no verified information about the health of the child of two years and a half, and that the actions of the police and welfare to locate the family, are only to make sure she is healthy, and if not – to take her for medical treatment.

As mentioned, the family of nine disappeared before police broke in to their home on Admon street on Mea Shearim.

The police, in cooperation with Eida Hareidis activists, are trying to locate the hiding place. Among others searches were made in Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!