Ilana takes Yifat to Gideon House

Ilana takes Yifat from Michel and goes to Zikhron Yaakov to stay with Boaz, turning a private family decision into a rupture that Michel’s relatives and friends treat as a public disgrace. Her own note frames the departure as necessary and temporary in its practical arrangements, but her refusal to return home and Alexander A. Gideon’s arrival at the same abandoned property intensify the separation into a crisis over marriage, reputation, and Yifat’s whereabouts.

Departure and Stated Reasons

Ilana’s note to Michel, addressed to the Sommo Hotel Castille on Rue Gambon in Paris, announces that she has gone to Zikhron with Yifat. She writes that she had to go and asks Michel to understand that she is acting for his sake. The message does not set out a fuller explanation, but it makes clear that the departure is deliberate rather than an accidental delay or a trip Michel has arranged.

Ilana asks Michel not to cut his Paris trip short. She also promises to try to keep the Sabbath and eat kosher, presenting those observances as accommodations she will make while away. The note closes with reassurance: Boaz sends affectionate greetings and tells Michel to enjoy himself and not worry, while Ilana sends her love. The warmth of the message sits uneasily beside the unilateral decision it reports; Michel is asked for understanding after the separation has already been put into effect.

The Stay at the Gideon Property

A later letter describes Ilana as having taken her little girl to stay with her son from her previous marriage, who was living in an abandoned building between Zikhron Yaakov and Binyamina. The address on Ilana’s note places her at Gideon House near Zikhron Yaakov, identifying the destination with the property associated with Alexander A. Gideon. The account makes the house a meeting point for the broken strands of the family: Ilana, Yifat, and Boaz are there, and Alexander arrives shortly before Michel returns from Paris.

The timing compounds the shock. Michel returns from a trip that had taken him to Paris on a matter described as one of public interest, as well as to visit his parents near his sister in Marseille. Roughly a day before his return, Alexander, described in the letter as Ilana’s first husband and a scholar who emigrated to America, also turns up at the property. The letter characterizes Ilana as cohabiting with her first husband and refusing, for the time being, to return to Michel. It does not establish the precise nature of her relationship with Alexander beyond their being there together, but Michel’s circle interprets the situation as dishonorable and expects it to provoke gossip.

Michel’s Response and the Family Crisis

The report presents Michel’s response in stark terms: his world has collapsed, and he is suffering from terrible depression. The writer and three companions, including Michel’s elder brother, go to speak with Ilana, but she refuses to see them. They return to Jerusalem without having resolved the matter, then sit with the Sommo family in grief and despondency until half past three in the morning.

The group considers a formal complaint against Ilana for taking Yifat from home without Michel’s consent, an action the letter says verges on kidnapping. Michel refuses to make the complaint. He insists that he will not bring a criminal charge against his wife, saying he would rather die and that what has been done cannot be undone. His brother and cousins contemplate taking a rash step, but the letter writer says that he talks them out of it with difficulty. Without Michel’s formal complaint, the writer considers his own hands tied. The episode therefore ends not with a settlement, but with Ilana remaining away, Michel rejecting legal action, and the family’s distress held in place by the very restraint that prevents an immediate escalation.