The Yondeff brothers, Dov 8, and Menahem 9, have returned to West Germany and the custody of their father, ending an emotionally charged episode that engendered angry controversy in Israel. The youngsters flew to Frankfurt several days ago on an El Al flight accompanied by their mother who had brought them to Israel in 1973 during divorce proceedings.
Their father, Joseph Yondeff of West Berlin, was given custody of the boys by a West German court. When the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the German court’s decision, a storm of protest broke out in religious and nationalist circles in Israel, intensified when the youngsters twice resisted being placed aboard flights to Germany. But most Israeli political figures and jurists agreed that the Supreme Court’s ruling, however distasteful to some, had to be carried out.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
