Judge Orders Detained Jewish Children Moved to Summer Camp
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A Michigan judge reportedly ordered three Jewish children moved to summer camp from a juvenile detention center where they were sent for refusing to talk to their father.
Oakland County Family Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca agreed with the recommendation of a court-appointed guardian that the children be taken to a Jewish summer camp for at least two weeks, the Detroit Free Press reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear what would happen next to the children of a divorced Israeli-American couple, who are embroiled in a fierce custody battle.
“That’s up to the judge,” said Lisa Stern, an attorney for the mother, Maya Eibschitz-Tsimhoni, according to the paper.
The judge sparked national headlines by ordering the children held indefinitely for contempt of court after they refused to see their father, Omer Tsimhoni. The children are 15, 10, and 9 years old.
The children told the court their father was abusive to their mother.
The father counters that they have been brainwashed by their mom during a five-year bitter divorce battle.
Gorcyca sided with the father in ordering the children to spend time with their father, but they refused, sparking the detention order.
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