JERUSALEM — A Tel Aviv court has ruled in a closed hearing regarding the two young women from a Gur hasidic family who disappeared from their home after their parents left their Gur community in Ashdod and moved to Bnei Brak.

During the court hearing, the judge ascertained that there were no claims of violence against the girls and ruled that the younger girl, aged just 14, should ideally be under her parent’s jurisdiction. However he asked the girl, who does not wish to be in her home, under what conditions she would be willing to transfer to another family. She replied that if they had kosher phones and her sister was with her she would be willing to go elsewhere.

Due to the girl’s refusal to return to her parents, who have left the mainstream Gur chasidus, it was decided with the parents agreement that during the week the girl and her sister would stay with a neutral chasidic family. A family of Tzanz chasidim agreed to foster the girl and her sister. The judge also ruled that the 17-year-old girl will be staying in the Gur seminar in Ashdod, whereas her sister will not be able to continue to study there as she is too young to commute.

The parents, Aryeh and Leah Sandik, were members of the Ashdod community but decided to move as they did not feel connected anymore to the chasidus. Contrary to what was previously reported, the parents did not join the breakaway faction of Rabbi Shaul, although they had considered such a step. The parents did decide however to move their children away from the Gur institutions and send them to general chasidic institutions in Bnei Brak.

The family was split in two after the two girls and their 12-year-old brother refused to leave the mainstream Gur institutions. The parents claim that they were brainwashed by members of the chasidus. However they agreed that their 17-year-old daughter could complete her studies there. The 14-year-old and 12-year-old were registered to study in Bnei Brak schools.

Two weeks ago the younger daughter did not return from school and her sister did not return from her seminar. The worried parents called police but then received a call from their younger daughter stating that “everything is ok.” The two girls returned home. The next week both of them disappeared from the house and the parents did not know where they were until they met them in the police station Wednesday.

As reported by Vos Iz Neias