Kiryas Joel

The Plot

Yoel Friedman has endured many hardships in life due to developmental disabilities. Nevertheless, he has worked hard to support himself and lived a quiet life until August 2018. He had a job, two businesses, was happily living with his wife, Sarah, and their two kids. Shortly thereafter, everything changed.

At the age of 37, after getting by on his own for years, Yoel’s freedom and dignity was savagely torn from him when his own brother filed a petition with the court to declare Yoel an incapacitated person and completely took over his care. After being declared Yoel’s guardians in September 2018, his brother, Yehudah, and sister, Faigy, proceeded to neglect their duties of care while leaving Yoel in an increasingly restricted position to meet his own needs. They cut off his access to other forms of aid and isolated him from his wife and family.