Her Father Was an Arab Prince. She Chose to Be Jewish

Following a divorce, a loss, and a crisis of faith, Claire Blumenthal Zeitler went in search of her biological parents and her Arab heritage. After ten years living in Arab countries, Claire returned to Judaism and the Jewish community.

At six weeks old, Claire was adopted by an observant Jewish family. Every Friday night, recalls Claire, “my mother used to sit me down after lighting candles and say, ‘We love you. You are not born from my tummy, but you're born from my heart.’ And then she would answer whatever questions I had. She would reassure me if I didn't feel loved. She was just completely there for me. So I grew up in a very happy, healthy home.”

Despite these weekly reassurances, young Claire always had a fear of abandonment. Her mother remembers finding a stash of sandwiches, which three-year-old Claire had hidden in her sock drawer, ready to go just in case her parents left her somewhere. “I used to climb into my mother’s bed every single night because of the fear that she won’t be there in the morning,” recalls Claire.

Claire’s adoptive family had one biological son, seven years older than her. Her father was a doctor with a busy medical practice, and he was rarely home during the week.

When Claire started school, things got harder. She struggled academically and was taken out of regular classes for remedial tutoring. She was also bullied by her classmates and spent her school breaks alone. Despite her parents’ love and devotion, “I was completely insecure.”

As a child, Claire had wondered about her biological parents but had no way of finding out who they were due to the legal nature of closed adoption. She knew that her biological parents were not Jewish and that she was converted to Judaism.

Claire as a young girl

Marriage and a Shocking Email

After graduating from high school, Claire went to study in Israel, but she didn’t do much studying. Instead, she went to parties and made new friends. That was how she met her ex-husband, who had grown up in a Chassidic family in America and was struggling with his own trauma and insecurities.

His parents were not thrilled at the prospect of their son marrying a convert who was adopted. “But he stood up for me,” says Claire. “He told his parents, ‘If you tell me no, I'm just going to go marry her anyway, and you'll never see me again.’”

Claire, age 19 at the time, was moved by his commitment. “Somebody actually is choosing me. They want to be in my life. I've never had that kind of understanding of what love is.”

They got married but her ex-husband’s family never accepted Claire as one of their own, even after they moved right across the street from them. Their struggles with infertility only added tension to their relationship. Claire’s husband didn’t know how to be supportive and refused to go to therapy. “The marriage was a huge mistake,” says Claire. “I was miserable. But I didn’t have the guts to leave him until six years in. It was a process.”

Meanwhile, after their wedding announcement was posted online, available for the whole world to see, Claire received an email from her biological mother.

“It was a shock,” she says. It turned out that Claire’s biological mother had bribed someone at the adoption agency and obtained information about the adoptive family. When she saw the wedding announcement and Claire’s picture, she realized this was her biological daughter, who was now an adult, and she decided to contact her.

Claire responded to the email and asked who her biological father was. “He is an Arab prince,” was the reply.

Claire was conceived in an extramarital affair. When her biological mother found out that she was expecting a child, she confessed to her husband who insisted that she give the baby up for adoption. She agreed but never felt at peace with it.

Her biological mother was given three choices of families for adoption. Even though she was Native American and had no prior connection to Judaism, “she chose my parents because they were Jewish, so I would have morals,” says Claire. She didn’t want her child to go through what she was going through at the time.

It also helped that “my father was a doctor, so I would be taken care of and would have an education.” Claire’s biological mother never had a stable job or a stable marriage. She was married five times, and at the time of their meeting, she was living in a trailer home and working at Walmart.

When Claire told her adoptive mother about the email, she encouraged her to be grateful to her biological mother. “This is the best scenario that happened, and we have to be grateful for that,” she said to Claire.

But Claire couldn’t yet bring herself to meet her biological mother. They stayed in touch over email.

Claire's adoptive parents

Losing Her Father

After Claire’s divorce, “my first stop was to go to New York. My [adoptive] father was in a hospice and basically dying. I went to say goodbye to him, and then I went to Israel.” Claire had missed the unique Jerusalem vibe, the closeness to God she had felt at the Western Wall, the sense of belonging she’d experienced when she lived there.

Jerusalem, however, was less welcoming than Claire had expected. The friends she had made when she had lived there with her ex-husband wanted nothing to do with her now that she was divorced. Claire felt lonely and rejected. And then her father passed away.

Even though Claire knew it was coming, the loss was a huge blow. “My father was a holy man,” says Claire. “The neighborhood kids would come to him for his epic blessings.” As a doctor, Claire’s father was known for his kindness and care. He had helped many people and was respected in his community.

Besides grief, Claire also felt disconnected from God and from Judaism. She found it difficult to go to other families for Shabbat meals because they reminded her of her loss. “When he died, it took a huge part of me. He was my connection to Judaism and I didn't understand how I could not have that in my life anymore. And that's when I was like, ‘All right, fine. I guess I got to go look for something else.’”

When Claire went back to America for the 30-day commemoration of her father’s passing, she decided that she was ready to meet her biological mother.

The meeting took place in her adoptive parents’ home, with her adoptive mother present. Claire recalls, “We just sat there for a bit and talked. Honestly, I couldn't even tell you what we talked about because it was so unimportant to me. It's kind of sad, but I was thinking to myself, ‘Thank you, God, that I didn't live with this woman ever.’ Not that she was a bad person, but the situations she had gotten herself into were bad.”

Claire’s biological mother had her own history of trauma. “Her grandmother was taken from a reservation and adopted by white people. And she gave birth to a daughter who was then given up for adoption. And then my biological mother had a daughter who was given up for adoption. I'm third generation adopted. Even before I was born there was trauma.”

Claire kept in touch with her biological mother on Facebook, “niceties but nothing real.” They never met in person again.

Claire with her biological mother

Exploring Her Arab Heritage

When Claire returned to Israel, still grieving, she began to wonder about her biological father. She wasn't ready to contact him yet, but she was curious about her Arab heritage.

“My friend and I just walked into one of the stores in the Old City and we met the nicest man who I'm still in contact with today,” says Claire. “I asked him a bunch of questions about his culture. I just wanted to learn.”

The warmth she encountered surprised her. “I walk into a store and they hand me some water, offer me a seat, and ask about my life story. And once they heard that my father was Arab, they said, ‘You're one of us!’” Desperately wanting to belong, Claire clung to their acceptance.

She enrolled in the Jerusalem branch of the University of Notre Dame, attended primarily by Palestinian Arabs, studying Arabic and hospitality. Then she took a trip to Egypt, renting an apartment on the Sinai Peninsula. “I was really taking time to process my father's death. I would sit by the sea and just think."

Claire learned Arabic and observed and participated in their traditional customs. She was especially fascinated by the Bedouins, who preserved their ancestors’ lifestyle.

Meeting Her Biological Father

Eventually, Claire decided to reach out to her biological father. She contacted her oldest half-sister, who was intrigued by Claire’s message and asked her father about her. At first, the father denied her existence, but eventually he admitted to his family that he was Claire’s father. He also wanted to meet Claire.

They spoke and Claire finally got a chance to ask about his family history. “Their family lore is that his family was the ruling family of Bahrain before the current one. The last prince died in battle with the British in the 1880s, and the rest of the family was exiled to Baghdad. Still quite wealthy, prominent people — but not my side.”

His family invited her to her half-brother's wedding in America. “Everybody welcomed me as if I'm their daughter and sister.” She discovered cousins spread across the world: Germany, Kuwait, Bahrain, Canada, Uganda.

Claire with her biological father

Living in Luxury

After Claire returned to the Middle East, she decided to move to Dubai. There, she first got a job in real estate and then started a media company and a magazine and “found my footing in what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be.” After years of struggling, Claire finally felt success. She made her way into the upper classes of society, learned to dress with elegance and style, and hosted high-end events. “Everybody knew me, and I was invited to every event, and it was just luxury upon luxury, and just a lot of fun,” she recalls.

She traveled a lot between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, both for work and for pleasure.

Looking back, Claire realizes that it was “all about self-preservation. I learned how to flirt, because if I was flirting with you, I was not a threat. Getting through checkpoints – I would figure out who the boss was and know he was the one I needed to flirt with. It was just a constant, who is going to protect me?”

Later, in Dubai, recalls Claire, “I dated a Pakistani billionaire. I remember asking him, ‘If there is something going down in the world, and my family and I need protection because we are Jews, are you going to save me?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll make some calls.’ I needed to make sure that I knew the people who could make a call and world events would be changed. In Dubai, I knew people who had the ear of Prince Salman. I went out with a prince from Qatar once. It wasn’t about money. It was about who I could be on a good side of if the world goes down.”

Claire with her team at her company's first anniversary dinner in Dubai

Healing Trauma

At the same time, Claire was coming to terms with her insecurity and her unresolved trauma. She began seeing a healer in Jerusalem who helped her tremendously. As she began to heal, she felt a pull back to Judaism. She began lighting Shabbat candles again wherever she found herself on Friday nights.

The healer encouraged her to return to Jewish practice. When Claire asked her if she was trying to get her to be observant again, the healer answered, “No. I'm trying to get you to realize that God loves you.”

Moved, Claire continued taking small steps towards Jewish observance. Her life seemed to be coming back together.

And then everything came crashing back down when she was raped by an Arab man she had dated. “That was the biggest trauma of my life,” says Claire.

She decided she had enough of Dubai, moved back to Israel and rented an apartment in Netanya, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. “I needed to be by the water to heal,” she says.

In Netanya, Claire reconnected with the Jewish community. She was now observing Shabbat and considering only dating Jews. She continued working on healing from trauma, hoping to be ready for a normal family life one day.

However, the road back was not smooth. The Israeli authorities got suspicious of Claire’s frequent travel to Arab countries and her ties with wealthy Arabs. To her shock, Claire found herself deported from Israel, the country she loved.

Claire with her cousins in Bahrain

Back in America

At that point, Claire’s adoptive mother had remarried and moved to Miami. Claire went back to America and stayed with her mother and stepfather.

“I decided, this is not how I want to live. So I blocked a bunch of numbers of people who I knew from all over the world. I am in Miami and I'm going to make the best of this situation today. I am no longer running.”

While sorting out her documents to be able to return to Israel, Claire got a job and moved to an apartment near her mother. She worked on personal growth and to be part of the Jewish community. She also wanted to get married again.

“I got together a group of singles who were over 30 and brought them together for Shabbat meals. It felt so good to make a difference in people's lives.”

October 7^th

Claire was still in Miami when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on October 7^th, 2023. “I took it extremely hard,” recalls Claire. “I was dealing with being related to the devil. I was trying to understand how anybody could be so evil and how I could share DNA with people who were worse than animals. I was just so distraught. I didn't leave the house. My mother had to bring me food a week later because I hadn't eaten anything.”

While processing these powerful emotions, Claire decided that she had to become “a visible Jew.” She felt more part of the Jewish community than ever before.

At the same time, the people she had considered friends were posting on social media in support of Hamas. Claire blocked them. “I was furious,” she says. “I wanted nothing to do with them. I lost hundreds of followers on Instagram because I was posting about October 7^th and not pro-Palestinian. All of these were business people I was connected to in Dubai, so it was a big thing.”

Looking back at her time in the Arab world, Claire began to recognize that many of her acquaintances were either terrorists or terrorist supporters who hated Jews. “I had been trying my hardest to live in that world while also not being in that world,” she says. “I just wanted somewhere to belong. Back then, I was half-apologizing for them because of their situation, and then I finally realized: it’s their fault.”

Claire still has a handful of friends and business connections in the Arab world who have never expressed any antisemitism and whom she trusts fully.

Back in Israel

Finally, after a long bureaucratic process, Claire was able to return to Israel in May 2024. Now in a much better place emotionally, she was able to connect with people and build relationships like never before.

Last year, Claire got married. She had originally met her husband, Yitzchak, in Miami through her singles events, and then they reconnected in Israel.

Today, Claire and Yitzchak own a Jewish online magazine. Claire brings her experience from the magazine she had in Dubai “and elevating it to be Jewish,” she says.

Claire and Yitzchak at their wedding

Claire is full of gratitude for how her life has turned out, going from inherited trauma to a stable relationship and a genuine connection with God and with the Jewish community. “I had so many barriers,” she says. “There were so many reasons to turn away. But it was all leading me to this time and space that I needed to be in. I needed to go through all of that growth.”

“God really does love me and wants the best for me. I think God made all of this happen just so that I could finally have a reason to tell the world how amazing He is.”