Testimony by sister Shoshana Levi:

Mom and Dad immigrated to Israel in 1948, Dad from Yemen and Mom from Iran. They met through matchmaking, got married and lived in Beit She'an.

We’re ten brothers and sisters, five brothers and five sisters, Yossef was the seventh.

Yossef disappeared on February 2, 1963. He was hospitalized in Afula, they said he had pneumonia. After two days they called dad to come and release him, saying that the child is healthy. Dad came to get Yossef from the hospital and didn’t find him. He was told that Yossef died and was buried in Afula. I was four years old, almost five, and I remember that Mom shouted: “Why? What happened? We’re Kohanim, we have to bury him!”

My older brothers were not at home, I heard what Dad said.

We checked at the Afula cemetery, we went looking for Yossef Cohen’s grave. We didn’t find anything.

At age 18 they came to enlist him, they came to our house, asked where he was hiding.

In 1994 I went to the Ministry Of Interior in Afula to issue a death certificate for him, on August 21, 1994.

They later sent us home an answer saying he passed away in February 1963, without even stating a specific day, just a month and a year.

Dad passed away at the age of 108, less than a year ago, Mom passed away in October 2017.

Dad didn’t want to speak about it. He was ashamed, he didn’t want me to do anything. Dad was a quiet and humble man.

Mom often said that Dad should have buried him. She would ask why she sent him to the hospital, why she didn’t go herself.

Yossef should be 60 years old now. All my life I dreamt that he was in the U.S. and that we would find him.