Last month, Israeli actress Hadas Yaron, star of “Shtisel,” “We Were the Lucky Ones” and “Fill the Void,” revealed that she is expecting her first child.
“I wanted to wait [to announce the news] but then I shot a cover,” she shared on Instagram, referring to the Israeli magazine Yedioth Aharonot. “After walking around in the same sweatpants every day for three months, they made me so pretty so yalla, let’s make it official, hi, I’m Hadas, and I’m pregnant.” The actress, who is also starring in the “Shtisel” prequel “Kugel,” coming to Izzy this February, is expecting a baby girl in March.
Motherhood has been central in many of Yaron’s roles. In “Shtisel,” her character Libbi has a child with Michael Aloni’s Kiveh. In “We Were the Lucky Ones,” her character Mila survives the Holocaust with a small child, her daughter Felicia, and we see her grow into a role as a mother under the strains of war. “It was just so beautiful because she brought her childlike-ness, so full of light and joy,” Yaron told Kveller about shooting scenes with her onscreen daughter. In the recent film “The Milky Way,” Yaron plays a mother who uses a breastmilk delivery service to feed her newborn, and who forms a strange bond with the woman providing her with that “liquid gold.”
Basically, Yaron has spent her entire career preparing for this moment, and yet, in that Yedioth Aharonoth cover story, she says she’s “not someone who dreamt of becoming a mom her whole life.” Her partner, comedian, actor and writer Lior Amsterdamski, was the one who had been dreaming of becoming a father for years, but Yaron had to stew on it for many years. Then October 7 happened.
“After that Saturday, I went to Shefayim to meet with survivors and evacuees, and when I saw the children run around on the grass, I suddenly understood why there’s a boom of births after wars.”
Her friends did question her desire to have children at such an awful and insecure time in the Jewish state, but Yaron wanted to bring more good into this dark world.
“I believe that babies, children, are the source of good in the world,” the 34-year-old told the magazine. “There’s no future parent who doesn’t ask themselves what world am I going to bring life into and what will happen there? The hostages, this never-ending war, everything looks bad. But if you teach your child to be good, just to be good, they will bring more good into this world that really, really needs it.”
Yaron doesn’t yet have a name for her baby, or at least not one she is willing to share. But she does know one name that she won’t use: Libbi.
“For years, people have called me Libbi Shtisel,” she shared. “We’ll look for a name for her that will be identified only with her.”
We’re so thrilled for Yaron to become a mom, and we’re sure she’ll be even more amazing at the role than she has been on screen.
