Ma Prem Hasya | |
|---|---|
| Born | Françoise Wizenberg (1937-04-04)April 4, 1937 Paris, France |
| Died | August 19, 2014(2014-08-19) (aged 77) United States |
| Other names |
|
| Movement | Rajneesh movement |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 (with Glazer) |
Ma Prem Hasya, orFrançoise Ruddy orHasya-Françoise Ruddy,[1] (née Wizenberg; 4 April 1937 – 19 August 2014) was aFrench-American follower ofRajneesh who served as his personal secretary (or chief of staff)[2] afterMa Anand Sheela. She is featured in archive footage in theNetflix documentary series,Wild Wild Country about Rajneesh, and is depicted in the 2022 miniseriesThe Offer about her then-husbandAlbert S. Ruddy's experience makingThe Godfather (1972).
Françoise Wizenberg was born in Paris on April 4, 1937. She is the daughter of Icek/Izak (Yitzhak) Wizenberg, a Polish industrial worker who died in aWorld War II concentration camp, and Maria Wilczuk, also a Polish-born Jew.[1] She survived theHolocaust under a false identity with a Christian family with whom her mother placed her.[1] She was reunited with her mother, then living in France, at the age of 8. In the summer of 1948 she immigrated toIsrael where she lived in an immigrant refugee camp inNetanya and then, according to sources, grew up in akibbutz. In 1955, her mother grew anxious when Françoise was drafted into theIsraeli Defense Forces. According to sources her mother told her “I didn’t save you from the Germans in order to lose you to the Arabs,” and this in turn led to the family's preparations to emigrate to North America. The family eventually settled in New York after a brief sojourn inCanada.[1]
In 1956 she marriedGuilford Glazer, aJewish multimillionaire fromKnoxville, Tennessee, and 16 years her senior. The marriage ended after eight years and produced two children.[2] She later married her second husband,Albert S. Ruddy, aMontreal-born Jewish film producer who won theAcademy Award for Best Picture for producingThe Godfather.[3][2] Françoise herself was involved in producing films, withThe New York Times reporting in 1973 that she was producing an independent film adaptation ofSeduction of the Minotaur byAnaïs Nin.[4] The project was ultimately unrealized. Françoise and Albert later divorced.
She discovered theRajneesh movement andRajneesh's teachings during a trip to India. Hasya helped purchase the Oregon ranch that was developed intoRajneeshpuram.[2] She later married Rajneesh's personal doctor, George Meredith.[5][6] After the Rajneesh community left Oregon she traveled with Rajneesh on a worldwide “performance tour,” visiting Nepal, Uruguay, Greece, Portugal, among other countries. Both eventually returned to Pune where she stayed until after the death of the Rajneesh. She returned to the United States in the same year, in 1990. She then lived between Los Angeles andSedona, Arizona, where she started a spiritual center called the Mystery School and was also involved in the establishment of an Osho center in Los Angeles.[1]
She had Parkinson's disease for the seven years preceding her death on August 19, 2014, at the home of her daughter, Erika Glazer.[1] She is buried under the name of Francoise “Hasya” Ruddy inHillside Memorial Park Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery inLos Angeles.[1]
| People | |
|---|---|
| Locations | |
| Incidents | |
| Legal cases | |
| In media and culture | |
| Related | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
