A campaign titled “Zachreinu L’Chaim” has been launched to raise the urgent sum of $300,000 to save a young Jew, Binyamin Chasin, who sits in an Iraqi prison under a looming death sentence.

Binyamin Chasin was born in Iraqi Kurdistan and immigrated as a child first to Eretz Yisroel and later to Canada, before returning to Eretz Yisroel as a teenager.

In 2014, at the age of 21, he traveled to visit his elderly grandparents in Kurdistan. It was the very time that the dreaded ISIS terror group was sweeping through Iraq. Witnessing the danger, Binyamin joined local Kurds in defending their towns from ISIS atrocities.

Tragically, while returning home one day in 2015, he was accosted by a taxi driver who overheard him speaking Hebrew. The driver threatened to hand him to ISIS. In the struggle that followed, Binyamin drew his weapon and shot the driver in the leg. The driver later died, leading to Binyamin’s arrest and severe torture at the hands of local authorities.

In August 2020, a Kurdish court sentenced Binyamin to death by hanging. Through extraordinary effort, askanim managed to transfer him out of Sulaymaniyah, a prison under heavy Iranian influence, to a facility in Erbil, sparing him from immediate execution.

However, the death sentence remains in force, and only a sulcha — a reconciliation settlement with the victim’s family — can annul it. After years of negotiations, the family’s demand has been lowered to $250,000, and they have agreed in writing that upon receipt of the funds, Binyamin will be released.

Renowned attorney Alan Dershowitz has been involved in the case, lending his influence and confirming the dire danger in which Binyamin remains. Rabbi Avraham (Alan) Lowy, an askan with years of pidyon shvuyim work, has personally traveled to Iraq multiple times to meet Binyamin, finding him physically broken, trembling, and spitting blood as a result of his sufferings.

Rabbi Lowy stressed the urgency: “The verdict is signed and sealed. They can carry out the execution any day. If we had the funds in hand, we could save him within days.”

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In this powerful video, Professor Alan Dershowitz converses with attorney Allen Lowy, an askan who became involved in the פדיון שבויים campaign after hearing the frightening story of a Jewish life in grave danger. Professor Dershowitz reflects on his long career of Pidyon Shevuyim, sharing past experiences where he raised vast sums to free Jews from dangerous situations. His words underscore both the urgency of the current situation and the critical funds needed to save Ben Hasin’s life.

The Interview from Prison

With a broken heart, Limor Chasin has traveled all the way to Iraq in the hope of visiting her son. Hearing that Klal Yisroel has finally awakened to rally behind her child fills her with deep emotion and gratitude. Listen as she pours out her thanks to everyone, and to Alan Lowy, who is tirelessly and selflessly working day and night to bring her son safely home.

Donations are being collected under strict rabbinic oversight through the Zachreinu L’Chaim campaign.

Yidden worldwide are also asked to daven for Binyamin ben Limor, that he should be zocheh to a yeshua me’afeilah l’orah in the very near future.

Listen to the anguished cry of Shoshana Aharon, the aunt of Ben Hasin, as she describes the dreadful plight of her nephew in an Iraqi prison—and how the only one who came forward to help, without asking for a single penny, is the true מסירות נפש עסקן, Alan Lowy.