Clarinetist David Kliger on Sunday evening shared details about the conditions yeshivah bochurim are enduring in military prison for the “crime” of limmud Torah.

Kliger began by saying that he davened Mincha earlier in the day at the shul beneath his home in Bnei Brak—where he met Shneur Zalman Paz, a Lubavitcher chassid who had been arrested at Ben Gurion Airport, where he was scheduled to board a flight to New York to learn at 770.

“When Mincha ended, suddenly a Chabad bochur turned around and asked to say a few words,” Kliger said. “He told us that he had been released in the morning from Prison 10, after 18 days.”

“He said his name is Shneur Zalman Paz, and he described the treatment the lomdei Torah are subject to in prison.”

Among other things, Paz said that if the prison commanders find anyone davening in anything other than a prison uniform, they immediately handcuff him. In one incident, a female commander found a bochur davening while wearing a white shirt. She grabbed his siddur and ordered him to remove his tefillin immediately.

It should be noted that a Yerushalmi avreich who refused to wear the prison uniform for religious reasons was placed in solitary confinement.

Paz added that the Mashgiach kashrus was a young man who didn’t appear religious (did not wear a yarmulke.)

He also said that the television in the cells made it very difficult to learn, as did the loneliness, since the Chareidi inmates are placed in cells among secular and Druze detainees. Paz said that during the 18 days he was imprisoned, he barely had anyone to talk to or learn with.

“On one hand, it was truly fascinating—we spoke with him for almost 40 minutes—and on the other hand, it was extremely, extremely sad to hear what they do to people who simply want to learn Torah!” Kliger said.

Released lomdei Torah have previously attested to the difficult conditions in prison, saying that they are a danger to ruchniyus.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)