A major outcry has erupted over the continued imprisonment of Menachem Aviv Hertzman, a Chabad yeshiva student who learned for two years at the Machon Ran yeshiva in Moscow.
Hertzman was one of over 11 Chabad yeshiva bochurim arrested at Ben Gurion Airport upon returning from their year of learning in Crown Heights as part of the “kevutza” program at 770 in Brooklyn. Most were released shortly afterward, but Hertzman is still in prison.
Russia’s Chief Rabbi, HaRav Berel Lazar, sent a sharply worded letter to Defense Minister Yisrael Katz about the arrest.
“I say honestly and openly, I was horrified to hear this news,” HaRav Lazar wrote. “His imprisonment and the conditions that do not allow Rabbanim to visit him to strengthen his spirit have reached the ears of the Jewish kehilla in Moscow. These are Jews who are taking steps toward the mesoras Yisrael, Jews who, b’ezras Hashem, will also immigrate to Israel in the future. They ask me how it is possible that in the country that is the pinnacle of the aspirations of Jews in exile, a yeshiva student is arrested whose only ‘crime’ is that he learns Torah.”
“The fact that a yeshiva student is arrested at the border and not allowed to return home or to his yeshiva is inhumane and illogical. Even if, for some reason, his status is not in order, a place and time should be set for him to resolve it—not to arrest him like a dangerous criminal immediately upon entering the country, without even allowing him to see his family.”
He concluded his letter: “I hope that a mistake has been made, and very soon you will allow Rabbanim to visit him. Most importantly, release him and allow him to resume learning Torah, and remove the terrible scar this incident has left on the hearts of the Jewish kehilla in Moscow.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
The Arabs are allowed visitors at least. And good lawyers too
what should be done with someone who endangers klal yisroel?
The Zionist regime must be dismantled immediately
Has Lazar joined NK? Let him give the Lubab asylum in Moscow.
Dr.goyy the only danger to the Jews is you and your corrupted hashkafa that you spit venom at our talmidei chachamim constantly, the joke will be when they are your judges in the next world and you ask them for mercy
rebEmes, i will not see your talmidei chachamin in the next world; they and I are going to different places, IY’H
lbj, you sound like Satmar, Neturai Karta and Iran, a distinguished group of idiots
Dr yidd you who spend your days on the internet are ending up in a better place than talmidei chachomim who spend their days in the beis medrash?
lbj, of course, I am an eved HaShem.
B’H the bochur will stay in closed quarter in E’Y than go “learn” in russian gehenom.
Where was he when Sefardi and Litwishe בחורים were arrested? Are their blood less red than those of his sect?