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)