A Chareidi “draft dodger” who was arrested last week was denied access to tefillin in prison for three days, Kol B’Ramah reported.
According to the report, his family repeatedly contacted the relevant officials at the detention facility and received an explicit assurance that they could bring the tefillin to the entrance of the base and that it would be delivered to their relative.
However, when his father arrived at the entrance to the facility, the guards refused to accept the tefillin or allow him inside. As a result, the father remained outside the gate, and the young man was held for three days without being able to fulfill the mitzvah of tefillin.
Following the publication of the incident, UTJ MK Meir Porush sent an urgent official letter to Defense Minister Yisrael Katz entitled, “Serious Violation of Religious Rights in a Military Prison.”
Porush wrote that this was not an isolated incident, but part of a series of testimonies and similar cases in recent weeks in which the basic rights of Chareidi detainees in military detention facilities have been violated.
Porush sharply criticized the way the family was treated, describing the misleading assurances and the denial of the tefillin as a serious and unethical violation. He called on Katz to immediately investigate the incident, hold those responsible for the failure accountable, and clearly reinforce procedures among the command staff at all IDF detention facilities to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
A copy of the letter was also sent to MK Boaz Bismuth, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
14 Responses
They absolutely should have provided Tefilin for the draft evder to use – period. They may not want to allow his own Tefilin in for security reasons (fear of it being g used for smuggling) – but should make 100% sure he has a Kosher set available to be Mekayem the Mitzva. Did they not do so? If not, there should be consequences.
an Israeli Yid
The Zionists follow on the footsteps of their Nazi forebearers.
This is a bad situation, hopefully will be rectified. In other places, readers ask additional questions – was there a chaplain in the jail? were other tefilin available? if someone said that he can bring, but the guard did not let – doubtful that this was a set up, simply lack of communication, or a local guard made his own decision…
most unfortunate that this is probably caused by increasing rift between the groups. As one commentator responded: Sure, the charedim can show everyone else a little respect and dignity
so, maybe the right response is to offer the guard to put tefilin and give him some home-made cake and listen to what he has to say.
in the Jewish State Jews are prevented from putting on tefilin?
Who suffers more:
A Chareidi “draft dodger” who had no tefillin in prison for 3 days,
or parents of a Dati Leumi soldier whose son is STILL DEAD 3 years later?
I will not suggest an answer to this question;
you must find the answer by yourself.
Thank you, and I wish all Jews a very easy fast
on Tisha BeAv and Yom Kippur.
bad things happen in prison – obey the law instead.
Joseph Goebbels,
“The Zionists follow on the footsteps of their Nazi forebearers.”
Your close relative was in the SS so the one with a Nazi forebearer is you!
Was a Muslim terrorist ever denied a prayer mat for 3 days?
SQUARE_ROOT:
First of all, two wrongs don’t make a right, as you surely learned in your early school years.
Second, and more importantly, you cannot possibly compare those two groups.
“Dati Leumi” is idolatry, and the major and overriding part of that religion is the “Leumi” portion, including what their idolatry considers to be a “mitzvah” (not due to pikuach nefesh, but intrinsically so), which is serving in that army.
ViAin kan makom liHaarich.
‘Bad things happen in prison’ is doing a lot of work here. Bad things happening and a state deliberately targeting someone’s religious practice as a form of control are not the same category. One is a failure, the other is a policy.
Also, shloime (if that is really your name, it’s probably something like Oded, or Vasiliy), yeshiva students are being punished for things that shouldn’t be crimes in the first place. ‘Obey the law’ only works as an argument if the law itself isn’t the abuse.
I really think the evil people that constantly bring up other tragedies as a way of either showing that these people deserve no sympathy whatsoever or their simple way of throwing ice on any issue relating to religious people are going to drop dead real soon
@doom777: if your attempt at commenting is to try to guess my name, i’ll give you a hint – it’s at the top of the message.
doom> Obey the law’ only works as an argument if the law itself isn’t the abuse.
you are such a Tzioni, expecting from non-religious Jewish government so much more than you would from any other. In any other country, if there were a draft, most likely Torah learning will not be an excuse. Jews in Russia served for 25 years if they conscripted with no tefilin. “You can eat the treif meat, but don’t such the bones”, Chofetz Chaim told them …
Baruch Hashem, most of all live in free countries where shuls and batei midrashim are open. Use the great opportunities Hashem provided you with – probably better ones than 99% of Jews in Jewish history, at least in last 2000 years