The Shmais News Service is reporting that 13 Lubavitcher Bochurim including some Talmidim HaShluchim from the Yeshiva in Rostov were arrested on Friday and then held under inhumane conditions in jail.
The following are excerpts of their exclusive reporting:
9:41AM UPDATE: This story started a few weeks ago after Tishray when Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Leima Wilhelm and Menahel Gashmi R’ Veshedsky were refused entry back into Russia.
9:55AM UPDATE: On Thursday Russian police came to Yeshiva and confiscated all the Bochurim’s passports.
10:01AM UPDATE: On Friday the police came and arrested all the Bochurim. The Bochurim under 18 were released while the others were interrogated till after Shabbos had already come in. The Russians wanted to transfer the Bochurim on Shabbos and the boys refused and instead walked to their “destination.”
10:09AM UPDATE: Rabbi Levi Shemtov of Washington, DC worked all day Friday using his contacts in the American Government – and got America’s Deputy Ambassador on the case. Although it was a holiday weekend in Russia, he was able to get permission from the Foreign Ministry to allow America’s Consul General to fly from Moscow to Rostov, where he met with the Bochurim and ensured that they got food and also arranged that they could leave Russia on Motzei Shabbos.
10:21AM UPDATE: The 13 Bochurim were held over Shabbos is a cell 8×15 that is meant for 4 people!
10:23AM UPDATE: As crazy as it may sound the “official” reason being given for the arrest is that the Bochurim failed to register within 3 days of their arrival to Russia.
10:27AM UPDATE: On Motzei Shabbos the arrested Bochurim were brought back to the Yeshiva where they and the other Bochurim were given 30 minutes to pack up all their belongings. They were then taken to the border and went to Dontesk, Ukraine where they are staying in a hotel until 10:00PM tonight when they have a flight to Israel.
(Source: Shmais)
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18 Responses
Sounds like “The Bear” is still alive.
what happened to chief rabbi berel lazars connections in the kremlin?
Why were were Rabbis Wilhelm and Veshetzky refused to come back?!
I have what may sound as a sillier question. Knowing that it is imperative for a foreigner in Russia to register within 3 days, and to obey the Russian law….
Why did these bochurim fail to register?
Why did they break the law?
Is there some inyan against registering with the country which is allowing you to visit?
they think russians now are “civilized” because the economy is becoming capitalistic. This is far from the truth. All the major communists still hold all the major positions. Putin himself is former KGB. Laws mean nothing to them. International opinion means nothing to them. All Jews should get out of there asap. Noone knows what the dictatorship is going to do next, but the direction it is going in does not bode well for democracy.
Well, Lazar actually is from the Russian branch of Chabad backed by Lazar and Leviev, and this Yeshiva is from Agudas Chasidei Chabad in Israel which has connections with Gaydaymak which is not on the greatest terms with the anti semitic Putin government.
DM obviously loves communists more than Chabadskers, but all the bochurim had registered for the registration cards- but for some reason they were held up in Moscow and were not released. They were trying to be legal.
Number 6 is right, but it was Lazars guy in Rostov, Rabbi Chaim Friedman who got them bailed out at the end.
Number 4 is right as well, they should have gotten proper registration. The yeshiva says it was the bochur’s responsibility and the bochurim thought the yeshiva took care of it.
Shturem,
You mean Chabad doesn’t get along with each other, either?!?
Although the law is that one has to register oneself within the first few days of arriving in Russia at the local interior ministry department it is generally neglected. This last year police have started to crack down and tourists can be stopped in random searches and if they haven’t registered can be dealt with how they feel like- deportations to fines etc. Normally bribes work but I guess that since it lasted over Shabbas! Alas
#9 I dont think this has anything to do with chabad not get along with each other. I spent a year and a half working for different orgs in the FSU and the fact is that Lazars guy is the one who got them released….
#4 I don’t think you understand this is the official reason you can’t believe a blasted word these russian commes say
“You mean Chabad doesn’t get along with each other, either?!?”
sharpestnail,
Of course they do, but the rich guys funding these two seperate Chabad Organizations hate each other, so the two Chabads have two play as if they are at odds with each other to please the philanthropists (Leviev and Gaydaymak) which bankroll them.
since when does 2 chabad businessman have anything to do with 13 foreign students being shoved into a cell on the sabbath in the largest most baddest country in the northern hemisphere rife with thousands of killers mafias brutal people and the government of russia through within 2 days a whole group into a cell for some legal discrepency and then deported them immediatly afterwards u are fools! if u think this has anything to do with 17 yr old brazilians following the law of filing paperwork in one of the largest populations this is about wether the jewish people will stand up for their own or are we too farblunget and openminded to let us be mistreated there must be effective responses they were told they would be back before shabbos
Russia = Rasha
Putin is a Stalinist pure and simple. We will be starting to see Russian repression again like it was under Brezhnev.
#7 & #12
No, I am no commy lover. I am not a Chabad person, but some of my best friends are Chabad. (could not resist that one)
Actually, for a non-Chabad person, I like Chabad pretty well. If you visited us for Yomim Noraim at this Chabad Shul where I daven, it is I whom you will see and hear davening, Pesikei D’Zimru, Shacharis, and Mincha, R”H and Y’Kippur.
Yes, a Chushuva Chabad Shaliach, in a decent-sized Chabad house, has a baal tefilla who has a non-chabad, Chassidish haavara. In fact I daven Mincha every Erev Shabbos, and Pesikei D’Zimru every Shabbos morning.
So, though I may not agree with everything relating to Chabad, I don’t think it fair to say that I like the communists better than Chabad.
It was on SHMAIS that I read that the bochurim failed to register. Now, maybe you read more up-to-date information, but my comment was based upon what I read on Shmais.
I may not be a Chabad chosid, but I work hard to get my Chabad customers the nices 4 x 4’s I can get them, and a few shaluchim use my tefillin for their mivtzaim.
So, if these guys did not break the law, then good. My words were based upon what it said on SHMAIS (a Chabad website) where it said that they printed an article that said they bochurim failed to register. That is where I got it from.
I am tired of many of my fellow Yidden complaining when they suddenly have consequences to their bad behavior. So, when I read that, I was annoyed. I thought, here they broke the law, and they are complaining?
So, I hereby apologize if I offended anyone.
If they did register, how could that have been the “official” reason?
What was the “REAL” reason?
I ALWAYS question, as that is how we learn.
I care not if you are Chabad, Yeshivish, Satmar or Young Israel. I have seen too much complaining, and whining by my fellow Yidden, while they are not doing their share in keeping the laws of the land they are living in or visiting.
And, if you look at my words, they were questions… ending with question marks. Certainly room for some answers, and certainly not spoken/written with anti-chabad feelings.
In fact, (here goes one small anti-chabad remark) why is it Chabad is always thinking everyone is against them????
Maybe it is because “some” Chabad people have a rough time with differing opinions.
I do not hold from Bor-Al-Babei-Bor mikvuos for women, but I AM NOT ANTI-CHABAD. I just differ in halachik opinion. I live barely 500 yards from a nice Chabad Mikvah, but have to drive my Rebbetzin about 45 minutes to a Mikvah that I hold from…. That does not make me Anti-Chabad at all. It means I hold from a different shita on mikvuous.
I only eat Yoshon but I AM NOT ANTI-CHABAD.
I wait for Rabbainu Tam’s Tzeis HaKoichuvim, but I AM NOT ANTI-CHABAD.
But, I respect every Chabad person’s right to use a Bor-al-Gabai-Bor, as that is their mesorah.
But, I respect every Chabad person’s right to eat chodosh, as that is their mesorah.
But, I respect every Chabad person’s right to follow the geoinim for havdulla, as that is their mesorah.
So, please let’s stop calling each other “ANTI-This or ANTI-That”
We have a right to question and disagree without being “ANTI”
Now, that being said, and perhaps overstated (since I was offended to be called anti-Chabad)
I will also state that I abhor Communisim, and I am well aware that Anti-Semitism if on the rise world wide!!!
However, if we cry out “Anti-Semitism” for every thing, even where it may not be justified, we are like the boy who cried wolf, and will lose our credibility.
Let’s scream loudly, when it is justified.
If it is justified in this case, then let’s scream.
I was only questioning!
So, what am I? I am a Jew.
I am a non-Chabad, who is a chossid however.
I learned in both yeshivish Yeshivos and Chassidish.
I daven at a Chabad shul, but am not a Chabad person. I am a Jew.
I am equally comfortable in Lakewood, Staten Island, Kiryas Yoel, Willi or BP. I am a Jew.
Just when I thought I had heard “Vere are yore papers?” for the last time…