On Thursday, June 28, 2018, an emotional gathering was held to accompany threeTorah scholars on their way to prison: Shlomo Zalman Weissfish, Mendel Tepp, and Yehuda Leib Zilberberg, all of Beis Shemesh.
The three were arrested about two years ago, during a protest held in front of the house of a certain Zionist rabbi, who had supported the bill to draft the religious community into the Israeli army.
When the event was re-examined at a recent court hearing, the Zionist rabbi testified falsely against the three, claiming that they had attacked him and his wife, among other lies. Weissfish was sentenced to 4 months in prison, while the others were sentenced to two months, in addition to fines.
Weissfish is already well-known for his daring anti-Zionist activism. See the following video in which his young son speaks about how he lit Chanukah candles in jail:
Here is another story about Weissfish: Failed Police Raid in Beit Shemesh
Clearly, the Zionists’ goal in jailing these three is to intimidate others and squash their freedom of speech.
In the morning, the prisoners came to visit Rabbi Yehoshua Rosenberger, rabbi of the city. Also present was Rabbi Meir Heller, rabbi of the Kiryas Chassidim neighborhood of Beis Shemesh. Then the prisoners ascended to the balcony together with the rabbis, and Rabbi Rosenberger delivered a speech to the gathered crowd, bidding the men farewell with words of encouragement and praise for their great merit in sitting in jail for the honor of G-d. He concluded with a prayer to G-d that they be released quickly and saved from Zionist claws, that the Zionist state should come to a speedy end, and that we should all be privileged to see the coming of the messiah.
Afterwards, the entire crowd marched down the street, carrying the prisoners on their shoulders, singing and dancing in honor of those who sanctify the name of G-d. As the dancing reached its peak, the prisoners and their families boarded the bus to the prison in Be’er Sheba. A long caravan of vehicles accompanied the bus until the gates of the prison, their occupants waving flags of protest and signs saying: “We will never surrender to the persecutions of this evil government!”
Read more about the meeting with leading rabbis the day before.