[COMMUNICATED]
Readers were shocked this month to read the news of a group of Israeli girls who were tricked into travelling with a suitcase containing goods which are legal in Israel but illegal in many other countries. When the girls arrived in Bulgaria, they were rushed by police, and taken to jail. As the days passed and they had not heard from their daughters, their respective families began to panic. It was only after two weeks in jail that 22-year-old Rivka Zuaretz was able to make her allotted 3-minute call to her parents. Rivka was in hysterics: None of the prison guards spoke Hebrew, she had no access to kosher food, she was surrounded by violent inmates, and the prosecution was seeking a shocking 15 years.
The girls’ families immediately scrambled to try to rescue them from mortal danger. Rivka’s friend Batel Peretz made headlines just last week, as her family rallied for her release. As Batel has begun to see a glimmer of hope, however, Rivka has tragically been left behind.
Her parents are an average Israeli couple of modest means. Father Ziv is a teacher, and mother Tali is a cook. They have hired a lawyer who specializes in similar cases but the expenses are far beyond their means. Rivka’s emergency fund paints a harrowing picture:
“They are keeping Rivka in a horrible, horrible place, surrounded by violent criminals. They know she is Israeli & Jewish and they hate her for it. She calls me from the jail crying with fear and I have no way to honestly tell her that she can come home soon. She is just a sweet young girl from a religious family, who made a silly mistake in trusting someone who was deceiving her, and who now is being tormented for it.”
22-year-old Rivka was just getting started in life. She had just finished a course and begun to work as a professional makeup artist. Now, just as she began to come into her potential as a young adult, her family worries her life has come to its tragic end.
Those who are able to contribute to the mitzvah of “pidyon shvuyim” (releasing a Jewish captive) can do so via the family’s fund.
The smuggler who set them up should be traded
These wicked people who set up the girls HAD PROMISED THEM that their trip would be “all expenses paid.” This means that these people who set up the girls, THEY THEMSELVES declared that the terms of the deal WERE that THEY would be the ones WHO WOULD PAY — and would be LEGALLY OBLIGATED to pay — for all of the expenses of the trip.
Now that, in the course of this trip, because of the contents of the suitcases that they had given the girls, the girls were thrown into a horrific, severely dangerous jail — where their very lives are being threatened, Rachmana Litzlan — the huge amounts of $$$$$$ that are urgently needed to take care of the girls and to, Im Yirtza Hashem, obtain their quick release from the jail, ARE OBVIOUSLY MOST ABSOLUTELY part of the “expenses” of this trip!!!!!!!!!!!
As, as we glaringly saw above, the guys who set up the girls promised to pay all of the trip’s expenses — and are legally obligated to pay all of the trip’s expenses — these guys MUST DEFINITELY BE MADE to pay all of these expenses of taking care of the girls in the jail and getting them quickly out of the jail!!
You know, this is not the first time this has happened. Not long ago, it was a few boys arrested in Japan.
How long will we insist on keeping our children in the dark? There is a world outside of Israel/New York/etc.
There are bad people, even “Frum” people. Kids need to be made aware that these animals exist and not to agree to any such nonsense. I’m sorry, but this is on the parents. They are so busy keeping their kids in the dark, they have no idea what they are getting into. I hope this young lady will be sent home very soon and that the Israeli goverment tracks down down these criminals and punish them. Even if this stuff is legal in Israel – if you cause someone else this agmas nefesh, then you should suffer the cruel and harsh consequences.
How many tragedies like this are we going to see before the Parents, Schools etc educate the children that there is no free trip, no all-expense paid vacations, no free money, no “sure thing” , “easy money” etc. This began years ago with the three bochurim in Japan and in some form or other has continued. When will we learn an ounce of precaution is worth a pound of cure. How did the parents allow their kids to go along with this?
As two of the superb comments here mentioned the incident of the three Bachurim in Japan, for those of you who are not familiar with that story, B’Ezras Hashem, let us look at it now:
A few years ago before Pesach, three Bachurim in the Satmer community in Eretz Yisroel were approached by one of the members of their community. He offered them a little “job,” in which he would pay each of them $1,000 if they would take three suitcases of his artwork to Japan for his art pieces to be displayed at a special Art Show there.
Of course, we know that it was not any kind of “art” pieces that this wicked louse was transporting; it was Crystal Meth!! Tragically though, the Bachurim had no way of knowing this.
Anyway, they were instructed to first fly to Amsterdam, where they would meet an associate of the community member who would give them the suitcases to be transported. So, they arrived in Amsterdam and met this associate. When he gave them the suitcases, he explained that — to give extra security protection for the valuable works of art — they were secured in special compartments in the cases covered by false bottoms. He probably further told them that the art pieces were extremely fragile, so they should not try to move the bottoms to handle or look at the pieces in any way.
They then flew on to Japan. Upon arriving at the Tokyo airport, the customs officer who examined them and their luggage, was, of course, well professionally trained about false bottoms. He readily removed them, and then he, and the three Bachurim clearly saw that underneath, there were NO art pieces; instead, only countless bags of the white Methamphetamine poison powder. The Bachurim were immediately arrested.
Now, throughout the countries of the Orient, criminals are very heavily punished. So, the prison that the three Bachurim were thrown into was completely NOT like prisons in the United States, which, in certain ways, are a little bit almost like resort hotels! Instead, where the Bachurim were placed was a quite “old fashioned” severely bleak dungeon.
Numerous communal activists from the Chareidi Kehillos immediately began intensive frantic efforts to help the Bachurim, including hiring lawyers. Especially at that time, having to do this was exceedingly hard on the Frum world, for those were the years of the grave Wall Street & general economic crises, when countless previously financially well off people in the Frum communities lost huge $$$$ amounts and themselves became charity cases. Yet, with this new, bizarre crises, many hundreds of thousands of dollars had to be suddenly raised to pay for the needed specialized attorneys who knew Japanese law and were qualified to deal with the Japanese authorities.
At one point, (to free the Bachurim) they offered to give over to the Japanese the wicked communal member, who was obviously the ringleader and the real villain of the situation. The Japanese though rejected that, stating that the Bachurim, they were ones who committed the crime. (During that period, the Yated Ne’eman published an interview they had with a Japanese Ger Tzedek – a Japanese man who converted to Judaism. He remarked that he wished that he had been involved with the Bachurim’s case, for he probably could have greatly helped it. He explained that the Japanese authorities were not, Chas V’Shalom, being sinister. Rather, the Japanese people have a certain mentality of being extremely, extremely rigid with extremely, extreme formality.)
The Rabbonim of the Satmer Kehila though, DID put that wicked communal member in Cheirem – did declare on him a ban of excommunication.
Boruch Hashem though, after exceedingly long tedious difficult negotiations, solutions with reduced sentences were reached. One of the three was declared to have completed his sentence in Japan and was released. The other two were allowed to complete their jail time in a prison in Israel (where, obviously, they would at least be close to their families and communities), with the provision that the Israeli prison could release them early for good behavior.
So, Boruch Hashem, pretty soon after that, all three were released and restored back to their Satmer Kehilla. And, Boruch Hashem, they were all able to fully move forward with their lives; all three soon were married and are now raising up large B’nei Torah Mishpachas – large Torah observant families.
Now, in countries of the Orient, criminals are very heavily punished. So, the prison that the three Bachurim were thrown into was completely NOT like prisons in the United States, which, in certain ways, are a little bit almost like resort hotels! Instead, where the Bachurim were placed was a quite “old fashioned” severely bleak dungeon.
Numerous communal activists from the Chareidi Kehillos immediately began intensive frantic efforts to try to free the Bachurim, including hiring lawyers. Especially at that time, having to do this was exceedingly hard on the Frum world, for those were the years of the grave Wall Street & general economic crises, when countless previously financially well off people in the Frum communities lost huge $$$$$$ amounts and themselves became charity cases. Yet, with this new, bizarre crises, many hundreds of thousands of dollars had to be suddenly raised to pay for the needed specialized attorneys who knew Japanese law and were qualified to deal with the Japanese authorities.
At one point, (to free the Bachurim) they offered to give to the Japanese the wicked communal member, who was obviously the ringleader and the real villain of the picture. The Japanese though rejected that, stating that the Bachurim, they were ones who committed the crime. (During that period, the Yated Ne’eman published an interview they had with a Japanese Ger Tzedek – a Japanese man who converted to Judaism. He remarked that he wished that he had been involved with the Bachurim’s case, for he probably could have greatly helped it. He explained that the Japanese authorities were not, Chas V’Shalom, being sinister. Rather, the Japanese people have a certain mentality of being extremely, extremely rigid with extremely, extreme formality.)
The Rabbonim of the Satmer Kehila though, DID put that wicked communal member in Cheirem – did declare on him a ban of excommunication.
Boruch Hashem though, after exceedingly long tedious difficult negotiations, solutions with reduced sentences were reached. One of the three was declared to have completed his sentence in Japan and was released. The other two were allowed to complete their jail time in a prison in Israel (where, obviously, they would at least be close to their families and communities), with the provision that the Israeli prison could release them early for good behavior.
So, Boruch Hashem, pretty soon after that, all three were released and restored back to their Satmer Kehilla. And, Boruch Hashem, they were all able to fully move forward with their lives; all three soon were married and are now raising up large B’nei Torah Mishpachas – large Torah observant families.