The IDF has decided to transfer a haredi soldier serving a military prison sentence to a facility where he can pray with a minyan, following an appeal from his family, Kikar HaShabbat reported on Tuesday.
The soldier, a Vizhnitz chassid, volunteered for the IDF under a service track adapted for haredi recruits. He worked an office job with regular daily hours at the Tzrifin base.
Several weeks ago, ahead of his upcoming wedding, he traveled to Sinai with his fiancée for two days without obtaining the required authorization and without reporting that he had left the country.
The trip was discovered, and he was brought before a military judge, who sentenced him to prison for desertion and unauthorized absence.
The soldier asked to serve his sentence at Military Prison 10, but the army sent him to the detention facility at Anatot. His family said the conditions there were extremely difficult for him, especially because he could not pray with a minyan, something he has done carefully all his life.
In phone calls from the facility, the soldier told relatives he felt he was “going crazy and losing his mind,” according to the family. Relatives and people close to him launched urgent efforts to secure his early release, with the goal of having him return to his regular service.
In response to an inquiry from Kikar HaShabbat, an IDF source said the soldier “was tried for desertion abroad and was sentenced to days of detention at Anatot, as is customary in similar cases, and not at Prison 10.”
Regarding prayer, the army said Anatot “is a small and temporary facility where a regular minyan does not take place.” However, it added that “immediately upon receiving his request and examining the matter as is customary, it was decided to transfer him today to Prison 10, where there are more prisoners and davening with a minyan is possible on a regular basis.”
