Yeshiva bochur Binyamin Kreif, who was released after three and a half months in military prison for failing to report to the draft office, spoke Monday night in a wide-ranging interview about his incarceration, including two months spent in solitary confinement, the high-profile escape attempt that drew national attention, and the message he wants fellow yeshiva students to hear: “Prison is a summer camp. Don’t be afraid.”
Kreif spoke with broadcaster Yankele Friedman, who opened the conversation by describing the emotional scenes surrounding Kreif’s release, including a celebratory reception in Modi’in Illit and what he termed a “royal welcome,” complete with a limousine. Friedman said Kreif had been jailed solely because he is a yeshiva student devoted to Torah study, adding that tefillos for his release had come from across the country. “I saw videos today of thousands celebrating together with him. He was welcomed like a king,” Friedman said.
Kreif thanked Friedman for his steady support throughout his imprisonment, calling him a “holy person” whose encouragement helped him endure months behind bars.
During the interview, Kreif described in stark detail the conditions he faced, most notably two months in solitary confinement, in a cell measuring roughly two and a half meters. “I was in solitary for two months—just a cell and a guard watching you all the time,” he said. According to Kreif, security was intentionally stringent, with guards rotating every four hours to prevent any rapport. He said the harsh treatment stemmed from the widely documented escape incident that followed his arrest. “The guards told me, ‘You shamed the IDF,’” Kreif recalled. “I answered them, ‘Fortunate are we.’”
Despite the isolation and physical strain, Kreif said he and other inmates found ways to lift their spirits and even inject humor into daily life. He described harmless antics meant to unsettle guards without being caught, such as ducking into camera-free restrooms and making animal noises. “We turned the place into a summer camp,” he said with a smile. “We’d shout, ‘Zoo—fall in!’ and keep them on edge all night.” Friedman wondered whether such behavior prolonged Kreif’s time in solitary, but Kreif insisted the goal was to retain dignity and feel like “a prince” even in prison.
One of the interview’s most striking moments involved Kreif’s encounter with an atheist inmate who was transferred into his cell just days before his release. Kreif said that over the course of four days, he shared parables and spoke about faith, sparking a profound change. “On the day I was released, he told me, ‘Binyamin, can you leave me your peyos so I can look chareidi too?’” Kreif recounted. Friedman responded that even behind bars, Kreif had merited “bringing a lost brother closer.” Kreif added that many secular inmates expressed deep respect for the chareidi yeshiva students housed alongside them.
As the conversation drew to a close, Kreif addressed yeshiva students anxious about the prospect of arrest. “There’s really nothing to fear about this prison. It truly is a summer camp,” he said confidently. He acknowledged that solitary confinement is difficult, but emphasized that conditions improve significantly once inmates are moved to the regular unit, where the atmosphere is far more social and supportive.
{Matzav.com}
A heartening and widely discussed engagement was announced yesterday, Zos Chanukah 5786, involving a 25-year-old yeshiva bochur who took part last year in a well-known Chassidishe segulah for shidduchim — and is now celebrating his engagement.
The chosson, Shmuel Aharon Chazan, is among the talmidim of Yeshiva Kiryas Melech. He became engaged yesterday to a young woman from the Gutfarb family of Kiryat Sefer less than a year after traveling to Poland to participate in the traditional segulah associated with the yahrtzeit of rav Dovid of Lelov.
Each year, on 7 Shevat, dozens of unmarried men who are awaiting their zivug travel to Poland, where the Lelover Rebbe conducts a tish at the site of the yahrtzeit. As part of a long-standing custom regarded by many as a tried and tested segulah, participants dance atop a table during the tish, davening for salvation in their personal lives.
With the upcoming yahrtzeit only weeks away, another story of yeshuah has now emerged. The chosson lives in Beit Shemesh near the center of Lelover Chassidus. After hearing about the custom, he traveled last year on 7 Shevat to the tziyun of the Lelover Rebbe in Poland, took part in the dance, and yesterday — on Zos Chanukah — celebrated his engagement.
This is not the first such case. In Adar of last year, we reported on another engagement that followed the same segulah: a 29-year-old talmid of Yeshivas Oraysa who became engaged less than a month after participating in the Lelover yahrtzeit dance. He has since married, b’shaah tovah u’mutzlachas.
A striking detail in both cases is that neither chosson is a follower of Lelover Chassidus. Nonetheless, both traveled to Poland, fulfilled the segulah with complete faith, and were subsequently zocheh to see yeshuah.
{Matzav.com}
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sharply criticized President Trump’s recent conduct, saying the past week reflected poorly on the administration and warning that Republicans could pay a political price if voters don’t feel tangible improvements in their daily lives.
Speaking during a panel segment on ABC News’s “This Week,” Christie dismissed any suggestion that recent developments were routine. “It’s not a strange week, Jon, it’s an awful week,” he told host Jonathan Karl.
Christie argued that the president needs to refocus on governing rather than staging appearances, cautioning that symbolic gestures won’t address public concerns. “And the president better wake up to the fact that going to Rocky Mount, N.C., is not going to solve his problems,” he said. “And that he better start solving the American people’s problems, or our party is going to have a big problem.”
The former governor, who mounted unsuccessful Republican presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2024, said Trump has failed to connect with voters, pointing to surveys indicating that most Americans believe the economy has not improved under Trump compared with the Biden administration.
Christie also took aim at Trump’s conduct over the last week, criticizing what he described as a “disgraceful post” about the reported deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, in which Trump suggested the noted Hollywood director and Democratic donor died due to hostility toward the president or from “Trump derangement syndrome.”
He went on to list a series of actions he found troubling, saying, “Then he puts his name on the building named after an assassinated President. Then he gives a frenetic national TV speech filled with inaccuracies and really sounded like he was yelling at the American people that they don’t get how great he’s done so far. And then he puts these plaques up underneath the presidential pictures he’s put on the colonnade, filled with things that you could tell just from reading them that he wrote them himself,” adding that Trump “even figured out a way to get himself into the Andrew Jackson plaque, but as a martyr, worse than whatever happened to Andrew Jackson.”
Christie further faulted the president for failing to secure an agreement to end the war in Ukraine and pointed to recent votes on Capitol Hill where some Republicans broke ranks with Trump, including efforts to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies and to release documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Despite the criticism, polling suggests Trump’s standing has improved modestly in recent weeks. According to Decision Desk HQ’s polling aggregate, his approval rating rebounded from a second-term low of 41 percent last month, recorded during the prolonged government shutdown, to about 45 percent — roughly in line with his average since taking office.
Still, signs of vulnerability remain as Trump approaches 2026. Recent surveys show him registering some of his weakest economic approval numbers, with voters citing tariffs, high prices, and persistent cost-of-living pressures as ongoing concerns.
WATCH:
{Matzav.com}
