Honenu assists Breslov hilltop youth under travel ban

Sunday, September 29, 2019, 10:30 M., a hilltop youth and Breslov hasid accustomed to flying to the Ukraine every year to celebrate Rosh HaShana at Rebbe Nachman’s grave site in Uman, has been serving court-ordered community service for the past few months. In preparation for the holiday M. filed a request with the Prison Service to allow him to travel to Uman for his customary trip. After the Prison Service refused his request, M. turned to Honenu for legal counsel. Honenu submitted an urgent petition to the Be’er Sheva District Court, requesting that the court order the Prison Service to change its decision.
On Thursday, September 26, the Be’er Sheva District Court held a deliberation at which Honenu Attorney Sima Kochav represented M., and pleaded that there is no obstacle to permitting the trip, because it is for a limited time for religious needs, which cannot be postponed to a later date. In a precedential decision the court ruled that indeed there is no obstacle and that a trip for religious needs is no less important than business trips abroad for which permission has been granted to other individuals serving community service, and also the trip constitutes a humanitarian need for which M. should be granted permission.
An additional problem arose when it turned out the M.’s passport was being held by the Rechovot Magistrates Court, due to the order preventing him from leaving the country. After considerable efforts on Friday, September 27, Kochav succeeded in convincing the Rechovot Magistrates Court to send an employee to the courthouse to release M.’s passport. Shortly before the onset of Shabbat a guard was sent with an employee from the court secretariat to open the courthouse and release the passport. Immediately after Shabbat M. started on his way to Uman.
Honenu Attorney Sima Kochav: “We are very pleased that our petition to the Be’er Sheva District for M. to travel to Uman for his customary holiday trip was accepted on Thursday evening, and that the court secretariat, after a joint effort, despite the fact that the Rechovot Magistrates Court was closed, came to our aid, opened the courthouse especially to release the passport and complete the task.”