This past Sunday HaRav Aharon Leib Steinman and HaRav Chaim
Kanievsky visited R' Aharon Kornblit in the Sharon prison. R'
Kornblit has been detained for more than six months. The
charge against him is that he was one of the organizers of
the burning of the missionary apartment in Meah Shearim, but
the only evidence was the testimony of someone who later said
that it was not true. The gedolei haTorah were
accompanied by Rabbi Moshe Gafni, secretary general of Degel
HaTorah.
HaRav Shmuel Auerbach asked Prime Minster Netanyahu to make
efforts to free R' Kornblit, and told him that this was an
important mitzvah of pidyon shevuyim of a person who
has been languishing in prison for a long time. He stressed
that if Netanyahu took action on behalf of Kornblit's
release, he would merit an important mitzvah.
Rabbi Kornblit was moved to tears by the visit of the
gedolei Yisroel. In response to the question of
whether he had been in solitary confinement in a cell which
is very narrow and without any air vents or light, Rabbi
Kornblit replied that he had indeed been kept under such
conditions for two days, during which he had only garlic and
bread, and a bit of water. Rabbi Kornblit's reply was
contradicted by the statement of the prison's commander to
Rabbi Gafni only a few moments earlier. Rabbi Kornblit added
that during the forthcoming days he might be transferred to
the Ayalon prison, where the conditions are much easier for
shomrei mitzvos.
The gedolei Yisroel displayed much interest in the
situation of Rabbi Kornblit's family, and asked where his
children studied, how he was treated in prison, and about the
kashrus of the food. At the end of the moving visit, HaRav
Steinman and HaRav Kanievsky blessed him that with Hashem's
help he be released very shortly, and that his family would
not be adversely affected by his long stay.
