Guess Who’s Out of Jail

By COLlive reporter

Many Israelis were in Barcelona, Spain, this past week for the the Euroleague Final Four, the world’s second most important professional basketball championship, where Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv played Panathinaikos.

As at many sports events, Chabad men were on hand offering fans to do a Mitzvah and put on Tefillin. Chabad of Barcelona has also served kosher meals.

On Sunday, the day of the game, bochurim learning in the city set up a table in front of the stadium, handing our Jewish flyers and putting on Tefillin.

One of the Lubavitchers manning the booth was R’ Eliyahu Hecht, the Chassidic fundraiser from Tzfas who was just released after over 4 months in prison.

He was arrested on December 1, 2010 in Madrid, when authorities found drugs in a suitcase which a local Jewish person had given him to bring to Israel, unbeknownst to Hecht.

“I’m feeling fine, Baruch Hashem,” Hecht told an Israeli radio station this past week. His wife and children had joined him for Pesach in Spain.

“I’m out of prison and walking free in Barcelona, but I’m still in custody under certain conditions,” said Eli Hecht, who works for Collel Chabad in Tzfas.

“I davened a lot and asked that there should be justice and a kiddush hashem. All I wanted to do was do a favor to another Jew. Hashem wanted me to sit so I sat.”

Will he take another parcel again?

Hecht told the broadcaster that when his wife returned to Israel, someone from the Jewish community asked her to take a bottle of wine or champagne to his grandmother in Tzfas.

“I told him, sure, what’s the question?! Isn’t our whole essence to do a favor and Ahavas Yisroel? So how can I say no?”

A bit wiser after their experience perhaps, his wife Yardena put her foot down, and insisted that no package will be taken by them ever again.