Last Saturday night, Rabbi Moshe Leib Friedman, who was arrested a month and a week ago for the sin of trying to establish standards of holiness and modesty in Beis Shemesh, was placed in solitary confinement, on the grounds that he did not state his name loud enough when role was taken in prison. The other prisoners, who were there for real crimes, stuck up for Rabbi Friedman and criticized warden Boaz Mualam for lying and persecuting Friedman for nothing. The other two arrested Orthodox Jews also protested against the brutal treatment of Rabbi Friedman.

The news spread in the world among activists, and work began on getting him out of solitary confinement. Their efforts were successful, and on Sunday at noon Rabbi Friedman was brought back to the main prison.

But the activists' happiness turned to bitterness when they heard that officer Abuyab had placed the other two Orthodox Jewish prisoners into solitary confinement as punishment for their protesting on behalf of Rabbi Friedman. They received a sentence of seven days solitary confinement. A call from the prison came in the early hours of the morning to activists in New York. The caller, whose identity cannot be revealed, described the solitary confinement: a dark room the size of a small bed. In front of the bed is 20 centimeters of space. The ceiling is too low to stand up fully. There are no lights, only a hole in the wall, 20 centimeters wide, from which one can see whether it is day or night. Air comes into the room only from the hole. The hole is all moldy and breathing becomes harder from minute to minute. When one has to use the bathroom, he has to bang and bang until the guard has mercy. For the caller, it took four hours.