Living Torah Archives

The Torah considers denying a human being the ability to impact the world through incarceration as inhumane. Instead, we are responsible to help rehabilitate criminals to contribute productively to a moral and just society. We must ensure that prison acts not just as a punishment, but as an opportunity for positive growth.

When the prison officials makes it difficult for the Jewish inmates put on tefillin daily, to whom should the prisoners turn?

The Rebbe instructs Rabbi Shabsi Katz, chief Jewish chaplain for South Africa’s prison system, to brighten the lives of prisoners incarcerated in South Africa.

Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar is executive director of the Aleph Institute, which services the religious needs of Jewish men and women in prison. In 1985, they brought a group of prisoners to spend a weekend in Crown Heights, where they attended the Rebbe’s Shabbos Farbrengen.

Judge Jack B. Weinstein speaks to the Rebbe, together with Rabbi Lipskar of the Aleph Institute. "May you merit to see the day when there will be no need for sentencing criminals, because crime will have become abolished through preventive education. When you speak to the Federal Sentencing Commission, do not only report my views, but I hope you will adopt them and support them as your own views, as well."