Lubavitcher Photographer Narrowly Escapes Kidnapping in Iraq

Chabad Photographer Meir Alfasi visited the rural parts of Iran and spent Shabbos in the heart of the fighting zone in Iraq. He was detained at a checkpoint on suspicion of being a Mossad agent, and his room was broken into.

By Anash.org reporter
Photos: Meir Alfasi

At a time when the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are trying to kidnap Israelis, Chabad Photographer Meir Alfasi visited the rural parts of Iran and spent Shabbos in the heart of the fighting zone in Iraq.

Alfasi used the trip to visit the remains of the Jewish community in Iraq and prayed at the kever of the Navi Nachum in the village of Alkosh in Iraq.

At one point he was detained at a checkpoint on suspicion of being a Mossad agent, and his room was broken into and rummaged through. The ‘guests’ left pages of a Tanya he had printed there scattered all over the floor.

Shortly afterward, Alfasi received a phone call to urging him to leave the place immediately. However, not before placing tefillin on a ‘Karakfata’ Jew – one of the last Jews remaining in the militia-infested country.

Last month, Elizabeth Tsurkov, a 36-year-old Israeli Princeton University doctoral student was kidnapped in Iraq by an Iranian-backed militia. She entered the county using a Russian passport.