Eli Levon, a 21-year-old American Yeshiva Bochur charged with carrying out tasks for Iranian intelligence, has been cleared for release to house arrest after roughly four months behind bars, Tzedek Association announced.

According to the organization, Supreme Court President Justice Yitzchak Amit signed off on the release following its intervention. Tzedek said it brought in attorney Uri Korb to handle the case alongside attorney Menachem Stauber.

To secure the release, the association said it deposited a NIS 1 million check with the court as a guarantee. Rabbi Shimon Shisha, chairman of Merkaz Ezra Vayoetz, offered his own apartment as the location where Levon will serve his house arrest, Tzedek said.

Levon, a US citizen who learned at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, was taken into custody on June 9. On July 3, prosecutors filed an indictment in Jerusalem District Court charging him with contact with a foreign agent and passing along information that could aid an enemy, and asked that he remain jailed until the case concluded.

Neither the court nor the State Prosecutor’s Office has independently confirmed the release terms.

The allegations

Prosecutors say the case began in November 2025, when Levon, home in the US visiting family, responded to a job listing posted in a Telegram channel called “Yeshivot Telegram.” Two accounts going by “Sina” and “Alecsander,” which the State says were fronts for Iranian intelligence, then reached out to him. Over time, he allegedly received about $1,379 in cryptocurrency.

The indictment lists a series of assignments: snapping photos of Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station and of a deserted building in the Bukharan Quarter, leaving a cigarette pack at the Hadar Mall with a note saying “the work is done,” and stashing a USB drive wrapped in a NIS 50 bill inside a restaurant in central Jerusalem.

According to prosecutors, Levon also sent his handlers a picture of himself holding his passport. At one point, they say, he turned down a request for a list of his fellow Mir Bochurim, and he eventually blocked one of the accounts out of concern his personal details could be exploited.

The State contends he had a “reasonable basis” to believe he was dealing with Iranian agents. Levon has not been convicted, and the charges remain allegations.

Background

Levon is among dozens of people, the vast majority of them Israelis, arrested in recent months on suspicion of taking money from Iranian handlers they met online. Security officials say these handlers typically open with small, harmless-seeming requests before ramping up.

At the time of the indictment, a Jerusalem prosecutor said: “Sometimes all it takes is one message on Telegram and the promise of easy money.” The investigation was carried out by the Jerusalem District Police Major Crimes Unit together with the Shin Bet.