Haredi Yeshiva Students Say Rabbis Will Decide Their Response to Tougher Draft Enforcement

Yeshiva students at a large United Torah Judaism election rally in Bnei Brak on Sunday said their decision on how to react to stricter military draft enforcement would rest with their rabbis. They spoke to The Jerusalem Post at the gathering, held two days before Israel's election.

The rally drew tens of thousands of haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jews under the slogan "Gather and Stand Up for Our Lives." Conscription of haredi yeshiva students was at the center of the event. Much of the haredi community treats the issue as a red line, yet it enjoys wide backing among Jewish Israelis. An Israel Democracy Institute survey in October found that 72% of Jewish respondents supported legislation requiring young haredi men to enlist.

Rabbi Dov Landau, a leading haredi rabbinic authority, urged supporters to defend Torah study. "Never have yeshiva students and kollel scholars been persecuted as they are being persecuted now," he told the crowd.

The students interviewed echoed that deference to rabbinic authority. A student named Reuven said he would leave the country if his rabbi told him to. Asked whether he would stay or enlist on his rabbi's instruction, he answered that "of course" he would. Another young man, Dovid, said he and his peers would "go through fire and water" for their rabbis. "In our culture, we listen to whatever our rabbis say," he said.

Shmuel, a fellow student, said Torah study was his top priority and that he would leave Israel if staying meant giving up his studies. "If we can't learn here, then we'll learn in a different place," he said, adding that he would not serve in the IDF because learning is "the most important thing in the world."

Chaim also voiced commitment to rabbinic authority, but argued that "the Jews doing Torah and mitzvot, to them, God gave Israel." If the government enforced the draft, he said, the response should be to "fight it."

Avi stressed that he wanted to remain in Israel. "We will stay because we believe it's our country and Hashem will help us," he said. Even so, he would comply if his rabbi told him to leave, "because he's our rabbi, and we do whatever he says."

Despite the shared reliance on their rabbis, the students appeared to hold differing personal views on military service. When a group of young men was asked whether some yeshiva students wanted to enlist but held back because their rabbis forbade it, several agreed, and one replied, "of course."

One student, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed frustration. He said he feared being arrested at the airport over his draft status if he tried to travel abroad. He also questioned why young yeshiva students were being targeted for draft evasion rather than the rabbis whose directives they were following.