Haredi daily runs front page protest against arresting draft evaders

The Haredi newspaper HaModiah, which is associated with the Gur Hasidic movement, devoted its front page on Wednesday morning to an unusual statement by senior rabbis opposing the arrest of draft evaders. The move comes after a Gur Hasidic man who went to the enlistment office was detained, and as a large protest is expected near Military Prison 10 in the coming hours.

The statement was signed by leading figures from the main Haredi streams, including Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman, the senior member of the Council of Torah Sages of Degel HaTorah, and Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the Sephardi chief rabbi and president of the Council of Torah Sages of Shas. It was also signed by yeshiva heads and other rabbis. The signatories issued a sharp protest against arrests of yeshiva students and called for an end to actions against Torah learners, arguing that harming them and their study halls harms the entire world of Torah.

The rabbis wrote that state authorities are trying to uproot study halls and are willing to use any means to harm Torah learners, including their livelihoods, children and way of life. They also described the arrests of yeshiva students as unprecedented treatment of young men who want to continue their studies, and said, "They threw the dearest of our eyes into detention for wanting to study Torah... a terrible desecration of God’s name, in which one Jew sends another to prison for this offense, something unlike anything anywhere in the world."

In a rare step, the letter included a direct spiritual warning to decision makers and law enforcement officials involved in enlistment and arrests. Quoting Maimonides, the rabbis warned that anyone connected to these persecutions and arrests should fear greatly that they may inherit Gehenna and lose their share in the world to come. The publication was intended to mobilize the Haredi public ahead of the planned mass protest.