Thousands of Gur Hasidim Protest Near Beit Lid Military Prison; Rebbe Joins Rarely

Thousands of Gur Hasidim demonstrated this evening, Wednesday, outside Military Prison 10 in Beit Lid, protesting the arrest of a draft evader from the community. In a rare appearance at such a rally, Gur Rebbe Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, the leader of Agudat Israel's Council of Torah Sages, came to the protest in person.

During the event, Rabbi Haim Dandrovitz, head of the "Amrei Emet" yeshiva, delivered a sharp attack on the authorities and on criticism of yeshiva students. He said, "We believe that all of Israel was at Mount Sinai, even those who are now fighting us over Torah, their fathers were also at Sinai, and they too hear, 'Woe to creatures from the insult to Torah.' We came not with violence, we came with prayers to pray to God that even they will return in repentance and stop insulting Torah."

He also condemned law enforcement priorities, saying that despite widespread theft and vandalism in Israel, the police do not act with the same urgency, but do act when it comes to someone studying Torah. He rejected the accusation that yeshiva students and married students evade a duty, saying they are devoted to Torah and that others around them are the ones evading Jewish obligations.

Dandrovitz concluded by comparing the treatment of Torah learners to communist regimes, saying that under Lenin and Stalin people who studied Torah were taken to prison. He said, "We strengthen those who were taken in, we stand beside them."