Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef to Lead Major Protest in Bnei Brak Over Draft Crisis

Following continued arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft evaders and recent violence on the roads, the Sephardi Torah world is preparing a large protest rally on Saturday night in Bnei Brak. The event will be led by former Sephardi Chief Rabbi and former Rishon LeZion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, alongside several prominent yeshiva heads and rabbis.

The rally comes amid rising public tension over the draft law, the detention of yeshiva students in recent days, and incidents of violence on major traffic routes. According to Rabbi Shabtay Levi, the rabbi of the Ramat Aharon neighborhood in Bnei Brak and head of the Halichot Moshe institutions, the protest reflects a sharp escalation in the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox response to the law and the sanctions.

In an interview with Kol Barama radio, Levi said Yosef views the situation as extremely serious. He said the rally will take place in a public street to “raise a cry over the harm to Torah learners.” Levi also said Yosef was willing to cancel his regular weekly class at the historic Hizedim synagogue in Jerusalem, held since the days of his father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, something that “has almost never been canceled.”

Levi said Yosef will send a replacement to the class and come personally to Bnei Brak because, in his words, “we cannot stay silent anymore” after the scenes of recent days. He described deep anger over arrests of draft dodgers and protesters, saying that while budget cuts and daycare closures could still be absorbed, the current stage has become one of direct harm to yeshiva students and married scholars. He stressed that the rally, near the Halichot Moshe institutions in Ramat Aharon, will be peaceful and nonviolent, with no road blockages or provocations, and said it will have the character of “wailing, pain and lamentation,” like Tisha B'Av.