Jerusalem – Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach a senior hardline haredi leader arrived at Prison 6, an army facility along with dozens of haredi men to demonstrate against the arrest of a haredi student arrested for failing to present himself to a military recruiting office.
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The 19-year-old yeshiva student referred to as Moshe A. from Kiryat Malachi was arrested by the IDF military police and imprisoned Sunday night. A military judge sentenced Moshe A. to 14 days incarceration.
According to a report in the HaPeles haredi newspaper, the man was originally called up when the Tal Law was still in effect before August 2012. At that time, a person studying full time in yeshiva could postpone his service every year for a year on an indefinite basis until the age of military service exemption.
The haredi man arrested on Sunday formally postponed his service in 2012 before the Tal Law expired in August that year, but subsequently failed to present himself at the IDF recruiting office as he was legally obligated to do when called for a second time at the end of 2012.
The student is a follower of Rabbi Auerbach who has taken an even harsher stance on the issue of military service than the mainstream haredi leadership.
Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, the leader of the mainstream non-hassidic haredi community, has instructed yeshiva deans to tell their students to present themselves at the IDF recruiting offices when called but not to sign any documents.
Yeshiva students who have done this have received enlistment orders but the Ministry of Defense has repeatedly cancelled them as the enlistment date has drawn near.
Auerbach has however instructed yeshiva deans and students close to him not to present themselves to the recruiting office at all. Someone failing to present themselves is deemed to be a deserter and subject to arrest.
It would seem that there are more yeshiva students who have refused to present themselves to the recruiting offices but how many is unclear.
Auerbach heads what is known as the Jerusalem faction, a small but not insignificant grouping of non-hassidic haredim who are loyal to Auerbach and not Shteinman.
Hiddush, a religious rights lobbying group, warned on Wednesday that the arrests and subsequent protests like those witnessed yesterday would become more common if the government insists on stipulating criminal sanctions for yeshiva students refusing to serve in the legislation on the issue currently before the Knesset.
“The protest today proves again that anyone who decides to imprison thousands of haredim ensures that they will wage an uncompromising war [agains such a policy] and will and the few who do currently enlist will not be able to continue to serve in the army,” said Hiddush director and Reform rabbi Uri Regev.
“If there is an attempt to use imprisonment [against haredi yeshiva students] it will play into the hands of the haredi extremists who are completely opposed to IDF service. The way to bring about haredi enlistment is through comprehensive economic sanctions which will make staying in yeshiva financially impossible for the majority and will bring a halt to the public funding of draft evader,” Regev said.
Content provided as courtesy of The Jerusalem Post
Photo credit 24
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There is NO reason why healthy yeshiva bochurs cannot serve like everyone else. They are NO more important than any other Israeli.
Reb Shmuel Shlita ia a true Torah leader for Klall Yisroel.
boruch hashem we have such loyal followers of truth
I thought that all of these young men were supposed to be learning day and night in order to avoid military service. It would appear that they have much, too much time on their hands. A couple of years in Tzahal would probably be beneficial to most of them.
Why are they wearing black hats? Why not yarmulkes? A hat you wear if you don’t want to identify as a Jew among goyim. Are they performing a mitzvah? Davening? Blowing shofar? Holding Esrog and lulav?
So all these men who are supposed to be “sitting and learning” are now just hanging around like a bunch of dofusses? Rabbi Auerbach does not run the country. If he doesnt agree with the decisions of those in charge, he is free to leave. He is lucky they havent arrested him.
Jailing them is not going to accomplish much. The right solution is to immediately cut any and all state funding for any yeshivah or mosad affiliated with any “Rabbi” who instructs students to ignore the draft. If you don’t want to take part in Israeli society, then don’t take Israeli money either. When dollars start drying up watch attitudes change.
Power is in trust in Hashem. Not a showing of a magnitude of the complaint department. Ultimately, we must serve in the IDF if we are to be part of a better society.
plenty of room in the prisons for all of them!
Heart breaking to me. As if we don’t have enough trouble from the outside. Did you notice the man in the tower? He is usually looking for infiltrators! Are we going to become our own enemy?
Talmiday chachomim marbim shalom ba’olam. Does anyone think that Tzahal is superfluous? “Yennem’s kint darf giyn?”
Standing outside this prison – such bitul torah!
They should have their usual shirs outside the prison.
Any so called rabbi telling his students to break the law of the land,and not report to a draft call,is guilty of insurrection,he should be put on trial for high treason,and if found guilty,put him behind bars and throw away the keys for a long time
There is no rational reason why chareidim should not share in the burden of protecting their own families and country
To all those who thinks its perfectly acceptable to let the “secular” & “religious” zionists do the “tummah” work that an security dependant county needs to do, I have a simple question on this the last day of chanuka….
What if the Chasmonim stayed in the bais medrish instead of joined the battle?
There is no reason that boys with kipa srugas (many of whom are much frummer and learn much more that most of the boys in the above pics),
Are you out of your mind?
to numbers 19/20/21/24 – I give up. I cannot argue with you guys. Your ignorance amazes me. You compare Israel – our homeland – to the greeks and iran. You forgot to include nazi germany. As a jew, you are always welcome in Israel. The greeks wanted to kill us, the iranians (lets include neturei karta) want to kill us, etc. Yet, these zionists have, for 65 years, allowed the creation of countless yeshivos and seminaries, where 1000s of our kids can learn. After all these years, the state asks for something in return. You tell me that we were there first? Well, Im betting that more than 90% of the men in the pics were born long after 1948. Your comments amaze me – they show me that you guys really overdosed on the yeshivish kool-aid. You all follow the “ess kumpt mir” mentality. Let someone else sacrifice his life for me.
#20 , I apologize – u should not have been included in my comment #30 .