Conscription of yeshiva students refers to the conscription of Orthodox yeshiva students in Israel. Since 1977, this community had been exempted from military duty or national service. In 2012, service became mandatory with a penalty of imprisonment for up to five years for draft-dodgers, although the law has never been enforced.
On March 2, 2014, a mass rally was held in Jerusalem, the so-called "million-man protest," against a proposed law overturning the exemption from military service for Haredi students and criminalizing those who refused to serve. From 300,000 to 600,000 people attended the protest. A petition led to a 1998 high-court ruling that the Minister of Defense Act was not intended to exempt the Orthodox community on such a large scale, and new Knesset legislation was required. [1]
A public committee, known as the Tal Committee, headed by Justice Zvi Tal was appointed after the 1999 Supreme Court decision. Its findings led to the 2002 deferment for yeshiva students, regulating the deferral of yeshiva students with the rationale that their religious studies constitute national service. The ruling, which provided a timeline of five years, was extended an additional five years in 2007. During the summer of 2012, the court ruled that the law was unjust and must expire. [2] With its expiration IDF service became mandatory for all members of the Haredi community, with a penalty (imprisonment for up to five years) for those who refuse to enlist. However, the law is not enforced against members of the Haredi community by authority of the Defense Minister.
After unsuccessful attempts to draft a new law (such as the Plesner Committee), the Special Committee for the Equal Sharing of the Burden Bill [3] [4] (also known as the Shaked Committee after its chairwoman, Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked) [5] [6] [7] was formed. During its deliberations (ongoing at the time of the protest) the committee proposed a law establishing annual quotas for the drafting of yeshiva students for military or national service and calling for criminal sanctions against draft evaders if the quotas are not met by mid-2017. The bill would mandate a gradual increase in recruitment levels of yeshiva students. Each year 1,800 promising students would be granted exemptions to continue their studies, and yeshiva students beyond draft age would be allowed to enter the workforce. [8]
Smaller protests against conscription of yeshiva students began around 2012 with the meeting of the Plesner committee. [9] The first of such protests was held in Kikar HaShabbat in Jerusalem with thousands in attendance. [10]
On February 24, 2014, the leaders of Agudath Israel, Degel HaTorah and Shas including Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, Rav Shmuel Auerbach, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, and Rav Shalom Cohen gathered for a conference in Bnei Brak and decided on a demonstration a week after the conference. [11] All haredi boys and men over age nine were summoned to attend. Rav Shteinman publicly encouraged attendance at the protest. He said that in the IDF there is Gilui Arayos (sexual immorality) Shfichus Damim (bloodshed), and Avodah Zarah (idolatry), but greater than these 3 cardinal sins is the Chilul Hashem that a country calling itself the Jewish State should put quotas on Torah learning. [12]
Leading rabbis from the conservative wing of the national religious community (including Shmuel Eliyahu, Mordechai Sternberg, Micha Halevi and Shlomo Aviner) supported the rally, [13] and a group of nationalist haredi rabbis issued a proclamation calling on the public to participate in the religious, Zionist rally. [14] Other groups, such as the Tzohar and Beit Hillel rabbinical associations, [13] and rabbis from the religious Zionist community (including Haim Druckman) [13] [15] opposed the protest. After harsh commentary by a haredi newspaper about Religious Zionist leader Haim Druckman, Yehoshua Shapira (rabbi of the Ramat Gan yeshiva) and the Association of Community Rabbis (led by Chief Rabbi of Tzfat Shmuel Eliyahu) canceled plans to attend the "million-man march". [16] [17] Roads in the capital around the protest area were blocked in the early afternoon and Route 1, the main highway between the capital and the coast, was closed to private vehicles from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. [18]
Hundreds of thousands of protesters lined the streets surrounding the area, with Jaffa Road designated for women, despite unfavorable weather. Many leaders of the Haredi community, including the rabbis of Gur, Belz and Vizhnitz, Lithuanian rabbis Aharon Leib Shteinman, Chaim Kanievsky and Shmuel Auerbach, Sephardic rabbis Shalom Cohen and Shimon Desserts and other members of the Great Council of Torah and the Council of Torah Sages attended the rally. Members of the orthodox rabbinical community (including Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss, chief Rabbis David Lowe and Isaac Joseph, and Hasidic leaders, rabbis and public figures) were also in attendance. Small groups and religious Zionist rabbis, including Shmuel Eliyahu and Yaakov Shapira, were present.
The organizers, who called for a "million-man protest" [19] by men and boys aged nine and older, [20] estimated attendance at 500,000; police estimated a crowd at 300,000. [19] Some believed that 600,000 were present, which led to a public recitation of the Chacham HaRazim blessing. [21] [22] All three major Jewish streams (Lithuanian, Hasidic and Sephardic) were represented. [23] The peaceful protest was one of the largest in Israel's history, with loudspeaker noise heard across Jerusalem. It was secured by about 3,500 police and other security personnel. [19] No speeches were made at the rally, but at its end statements received by the Council of Torah Sages were read opposing the conscription of yeshiva and kolel students. [24]
On June 9, 2013 a rally was held in Foley Square in Manhattan attended by 20,000–30,000 Haredim. [25] [26] Among the speakers was Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel, [27] the rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedolah Zichron Moshe in South Fallsburg, N.Y.
On June 11, 2017 a similar rally was held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Close to 20,000 Haredim attended. [28] [29] The speakers included Rabbi Aaron Schechter, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Chaim Berlin, Rabbi Leibish Leiser of Pshevorsk, known as The Pshevorsker Rebbe, one of the most prominent leaders of the Haredi community of Antwerp, Belgium, and Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, author of The Empty Wagon: Zionism's Journey from Identity Crisis to Identity Theft. A letter was read from Rabbi Aharon Feldman, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, who wasn't able to attend in person. Rabbi Schechter lambasted the attempt to draft Orthodox Jews as an assault on the essential characteristics of religious Jews. [30]
On June 27, 2013, Haredim protested in front of the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium against Israel attempting to draft Orthodox yeshiva students. [31] [32] The protest was attended by Rabbi Ephraim Padwa, head of The Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in London, Rabbi Elyakim Schlesinger, a prominent English rosh yeshiva and internationally recognized halachic authority, and Rabbi Leibish Leiser of Pshevorsk from Antwerp, Belgium. [33] A protest in London in 2014 drew 4,000 demonstrators [34]
Haredi Judaism consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to halakha and traditions, in opposition to modern values and practices. Its members are usually referred to as ultra-Orthodox in English; however, the term "ultra-Orthodox" is considered pejorative by many of its adherents, who prefer terms like strictly Orthodox or Haredi. Haredi Jews regard themselves as the most religiously authentic group of Jews, although other movements of Judaism disagree.
United Torah Judaism, often referred to by its electoral symbol Gimel, is a Haredi, religious conservative political alliance in Israel. The alliance, consisting of Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah, was first formed in 1992, in order to maximize Ashkenazi Haredi representation in the Knesset. Despite the alliance splitting in 2004 over rabbinical differences, the parties reconciled in 2006, in order to prevent vote-wasting. In April 2019, the party achieved its highest number of seats ever, receiving eight seats.
Religious Zionism is an ideology that views Zionism as a fundamental component of Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as Dati Leumi, and in Israel, they are most commonly known by the plural form of the first part of that term: Datiim. The community is sometimes called 'Knitted kippah', the typical head covering worn by male adherents to Religious Zionism.
Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was a Haredi Rabbi and posek who lived in Jerusalem. Until his death at the age of 102, Rav Elyashiv was the paramount leader of both Israel and the Diaspora Lithuanian-Haredi community, and many Ashkenazi Jews regarded him as the posek ha-dor, the contemporary leading authority on halakha, or Jewish law.
Mordechai Tzemach Eliyahu, was an Israeli rabbi, posek, and spiritual leader.
Shemaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky was an Israeli Haredi rabbi and posek. He was a leading authority in Haredi Jewish society on legal and ethical practice. Known as Gadol HaDor and the "Prince of Torah", much of his prominence came through Torah education and advice about Jewish law.
The Tal Committee was an Israeli public committee appointed on 22 August 1999 which dealt with the special exemption from mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) given to Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews which had been the status quo from the time of Ben Gurion, as well as extending mandatory military service to Israeli-Arabs. The committee was appointed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak and was initially headed by former Supreme Court Justice Tzvi Tal. The committee was later headed by Yohanan Plesner before its official dissolution on 2 July 2012, two days before submitting its report, hence the term Plesner Committee.
Elazar Menachem Man Shach was a Haredi rabbi who headed Misnagdim Orthodox Jews in Israel and around the world from the early 1970s until his death. He served as chair of the Council of Sages and one of three co-deans of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, along with Shmuel Rozovsky and Dovid Povarsky. Due to his differences with the Hasidic leadership of the Agudat Yisrael political party, he allied with Ovadia Yosef, with whom he founded the Shas party in 1984. Later, in 1988, Shach criticized Ovadia Yosef, saying that, "Sepharadim are not yet ready for leadership positions", and subsequently founded the Degel HaTorah political party representing the Litvaks in the Israeli Knesset.
Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, also Shtainman or Steinman, was a Haredi rabbi in Bnei Brak, Israel. Following the death of Yosef Shalom Elyashiv in 2012, he was widely regarded as the Gadol HaDor, the leader of the non-Hasidic Lithuanian Haredi Jewish world. Along with several other rabbis, Shteinman is credited with reviving and expanding the appeal of European-style yeshivas in Israel.
Shmuel Auerbach was a Haredi rabbi in Jerusalem. Rav Auerbach led a large portion of more radical elements of the non-Hasidic Haredi community. His followers formed a political party known as the Jerusalem Faction. In 2013, as the Israeli government launched a campaign to draft Ultra Orthodox men into the IDF, the Jerusalem Faction adopted a controversial policy of demonstrations and incitement against efforts to draft Haredi men into military service.
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah is the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah movements in Israel; and of Agudath Israel of America in the United States. Members are usually prestigious Roshei Yeshiva or Hasidic rebbes, who are also usually regarded by many Haredi Jews to be the Gedolim ("great/est") sages of Torah Judaism. Before the Holocaust, it was the supreme authority for the World Agudath Israel in Europe.
From the founding of political Zionism in the 1890s, Haredi Jewish leaders voiced objections to its secular orientation, and before the establishment of the State of Israel, the vast majority of Haredi Jews were opposed to Zionism, like early Reform Judaism, but with distinct reasoning. This was chiefly due to the concern that secular nationalism would redefine the Jewish nation from a religious community based in their alliance to God for whom adherence to religious laws were “the essence of the nation’s task, purpose, and right to exists,” to an ethnic group like any other as well as the view that it was forbidden for the Jews to re-constitute Jewish rule in the Land of Israel before the arrival of the Messiah. Those rabbis who did support Jewish resettlement in Palestine in the late 19th century had no intention to conquer Palestine and declare its independence from the rule of the Ottoman Turks, and some preferred that only observant Jews be allowed to settle there.
Hardal usually refers to the portion of the Religious Zionist Jewish community in Israel which inclines significantly toward Haredi ideology. In their approach to the State of Israel, though, they are very much Zionist and believe that Israel is Atchalta De'Geula.
Haim Drukman was an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician. The most senior spiritual leader of the Religious Zionist community at the time of his death, he served as rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshivat Or Etzion, and head of the Center for Bnei Akiva Yeshivot.
Torato Umanuto is a special government arrangement in Israel that allows young Haredi Jewish men who are enrolled in yeshivas to complete their studies before they are conscripted into the Israeli military. Historically, it has been mandatory in Israeli law for male and female Jews, male Druze, and male Circassians to serve in the military once they become 18 years of age, with male conscripts required to serve for three years and female Jewish conscripts required to serve for two years.
The Sikrikim or Sikarikim are an extremist group of radical Haredi Jews based mainly in the Israeli Haredi neighborhoods Meah Shearim in Jerusalem and in Ramat Beit Shemesh. The anti-Zionist group is thought to have roughly 100 activist members. The Sikrikim gained international attention for acts of violence they committed against Orthodox Jewish institutions and individuals who would not comply with their demands.
Religious relations in Israel are relations between Haredim, non-Haredi Orthodox, Karaite, Ethiopian, Reform, Conservative, and secular Jews, as well as relations between different religions represented in Israel. The religious status quo, agreed to by David Ben-Gurion with the Orthodox parties at the time of Israel's declaration of independence in 1948, is an agreement on the role that Judaism would play in Israel's government and the judicial system. Tensions exist between religious and secular groups in Israel.
Dov Alan Lipman is an Israeli former politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid between 2013 and 2015.
In 2013, two independent protests occurred in Israel. In May, an attempt to change the Tal Law, which excluded ultra-Orthodox Jewish men for doing military service, led to protests by Haredi against military conscription. Again in November, Bedouins in the Negev called for a 'Day of Rage' against their displacement by the Israeli government to state developed townships as a result of the Prawer-Begin plan.
The Jerusalem Faction is an Israeli-Haredi political organization based in Jerusalem. It was founded in 2012 by Shmuel Auerbach, as a reaction to the Bnei Brak-based Degel HaTorah's perceived moderate approach to the question of conscription of Haredim into the Israel Defence Forces by the Israeli government that came up following the expiration of the Tal Law.