Fight over yeshiva draft spills into Far Rockaway

A heated and emotional panel of four men presented their uniform views on the importance of sustaining charedi yeshivas in Israel and of continuing to exempt yeshiva students from service in the Israel Defense Forces, last motzei Shabbat at a town hall type meeting in the Wolfson home in Far Rockaway.

Over 150 men and women listened attentively as each of the four panelists presented a ten minute statement and answered selected audience questions.

The panelists were Rabbi Yaakov Bender, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Darchei Torah; Rabbi Aryeh Zev Ginzberg, Cedarhurst’s Chofetz Chaim Torah Center; Mishpacha publisher Eliyahu Paley, an IDF veteran, and the moderator, Mishpacha U.S. desk editor Eytan Kobre.

The current concern stems from a pending Knesset vote to restructure the requirements and exemptions for enlistment in the IDF. The government is focusing on the charedim, where most men of draft age have since the foundation of the State in 1948 been exempted to learn in yeshivos. At the beginning, the population that was exempt was small; it has currently grown to tens of thousands.

All the speakers emphasized the urgency in maintaining the yeshivos. Paley noted that the communities in Israel could “benefit by adopting some of the things in America” such as the “Torah baal batim” who learn Torah and work, that they are “not going to compromise on learning Torah” but should “create communities of baal batim in Israel.”

Rabbi Bender pointed out the many chesed organizations in Israel “manned by frum people.” He also cited a Gemara that 1,000 students are necessary to produce one scholar, and that King Solomon sent 200 to learn Torah for every 1,000 in the army.

Rabbi Ginzberg noted that the discussion has been ongoing for decades. He stated that a letter written by a Nazi that “our war is with the Talmudists — it is through them that the Jewish people are preserved,” was shown to prime minister David Ben-Gurion and that it kept the students out of the army.

In a phone interview, Kobre stated that the meeting was called to “address a complicated and confusing situation” citing “proposals on the table in Israel to take various steps against the Charedi community there.” He presented figures on the Orthodox in Israel, in the yeshivos, the work force, the army, the schools and described established organizations that work to integrate those leaving yeshivos into the work force through university and vocational programs. He said that one, the Kemach program, had graduated 6,000 since 2007.

He questioned the government’s need to cut family and yeshiva/educational subsidies, saying that it is not a major part of the budget. He said he was concerned about the Israeli government’s removal of its subsidy to schools for foreign students that also affects yeshivos and Jewish families abroad who send their children to Israel to study. Programs integrating the ”fervently Orthodox” into the work force are “placed in jeopardy as a result of these proposals.” He said these programs are voluntary as opposed to “compulsory.”

The army, he said, is a “non issue,” that “integration into the work force is the real issue but that it is a slow and incremental process” with “change taking place quietly, slowly. They shouldn’t be forced to serve in the army, it violates religious principles,” citing other countries’ “exemptions for divinity, even during war.” He also questioned the need for a “civilian army” as it stands in Israel, calling for a “career” force instead.

He pointed out that the nachal charedi, a section of the army set up for charedi members to enlist in the army with accommodations specific for the charedi community, received a nod from Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, but even so was not felt to be a perfect solution. He said that there is boundless gratitude to those who serve in the IDF and that people “don’t express enough gratitude.”

The meeting ended stating the need “to find dialogue,” and “public relations for the charedi community,” and “every ben Torah should have a chayal (Israeli soldier) to daven and learn for.”