‘Do not cooperate’: Nonprofit linked to top Haredi rabbis encourages draft dodging

An ultra-Orthodox organization connected to some of the community’s top rabbinic leaders, which until last year enjoyed millions of shekels in annual government funding, has been actively advising yeshiva students to ignore enlistment orders, a Times of Israel investigation has found.

Prior to last year’s High Court ruling that the government must draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, the Vaad HaYeshivot (Yeshiva Committee) was the Haredi community’s primary vehicle for coordination between ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and the Defense Ministry in matters of service deferments.

Its board is a who’s who of prominent Haredi figures, including Rabbi Dov Lando, a senior rabbinic leader of the non-Hasidic Degel Hatorah faction of the coalition’s United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party.

However, since the court’s decision, the prominent organization seems to have changed tack, moving from coordinating legal deferments to endorsing draft dodging, according to the testimonies of ultra-Orthodox men who reached out to the Yeshiva Committee for advice after receiving call-up notices from the IDF.

“They told me as of now not to do anything,” said Yehezkel, an ultra-Orthodox man who asked to be identified by a pseudonym due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“I asked them what to do and they said that according to the instructions of the Gedolei Yisrael [sages of Israel — the community’s senior rabbinic leadership] I shouldn’t do anything,” he recalled. “Don’t show up, don’t answer, don’t respond.”

Another member of the community, who likewise asked to remain anonymous, received the following email in response to his query:

“The guidance of the sages is unchanged: Do not report under any circumstances and do not cooperate. Of course, according to the law, there is an obligation to report, but these are the instructions of the sages… [you are] not alone and many yeshiva students are in the exact same situation in this matter.”

A history of government support

According to Guidestar, a center that provides information on nonprofit organizations in Israel, the Yeshiva Committee has long enjoyed government backing. In 2023, it received NIS 4,463,806 ($1.2 million) in state funding, totaling 67.4 percent of its annual budget.

A spokesperson for the Education Ministry, which provided the funding, told The Times of Israel that the Yeshiva Committee has not received any money since the High Court’s ruling on Haredi enlistment in June.

Despite this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners appear to be pushing for a resumption of funding for the organization.

In a letter sent to Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs over the weekend, Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf, the UTJ chairman, threatened to oppose the 2025 state budget — a move that would topple the government — unless it allocates more than a billion shekels in coalition funds for Haredi yeshivas.

Goldknopf complained that the money was not included in a list of coalition funds set to be approved by the cabinet. Among the other items that had recently been promised to the Haredim but not included on the final list was NIS 6.2 million ($1.7 million) for “coordination and liaison bodies” — a reference to groups that arrange military exemptions.

On Tuesday evening, the cabinet voted to approve billions in coalition funds, including NIS 8 million ($2.2 million) for coordination and liaison bodies.

Speaking with The Times of Israel, a spokesman for Haim Biton (Shas), a minister within the Education Ministry, said that the money was intended for the Yeshiva Committee. However, he said that it would only receive money if the Knesset manages to pass a law providing service exemptions for yeshiva students.

“For now, the money is on the shelf. You can’t touch it,” he said.

Listen to the rabbis

Asked if Biton still supported funding the Yeshiva Committee in light of the advice it was giving to prospective Haredi draftees, the spokesman denied that the group had in any way advocated breaking the law.

“Where do you see here that they write not to show up?” he asked of the group’s email. “It’s the opposite: They wrote that by law one must show up. All [the group] wrote to him in response was that he, by law, must show up and right now the directive of the sages is not to show up. Where do you see anything wrong here?”

Asked about the Yeshiva Committee’s activities, Yitzchaki Kaufman, the son of the organization’s chairman, Rabbi Chaim Aharon Kaufman, said that since the court’s June ruling “there is not much we can do” and the organization’s hotline merely tells people to follow the instructions of their rabbis.

Kaufman did not respond to attempts to contact him with follow-up questions.

Such explanations constitute “a clumsy attempt here to walk a fine line, on the one hand to clarify what the law says and on the other hand to note the guidance of the sages,” said Dr. Gilad Malach, a researcher with the Israel Democracy Institute who focuses on the Haredi community.

“The attempt is clumsy because it is clear that in the reply they first highlight the guidance not to appear, and even when mentioning the law they add the guidance of the sages again, so that no one is mistakenly confused.”

Mainstream Haredi education is based on the doctrine of “Daas Torah,” which maintains that ultra-Orthodox Jews are obligated to obey the community’s senior rabbinic leadership — which enjoys divine guidance when it comes to issuing political, social and religious directives — in all matters.

The Yeshiva Committee’s “direct call not to comply with conscription orders indicates the tension between the ultra-orthodox community and the IDF, as well as a willingness to break the rules,” Malach noted. “The Vaad HaYeshivot must refrain from any call to violate the law, especially due to the fact that it was funded by the state in the past and probably will be in the future.”

Over the past several months, the Yeshiva Committee has sent out several circulars to yeshiva heads and parents with advice. The organization has warned against flying abroad due to travel restrictions imposed on draft dodgers and has called on those in need of assistance to contact it by phone or email.

It has also explicitly stated that the public is “obligated” to obey the rulings of the sages on the issue.

According to a report published in December in Yated Ne’eman, a newspaper affiliated with Degel Hatorah, the Yeshiva Committee also sent out an “epistle” to yeshiva heads laying out “detailed guidance” on how to deal with the enlistment issue — including “unequivocal” instructions from the sages “not to respond to any summons.”

The Times of Israel was unable to find evidence of such a document, and Kaufman, when asked for a copy, provided a different circular entirely.

Both Yated Ne’eman and the Shas party’s HaDerech newspaper have run articles appearing to endorse the organization and providing its contact details for their readers.

Calls for investigation

Asked for comment, both the Israel Hofsheet (Be Free Israel) religious freedom advocacy group and the Movement for Quality Government watchdog organization condemned the Yeshiva Committee for its activities and hinted at the possibility of litigation.

The group’s activities do not have “any legal justification, let alone a moral one,” said Israel Hofsheet executive director Uri Keidar. “We will do anything in our power, including legal actions, to stop this unbelievably blunt exploitation of public funds.”

“Encouraging evasion of compulsory military service, especially in wartime, is a criminal offense that carries a heavy prison sentence,” Tomer Naor, an attorney for the Movement for Quality Government, told The Times of Israel.

“Law enforcement authorities must immediately address the increasing phenomenon of rabbis and ultra-Orthodox activists using public money to encourage evasion of compulsory military service in the IDF and encourage violations of the law. We intend to once again appeal to the police and the attorney general, demanding that the law be enforced.”

Last month, Naor’s organization called on Attorney General Gali-Baharav Miara and the Israel Police to open a criminal investigation into UTJ’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, citing reports that it had encouraged draft evasion and instructed its constituents on how to circumvent a High Court ruling restricting daycare subsidies for children of yeshiva students who fail to enlist.

The Movement for Quality Government’s appeal cited reporting by The Times of Israel regarding a hotline established by Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush, which had also told callers to ignore enlistment orders. It also cited reporting by the Ynet news site on a separate hotline dealing with the issue of daycare subsidies.

Spokespeople for Degel HaTorah leader MK Moshe Gafni, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri and UTJ chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf did not respond to requests for comment.