From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Government-funded body listed as sponsor for anti-enlistment event in Bnei Brak
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The Bnei Brak religious council, a taxpayer-funded government body, is listed as one of the backers of an upcoming anti-enlistment event in the central Israeli city scheduled for Thursday morning.
The event, which will take place at the city’s Yeshua L’yehuda yeshiva, will consist of ideological encouragement for “the holy and mighty yeshiva students in the face of the conscription decrees,” a promotion for the event states, using Biblical language to reference soldiers and other fighting men.
The religious councils are one of three organizations listed as backers of the event, which will feature several top Haredi rabbis, including former chief Sephardic rabbi and current Shas party spiritual leader Yitzhak Yosef, a staunch opponent of military service for yeshiva students.
Thursday’s event will be one of several held nationwide and across the Diaspora to protest the arrest and detention of yeshiva students who, obeying rabbinic orders, ignored IDF draft summonses and were declared evaders.
כזה עוד לא היה לנו: המועצה הדתית בבני ברק, גוף ממלכתי למי שלא זוכר, מממנת ומפיקה כנס מיוחד כנגד גזירת הגיוס???????? pic.twitter.com/lJ63dfNNaE
— אברהם פריינד (@avrahamFriend) August 19, 2025
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