Leading Sephardic rabbis ban yeshiva students from reporting at IDF recruitment centers

Senior Sephardic rabbis in Israel have instructed yeshiva students to ignore any IDF recruitment orders that they receive in the coming weeks, and ban them from reporting at recruitment offices, even if it is to seek an exemption, according to Hebrew media reports.

The decision taken by the Sephardic rabbinical leadership stems from anger over the decision to start issuing recruitment orders to ultra-Orthodox men starting next month, as well as over the proposed law being discussed by the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which seeks to introduce recruitment targets.

In their letter, the rabbis claim that the recruitment targets will bring about “the destruction of the Torah” and the “souls of a holy people.”