Police preparing for ultra-Orthodox disruptions at Jerusalem marathon

Police are gearing up to meet threats from a militant group within Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community that it will send hundreds of religious students to disrupt Friday’s annual marathon in the capital, Channel 2 News reports.

The group’s members are protesting the arrest last month of a student from a yeshiva religious seminary — Yisrael Meir Toledano — who, like hundreds of others, obeyed the order of prominent Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach to avoid compulsory conscription to the army.

On Wednesday, nine people were detained in Jerusalem as hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews blocked traffic in Jerusalem and at exchanges elsewhere in the country.

Toledano, a student at the Meirat Shemua Yeshiva, was arrested on Sunday night at his home in Ofakim. On Tuesday a military court extended his remand until Thursday.