Prominent Haredi leader to yeshiva students arrested for draft evasion: ‘We all stand behind you’

Prominent Haredi leader Rabbi Dov Lando tells yeshiva students arrested for draft evasion that the entire Haredi community stands behind them, as he visits them at the Beit Lid military prison, according to a statement from his office.

“Be strong and hold firm,” Lando says as he meets brothers Rafael and Baruch Yitzhakov. “The entire Haredi community stands behind you. With God’s help, you will be released soon and return to being Torah students, yeshiva students, just as you were until now. God will help you.”

For the past year, the Haredi leadership, including Lando, has rejected any attempt to find a compromise to draft at least part of the ultra-Orthodox youth, after last year the High Court ruled that the decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to the Haredi community were illegal.

Lando, who serves as the spiritual leader for the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction and is one of the most prominent figures in the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, has repeatedly told yeshiva students to ignore draft orders.