Report: Yeshiva head and son of prominent Haredi rabbi cooperating with the army to draft his students

Rabbi Hanoch Kaufman, son of Rabbi Chaim Aharon Kaufman, a member of the powerful Yeshiva Committee, is working with the army to create a track for his students, according to a Channel 13 report.

While it previously served as the Haredi community’s primary vehicle for coordination between ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and the Defense Ministry in matters of service deferments, the Yeshiva Committee recently began transitioning from coordinating legal deferments to endorsing draft dodging via its telephone hotline, a Times of Israel investigation found earlier this year.

The younger Kaufman is the head of the Bakshu Yeshiva, which focuses on welcoming Haredi youth who dropped out of other Haredi institutions.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted, although a year ago, the High Court ruled that the decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to the Haredi community were illegal.

For the past year, the Haredi leadership has refused any attempt to find a compromise to draft at least part of the ultra-Orthodox youth, including those who do not study full-time in yeshiva.

זה מידע שאסור לכם לפספס: בזמן שאביו, יו"ר ועד הישיבות הרב חיים קאופמן, קבע נחרצות שגם צעירים חרדים בטלנים אסור להם להתגייס לצה"ל – הבן שלו, הרב חנוך קאופמן, כראש ישיבת "בקשו" לצעירים חרדים נושרים, נמצא בימים אלו במשא ומתן מתקדם עם משרד הביטחון על הסדרת מסלול צבאי לתלמידיו https://t.co/KarsEGQbzn pic.twitter.com/1JR4vyJqtR

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