Senior Haredi rabbis to join celebrations for ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers’ release from prison

Degel HaTorah spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando and Moshe Hillel Hirsch, two of the senior leaders of the so-called “Lithuanian” non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox community, will join multiple other prominent Haredi rabbis in Bnei Brak tonight in honor of two yeshiva students being released from military prison after being detained for draft evasion.

According to a spokesman for Lando, the release of the students, Yitzhak Revivo, of the Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer Yeshiva, and Yair Saadeh, of the Kisei Rahamim Yeshiva, will be marked by a celebration at the city’s Nadvorna Beit Midrash at 7 p.m.

Lando, 95, is a steadfast opponent of Haredi conscription to the Israel Defense Forces and has ordered yeshiva students to ignore call-up orders, prompting Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman to file a criminal complaint against him. Earlier this year, a Times of Israel investigation found that the Vaad HaYeshivot (Yeshiva Committee), on whose board he sits, had been actively advising yeshiva students to ignore enlistment orders in violation of the law.

He has welcomed released draft dodgers before, having held a similar event in Bnei Brak in August.

Rav Lando dancing with a draft dodger while yeshiva students sing a song about the plots of the Jews’ enemies coming to naught pic.twitter.com/C7lcgtmkik

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) August 21, 2025

Lando’s Degel HaTorah faction has said it supports the coalition’s draft exemption bill, which proposes continued military service exemptions to full-time yeshiva students while ostensibly increasing conscription among graduates of Haredi educational institutions through the imposition of quotas.