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Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Top rabbi meets released ultra-Orthodox draft dodger, offers support of entire Haredi community
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Rabbi Dov Lando, one of the most prominent rabbinic leaders of the so-called “Lithuanian” stream of ultra-Orthodoxy, meets with yeshiva student Nuriel Mirzakandov to encourage him following his release from military prison, where he had been held on charges of draft evasion.
In remarks shared by his spokesman, the spiritual leader of the Degel Hatorah party states that the entire Haredi community “stands behind you and behind all those who are taken to prison. We pray to heaven and do what is humanly possible, all the time,” he states ahead of an international day of prayer against military conscription of the Haredim scheduled for Thursday.
The Times of Israel Community.