From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Top ultra-Orthodox rabbis meeting on efforts to secure Haredi draft exemptions
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"
Senior Haredi rabbis belonging to the Hasidic, Lithuanian and Sephardic communities — including spiritual leaders of the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties — are currently gathered at the central Israeli kibbutz of Ma’ale Hahamisha to hold a joint discussion regarding the conscription of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
The meeting, which is the initiative of several Hasidic leaders, is aimed at coming to an agreement regarding how to advance efforts to obtain service exemptions for members of their communities. According to Avraham Friend, a reporter for the ultra-Orthodox news site Behadrei Haredim, Shas has been trying to prevent its rabbinic leadership from attending the gathering, as it could impede potential efforts to rejoin the government.
The conference is expected to end with declarations opposing legislation containing enlistment quotas and a ban on IDF enlistment, Channel 13 reports.
A second gathering of yeshiva deans is scheduled for tomorrow in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak under the auspices of the Vaad HaYeshivot (Yeshiva Committee), which was until recently the Haredi community’s primary vehicle for coordination between ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and the Defense Ministry in matters of service deferments. A Times of Israel investigation this March found that the group has been actively advising yeshiva students to ignore enlistment orders in apparent violation of the law.
Both the Ashkenazi United Torah Judaism and Sephardic Shas parties have been pushing hard for the passage of legislation enabling most ultra-Orthodox males to continue to avoid military conscription or other national service, in the wake of last year’s High Court decision that such exemptions are illegal on equality grounds.
Earlier this month, UTJ quit the coalition after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s then-chairman, Yuli Edelstein. It was quickly followed by Shas, which, while quitting the government, has remained part of the coalition.
Motti Babchik, a senior adviser to United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, said on Monday that UTJ would ask its rabbis about coming back only “after the law on the arrangement of the status of yeshiva students is passed” while Shas spokesman Asher Medina told The Times of Israel last week that for his part to return to the government “there must be a law on the table that is agreed upon by us and has a majority.”
The Times of Israel Community.