From the Liveblog of
Monday, September 15, 2025
UTJ’s Goldknopf demands Netanyahu secure release of 33 Haredi draft dodgers
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"
United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to work for the “immediate release” of the more than 30 Haredi men currently being held in military prison for evading the draft.
In a letter to Netanyahu, Goldknopf claims that the draft dodgers were imprisoned “for the ‘crime’ of Torah study” and bemoans the fact that “in the Jewish state, Torah scholars are being arrested and harassed, as well as their families.”
“The painful facts speak for themselves, and therefore I ask you… to work for their immediate release, and at the very least to allow them to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with their families, to pray in the synagogue where they pray every year,” he writes.
In a statement this morning, the Jerusalem Faction, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group vociferously opposed to the enlistment of yeshiva students, said that 33 draft dodgers are currently being held in military prisons. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson did not immediately confirm or deny the Jerusalem Faction’s numbers.
The Times of Israel Community.