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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 618

Degel HaTorah

Defense Minister Israel Katz (left) and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri speak in the Knesset, December 31, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Sam Sokol
Analysis
Sam Sokol
Why did the Haredim agree to an enlistment plan containing sanctions?
Shas, Degel Hatorah chose to support new outline containing scaled back sanctions in an effort to ‘buy time’ in the face of a pending wave of IDF conscription orders, say experts
Defense Minister Israel Katz (left) and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri speak in the Knesset, December 31, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
June 13, 2025, 5:29 am
Why did the Haredim agree to an enlistment plan containing sanctions?
Shas, Degel Hatorah chose to support new outline containing scaled back sanctions in an effort to ‘buy time’ in the face of a pending wave of IDF conscription orders, say experts
By Sam Sokol
United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf attends a faction meeting in the Knesset, May 19 , 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
June 12, 2025, 5:21 pm
UTJ’s Goldknopf resigns from cabinet after Knesset fails to pass dissolution bill
Chairman of ultra-Orthodox party says enlistment compromise fails to live up to PM’s promises, says he can ‘no longer take part as a member of this government’
By Sam Sokol
UTJ lawmakers Ya'akov Tessler and Moshe Gafni attend a vote on the proposal to dissolve the Knesset, Jerusalem, June 12, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
June 12, 2025, 12:36 pm
After compromise, Haredi parties back off threat to dissolve Knesset and trigger elections
Opposition goes ahead with doomed vote in bid to strip leverage from Shas and UTJ, who had warned they would support toppling of government unless it backed friendly IDF draft bill
By Sam Sokol and Stuart Winer
Knesset member Aryeh Deri looks at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a vote on the state budget at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 13, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
June 11, 2025, 5:51 pm
Coalition scrambles for deal with Haredim ahead of preliminary vote to dissolve Knesset
Shas said to be pressuring Degel Hatorah to give Netanyahu more time; no agreement has been reached yet, says Knesset legal adviser Sagit Afik
By Sam Sokol
United Torah Judaism MKs confer in the Knesset plenum, December 4, 2024. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)
June 4, 2025, 2:59 pm
Elections may loom as senior rabbis tell Haredi UTJ party to bolt coalition
Party’s spiritual leaders, fed up with failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from conscription, reportedly refusing to speak with Netanyahu; UTJ would need Shas’s support to bring down government
By Sam Sokol
Knesset Finance Committee chair Moshe Gafni (3rd from left) and other ultra-Orthodox lawmakers pictured in the Knesset as the 2025 state budget law is passed, March 25, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
May 5, 2025, 11:07 pm
Haredi parties to boycott government votes over failure to pass IDF exemption law
Ultra-Orthodox MK warns that if legislation doesn’t pass during current Knesset session, ‘we will have a very big problem sitting in such a government’
By Sam Sokol
Rabbi Dov Lando seen at his home in Bnei Brak, on February 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
March 30, 2025, 6:42 pm
Top ultra-Orthodox rabbi orders yeshiva students to ignore IDF conscription orders
In letter published on front page of party newspaper Yated Neeman, Degel HaTorah spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando prohibits yeshiva students from reporting to recruiting office
By Sam Sokol
Posters for United Torah Judaism candidate Shmuel Greenberg defaced ahead of the 2024 municipal election in Beit Shemesh. (Sam Sokol)
March 20, 2025, 5:45 pm
PM, President Herzog, Haredi ministers condemn mob attack on Beit Shemesh mayor
‘We must denounce the extremists and the violent among us,’ says United Torah Judaism chairman Goldknopf in wake of assault on Degel Hatorah’s Shmuel Greenberg
By Sam Sokol
Ultra-Orthodox Jews outside an army recruitment office in Jerusalem, March 4, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
March 9, 2025, 3:47 pm
AG, police silent in face of growing ecosystem of Haredi evasion organizations
‘We regret that law enforcement agencies are de facto condoning criminality on such an important issue,’ says Movement for Quality Government; offense punishable by 15 years in jail
By Sam Sokol
Ultra-Orthodox posters in Beit Shemesh demand the passage of a law exempting yeshiva students from military service prior to the passage of the 2025 state budget, March 6, 2025. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)
March 6, 2025, 8:43 pm
Haredi lawmakers split on approach to budget, which must pass this month or gov’t falls
While UTJ chair Goldknopf threatens to send Israel to elections if Haredi draft-exemption bill not passed, other ultra-Orthodox MKs say problems solved with $280 million now in budget base
By Sam Sokol and Leon Kraiem
Rabbi Dov Landau, head of the Slabodka yeshiva in Bnei Brak arrives to deliver a lesson at the Mir Yeshiva, in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim, Jerusalem, September 19, 2023 (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90).
February 18, 2025, 5:35 pm
Top ultra-Orthodox rabbi urges Haredi parties to shun Zionist institutions
Statement could have implications for Haredi participation in the World Zionist Congress elections next month
By Zev Stub
Rabbi Kalman Ber attends a vote for the new Chief Ashkenazi rabbi, at the Chief Rabbinate headquarters in Jerusalem, October 31, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
October 31, 2024, 8:02 pm
Ultra-Orthodox-backed Kalman Ber chosen as Ashkenazi chief rabbi in runoff
Top Netanya cleric beats out Rabbi Micha Halevi, who drew anger from religious Zionists by reneging on promise to stay out of race, after initial balloting ended in tie
By Mati Wagner and ToI Staff
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri speaks during an event of the Shas party ahead of the municipal elections in Jerusalem, February 19, 2024. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
February 29, 2024, 5:00 pm
In first, ultra-Orthodox parties win majority on Jerusalem city council
‘We don’t want to turn Jerusalem into Bnei Brak,’ says Deputy Mayor Eliezer Rauchberger, adding ‘we’re here to demand our share’ in an equitable manner
By Sam Sokol
Residents of the mixed Modern Orthodox-Haredi neighborhood of Ramat Beit Shemesh Aleph on April 27, 2020. (Sam Sokol)
February 26, 2024, 4:43 pm
In Beit Shemesh election, the ultra-Orthodox are looking to regain power
Religious conflict no longer solely defines the city’s politics but some worry that a victory for Shas’s Moshe Abutbul could spell a return to the violence of his last term
By Sam Sokol
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, right, arriving for a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on September 27, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)
February 11, 2024, 8:47 am
Ultra-Orthodox party pans Netanyahu for issuing credit rating statement on Shabbat
Housing minister Goldknopf of United Torah Judaism calls PM’s response ‘inappropriate’; Finance Committee chair says it was ‘totally unnecessary’ and a colleague laments ‘disgrace’
By ToI Staff
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