An irate demonstration against the military draft is taking place in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim, the center of the ultra-Orthodox population, with thousands of men and boys clad in black and white.
This is the most recent example since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision that young Haredi men are no longer eligible for major government benefits and must be conscripted into the Israeli military.
Young men who attend full-time Jewish seminaries, or yeshivas, tell me that their religious way of life is in jeopardy. Through prayer and spiritual education, they believe that Israel and the Jewish people are protected.
We have been persecuted for two millennia and have survived because we are studying the Torah. However, the Supreme Court now wants to take this away from us, which will lead to our annihilation, claims Joseph.
A frum, or pious Jew, will lose their religious identity if they enlist in the army.
“Militant aid is not provided by the draft. “They don’t need us, we orthodox Jews, or Haredim,” a fellow student says me, requesting anonymity since he doesn’t have his rabbi’s consent to be interviewed.
They will merely assign us some unsavory work there. Their purpose is to transform us from being Orthodox.
