Top haredi rabbinic leaders convene in Bnei Brak to launch unprecedented global response after IDF arrests two yeshiva brothers for draft evasion.
A high-level emergency summit was convened on Wednesday night at the Bnei Brak home of Rabbi Dov Lando, the towering spiritual leader of the Lithuanian (non-Hassidic) haredi world, following the arrest and imprisonment of two yeshiva students by the Israeli Military Police.
The meeting brought together prominent rabbinic and communal leaders from Israel, the U.S., and Europe, in what insiders are calling a “decisive moment for global Torah Jewry.”
“The State of Israel has declared war on Torah students,” a statement from Rabbi Lando’s household declared. “Haredi Jewry will launch a global struggle the likes of which have never been seen.”
The emergency consultation was called in response to the arrest of brothers Refael and Baruch Itzhakov, students at the Oros HaTorah Yeshiva, who were detained this week at their Tel Aviv residence for failing to report for military service.
Refael was sentenced to 17 days in military prison, while Baruch — previously arrested during the Purim holiday — was given 13 days. Shockingly, the arrests occurred late at night while their parents were away on vacation, unaware of the unfolding drama.
According to sources close to the rabbi, the goal of the urgent meeting was to “form a consensus among all sects and communities” regarding a unified response — not only within Israel, but across the entire international haredi world.
“If the State declares war on Torah, then Torah Jewry across the globe will rise in unified defiance,” warned Rabbi Lando earlier this week.
The arrests are being viewed by many in the haredi sector as an escalation in the ongoing tension between Israel’s secular institutions and the ultra-Orthodox world. Haredi leaders are reportedly planning mass protests, global fundraising drives, and legal battles to defend what they describe as “the eternal right to study Torah free from persecution.”
