Rabbi Dov Lando, revered 95-year-old leader of the Lithuanian haredi community, makes emotional prison visit to yeshiva students jailed for draft refusal, calling their imprisonment a national crisis.
In a powerful and emotional act of spiritual solidarity, Rabbi Dov Lando, the 95-year-old spiritual giant of the Lithuanian (non-Hasidic) haredi community, made a rare and dramatic visit to Beit Lid Military Prison on Thursday—despite his frail age and physical limitations—to personally support two imprisoned yeshiva students, Refael and Baruch Itzhakov, arrested for not reporting to the IDF.
The visit, widely seen as symbolic and historic, sent a clear message to both the government and the Haredi world: this is not a marginal issue—it’s a red line.
“It’s a bit difficult for me… I’m a bit old,” Rabbi Lando told the young detainees. “But I still came. I came to give you strength. I came not just for myself—but in the name of the entire Haredi people.”
Deeply shaken by the arrests, the rabbi reportedly told close associates he has struggled to sleep while Torah students sit behind bars. He has convened urgent, high-level meetings to strategize a communal response to what many in the ultra-Orthodox world see as an existential threat to their way of life.
During his emotional address inside the prison walls, Rabbi Lando encouraged the young men to remain steadfast:
“Be strong and hold on. Everything outside—temptations, lies—is nonsense. You are true yeshiva students. With G-d’s help, you will return to Torah study very soon.”
He continued with a stark message to the broader society:
“People must begin to understand: you can’t just do whatever you want to yeshiva students. We are all watching. We are all standing behind them.”
The unprecedented visit has electrified the haredi community and intensified public debate around the arrests of draft-defying Torah scholars. With increasing calls for protest and public demonstrati,ons, Rabbi Lando’s actions may well galvanize a new wave of resistance against state efforts to impose military service on the ultra-Orthodox.
