Israel Matzav

If you're so worried about Israelis being able to learn Torah, why not come to Israel and learn Torah?

From what I could tell from this heavily biased piece from JTA and the Jerusalem Post, Sunday's demonstration in New York against drafting Haredim was largely the doing of the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidim.

Sunday’s gathering was promoted with banners in strongholds of the Satmar hasidic community. According to a Forward report last week, the protest was deemed so important it brought about a rare rapprochement between the group’s two warring  factions, which split after the 2006 death of the Satmar rebbe, Moshe Teitelbaum. Organizers said they expected 20,000 people. One guy with a placard told me there were 100,000 there, which was certainly not the case. But they came by the busload. Hours after the event began, groups of hasidic men in Brooklyn were still streaming toward Manhattan.

A report in one of the freebie Haredi handouts we get on our doorstep said this morning that there were 100,000 people there. However many people were there, it's less than could have been: The Litvaks (non-Hasidim) stayed away because Rav Aryeh Yehuda Leib Steinman and Rav Chaim Kanievsky - both in Israel - said not to go. Their word was backed up by Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky and Rav Malkiel Kotler in the US. Better they should learn Torah and pray for the decree to be reversed.

But this is kind of rich:

The immediate issue which brought thousands to Foley Square Sunday is the attempt to conscript haredi Orthodox Israelis into the army. A parliamentary committee advanced a bill last month that would do just that. But the banner under which the protestors gathered in Foley Square on Sunday surprised me a little, as it’s one that has been largely the domain of religious liberals: freedom of religion.

As one sign carrier told me today, his religion requires him to sit and study Torah. Any attempt to draft those like him into the military would be a violation of his religious rights.

I don't think that anyone is trying to draft Satmar Hasidim in New York. Moreover, most of the Satmar Hasidim that I know in New York work for a living. Does the sign carrier sit and learn Torah all day long? I don't know. But if the sign carrier wants to come to Israel and sit and learn Torah all day long, we would be happy to have him.

In the meantime, I don't see the decree being reversed. On the other hand, I don't see it really being enforced either.

In the meantime, I have to go learn some Torah....

Labels: Haredim, IDF, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:18 AM