Israel Matzav

If you're coming to the million man march, come early

As I understand it, Sunday's million man march against the Haredi draft is due to start at 4:00 pm in Jerusalem. It was likely scheduled that way to allow yeshivas located outside of Jerusalem to have a normal morning session. But the police announced on Thursday that the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway will shut down at Latrun headed toward Jerusalem at 1:00 pm on Sunday. That means that those who want to get to Jerusalem will have to find other roads (443, 375 and others) or will have to come early.

Police, too, expect a very large turnout, and have therefore decided to block all traffic toward Jerusalem on Highway 1, from Latrun eastward, starting at 1:00 p.m. Sunday.

The Jerusalem Light Rail will stop running along its regular route at 12:00 noon, and will continue to operate only between Pisgat Ze'ev and the Damascus Gate, or Shaar Shechem.

Last week, a historic gathering was held at Bnei Berak in central Israel, with the participation of the Torah Sages Councils of all hareidi streams, against the compulsory enlistment law being prepared in the Knesset.

The Torah councils published a joint statement, in which they implored students at regular yeshivas and kollel-type yeshivas, not to cooperate with the military's plan for establishing a special recruitment center for hareidim. They called on the authorities “not to slow down the world of Torah but to assist in the flourishing of Torah institutions."

The IDF's hareidi combat battalion recently won a coveted IDF prize for excellence: the IDF Department of Technology and Logistics' Award. Rabbis of the Nahal Haredi Foundation said in reaction: “This is the best proof that when the haredi soldier is taken into account, suitable conditions are provided for him in the IDF, and things are done with dialogue and understanding, he will be better than any other soldier.”

In the fall, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef zt"l passed away, and on five hours' notice, some 800,000 people showed up for his funeral. How many will show up this time? I can tell  you that every Haredi boys' high school (Yeshiva Ktana) in Jerusalem is showing up, and the last I heard they were debating bringing even younger boys.

Labels: Haredim, IDF

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:22 PM