High Court in Heavy Blow to Torah World: IDF Exemption for Yeshiva Students Eliminated, Funding to be Cut

By Hamodia Staff

The High Court issued an interim ruling Thursday mandating that funds be cut to yeshivos starting April 1 if students are not drafted into the IDF, dealing a tremendous blow to the Torah world.

Since the founding of the State of Israel, agreements have always been reached to exempt yeshiva students from military service through the recognition that Torah study is vital to the Jewish community, and that the Israeli army is not an environment which is suitable for the religious needs of Charedi men. Over the past decade, a new movement to conscript yeshiva students took hold in Israeli society and government, but it had been successfully kept at bay.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Gali Beharav-Miara warned that if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition could not come to a settlement regarding the draft issue, funding for yeshivos will cease next week.

Netanyahu had asked the High Court for 30 days to come to a resolution, saying that he had made a lot of progress, but his petition was rejected.

Beharav-Miara wrote that while budgeting will officially end midnight on April 1, there will be a “short preparation period” before funds are practically stopped.

The order of the High Court went further than even what Beharav-Miara asked for. While the Attorney General requested a week time limit for the Prime Minister and his coalition to work out an agreement, the court’s order immediately removed the status of the yeshiva students and issued a revocation of funding by April 1.

Condemnation of the ruling from the Torah world was swift, as the Charedi ministers and MKs coalesced and reacted in unity against the decree of the High Court of Justice, stating that the quick decision is designed to undermine the Charedi system, but will fail to weaken the resolve of those who are dedicated to follow the path of the Torah.

“The order given by the judges of the High Court of Justice, whose purpose is to seriously harm the Torah and Jewish people, here in the Land of Israel — the state of the Jewish people — is a sign of disgrace and contempt,” Minister of Construction and Housing Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf of UTJ said in a statement.

“The State of Israel arose to be a home for the Jewish people whose Torah is true, and there is no power in the world that can fight against it. Without the Torah, we have no right to exist. We will fight in every way for the right of every Jew to learn Torah and we will not compromise on that.”

“Harm to Torah students, yeshivos and Torah education will not be on the agenda,” Degel HaTorah said in a statement. “The High Court of Justice and the clerical system have decided on an all-out struggle against Torah scholars and Torah education, and they must prove to everyone that they are in charge of the country, and they will also decide for us which coalition we will join.

“How can an interim order be issued in an hour, when an ordinary person can wait years for a ruling? Everything is timed,” the statement read.

“The interim order given by the High Court to immediately deny the yeshiva budgets is the ‘Mark of Kayin’ and an unprecedented outrage among Torah scholars in the Jewish state,” Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri said in a statement. “Precisely in the days when the people of Israel need the mercy of Heaven in the south and in the north, the High Court of Justice leads an offensive attitude towards the Torah scholars on whom the world stands. Shas will continue to fight for the right of yeshiva students to study the Torah and will examine all possible steps [to respond].”

Deri said that the draft will have the opposite of its intended effect. “What will happen now is that even Charedim who did go to the army or started to enlist, will now see the war on the Torah world, and they will say, ‘If that’s the case, I won’t be drafted into the army.'”