Rabbi threatens ‘unprecedented struggle’ against IDF draft as first recruits of ultra-Orthodox brigade finish training

Rabbi Dov Lando, spiritual leader of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party, threatened that his community would embark on an “unprecedented” struggle against the IDF draft on Wednesday, after the first recruits of the military’s new Haredi brigade finished their training earlier that morning.

“The State of Israel has declared war on yeshiva students,” a spokesman for Lando declared after two young ultra-Orthodox men were arrested for evading their draft orders.

“The Haredi Jewish community will embark on a global struggle the likes of which have never been seen,” read the statement.

Lando, who is one of the most prominent and respected leaders of the Lithuanian stream of Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox Judaism, also called an emergency meeting of community leaders in his home in Bnei Brak to forge a consensus response.

Lando had said last week that if students currently enrolled at a religious Talmud school (yeshiva) were arrested, the Haredi community would “make the world tremble, with all our strength and heart,” warning that the government would find itself arrayed against “a united, global Haredi Jewry that is fighting for its very soul.”

Yisrael Beitenu party leader Avigdor Liberman attacked Lando over his comments, noting that “The people of Israel are mobilized to fight our enemy. The entire Haredi leadership is mobilized to fight the IDF, the troops and the reservists who are carrying the burden.”

In a second post on 𝕏, Liberman highlighted that the Haredi leadership was convening a crisis meeting while “our soldiers are fighting on all fronts and risking their lives.”

“If they mobilized for the security of the state as they are mobilizing for evasion, the State of Israel would be stronger and more united,” he added.

In its report on the arrests, the newspaper affiliated with the Shas Party, which represents the Mizrahi wing of ultra-Orthodoxy, wrote that “Preparations are underway for a determined struggle that will shake the very foundations. They will discover our immense strength.”

Party chairman Aryeh Deri had threatened in April that “once a student sitting in a yeshiva – or whose home has been entered – is arrested – that’s a red line. We cannot continue to be part of such a government.”

Lando’s Degel HaTorah is part of the United Torah Judaism party, which left the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, leaving it on the brink of collapse in protest over the proposed new IDF draft law.

Shas didn’t leave the coalition but pulled its ministers out of the government.

Coincidentally, the Haredi draft crisis erupted again on the same day that the first recruits of the IDF’s new Hasmonean Brigade, which was created specifically to answer the needs of Haredi men, finished their seven months of basic training.

The military stated that “the entire training program and the base infrastructure were adapted to the lifestyle of the ultra-Orthodox soldier.” The next batch of 50 soldiers are expected to complete their training this December.

הצבא והתורה הולכים יחד, כתף אל כתף. האחת מחזקת את השני.

מברך את חטיבת "החשמונאים" - החטיבה החרדית הראשונה בצה"ל שסיימה היום את מסלול הכשרתם ובטקס מרגש בכותל המערבי קיבלו את הכומתה.

רק יחד ננצח 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/1reugunZ8m

— Boaz Bismuth (@BismuthBoaz) August 6, 2025

The Knesset’s new Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth, who replaced Yuli Edelstein in a move calculated to placate the Haredi parties and entice them back into the government, congratulated the soldiers.

“The army and the Torah go together, shoulder to shoulder. One strengthens the other,” Bismuth declared.

Some 50 Haredi soldiers marched around 55 kilometers (34 miles) from the outskirts of Jerusalem to the Western Wall, where they received the unit’s new trademark dark blue beret, designed as an homage to the Jewish prayer shawl (tzitzit).

“I congratulate the ‘Hasmonean’ Brigade – the first ultra-Orthodox brigade in the IDF, which completed its training course today and, in an emotional ceremony at the Western Wall, received their beret.”

Bismuth is expected to present a new draft bill that is acceptable to the Haredi parties within weeks, aiming to advance it when the parliament reconvenes in October.

Despite a landmark ruling by Israel’s High Court in June 2024, decreeing that the State of Israel can no longer legally exempt ultra-Orthodox men studying in religious schools from being drafted for army service, most Haredis have ignored their draft orders.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara submitted a declaration to the High Court of Justice on Tuesday, criticizing the government’s failure to effectively enforce the draft.

Overall, some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are estimated to be eligible for military service, while the IDF says it needs 12,000 new recruits.

However, only around 2,700 Haredis joined the military over the past year.