Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Charedi World

20 Elul 5759 - September 1, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

HOMEPAGE

 

Sponsored by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

Produced and housed by
Jencom

News
Committee for the Prevention of the Draft of Yeshiva Students is Appointed

by Yated Ne'eman Staff

The Vaadas HaRabbonim of Yated Ne'eman made the following statement: When the Committee on yeshiva students was appointed, its tasks were said to include the so-called "Paragraph 4" which includes various proposals for alternate army service for chareidim. As is well-known, all maranan verabonon oppose this and the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah also officially decided against the inclusion of this clause, and said that it is certainly forbidden for representatives of the chareidi and bnei Torah community to participate in a committee whose statement of purpose includes any clause of this sort. It is inconceivable that they would cooperate in plans whose purpose is to take out bnei Torah, chas vesholom, to any course of army service whatsoever.

The editorial board of Yated Ne'eman prepared a suitable reaction to the above, protesting the inclusion of the clause in the statement of purpose of the committee which was established. Maran Rabbenu Hagaon HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv shlita even went to the trouble of reviewing our protest.

Since this protest contained wording which was incorrectly interpreted as an affront to the representatives who were to participate in the committee, we were asked by responsible parties that publication of the protest be postponed, until they had the opportunity to bring their comments to the attention of Maran shlita.

We acknowledge that this was an error on our part, and wish to clarify that never did we entertain the thought of not publishing that which was approved for publication by maranan verabonon in its precise form, and we sincerely apologize for our error. We will make every effort to prevent the recurrence of such mishaps.

The following is the entire, original text of that article, which was published in the front page of the Thursday 14 Elul edition of the Hebrew Yated Ne'eman.

After a delay of more than a month-and-a-half, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak appointed a public committee to formulate recommendations on the issue of deferrals and draft exemptions of yeshiva students.

The committee will be headed by former Supreme Court Justice Tzvi Tal. Members will include HaRav Osher Tannenbaum, chairman of Vaad Hayeshivos; Rabbi Mordechai Karelitz, mayor of Bnei Brak; Attorney Yaakov Weinrot; Secretary of the Government General (res.) Moshe Nativ; Chaim Yisraeli, Assistant Director of the Ministry of Defense; former mayor of Hadera and former commander of the Border Police, Yisrael Sadan; Attorney Rachel Stovietzki, assistant legal advisor of the Defense Ministry; and Attorney Yitzchok Shoffman, assistant Attorney General.

The writ of appointment states that committee members are asked to consider the fact that, "the exemptions or deferrals in question are to apply to yeshiva students without any numeric limitations, since there is no intention to prevent bnei yeshivos from continuing with their studies, all this according to the law."

The announcement issued by the Prime Minister's Office last Monday stated that Barak has also charged the committee with "proposing appropriate legislation with legal authority to allow the Minster of Defense to exercise his judgment in the various aspects of the problem, including the granting of deferrals or exemptions as appropriate in each particular case, to yeshiva students who study full time and remain in their studies. This in light of the fact that the time limit set by the High Court for the termination of the existing arrangement, which was in effect for the last fifty years, is December 1999."

The announcement of the Prime Minister's Office adds that, "the committee has been concomitantly asked to examine and to recommend the development of frameworks and courses for the integration of part of the chareidi community into the army, including the Nachal Hachareidi and relevant training programs, and to examine the possibility of lowering the existing maximal draft age, in order to enable those chareidim who wish to work to be able to do so."

UTJ was astounded by the inclusion of these latter topics in the tasks of the committee. UTJ has nothing to do with these matters and does not deal at all with such matters, as was made absolutely clear during the course of the coalition negotiations and at the signing of the coalition agreements. According to the directives of gedolei Yisroel, the only area which must be dealt with -- and this as a result of the ruling of the Supreme Court -- is that of the formal legalization of the deferrals of the military service of the bnei yeshiva and of kollel members who study full time. Therefore the inclusion of deliberations on the matter of "frameworks and courses" in the committee's work, in which chareidi representatives are participating, has absolutely no point since, as is known, the chareidi representatives are involved only in guaranteeing the studies of the lomdei Torah, and they do not deal in any of the affairs of the army and the like.

It is clear then, that the chareidi representatives on the committee have absolutely no interest nor connection to such issues, and that their only interest and reason for participation pertains to the formulation of a legal arrangement for those who study Torah full time ("Torasom umnosom").

Rabbonim and public figures once more stressed that UTJ's top priority is just to enable undisturbed and unlimited Torah learning to whoever is engaged in full time Torah study ("Toraso umnoso"). Chareidi Jewry encourages, respects and admires the bnei Torah and avreichim who have decided to devote their lives to Torah study alone, and it does not advance any initiative whose purpose is to encourage avreichim to abandon their studies. The chareidi representatives are not involved in this area and have absolutely no connection with it.

The writ of appointment was signed last Wednesday by Ehud Barak after it was held up for more than a month and a half. During that period, and especially recently, it seemed as if Ehud Barak had no intention of fulfilling the coalition agreements signed with UTJ and that he would not appoint the committee to prevent the drafting of yeshiva students.

The coalition agreement stated that immediately following the establishment of the Government, a committee for the prevention of drafting yeshiva students would be set up. The committee was given three months in which to complete the draft of the law with enough time so that it could be passed by the Knesset before the court-designated deadline in December 1999.

In the first days after the government began, when UTJ anticipated that the committee would already be set up (and as necessary according to the timetable that was included in the agreement), Barak avoided fulfilling his promise claiming that he was busy with diplomatic matters. A protest was published in Yated Ne'eman and in response the prime minister promised the Knesset representatives of UTJ and also sent a special message to the gedolei Torah, that he will appoint the committee as soon as he returns from his trip to the United States during the Nine Days.

That promise was also broken, and a new target date was set: 15 Av. That date also passed and still the promises were not kept. Three weeks after that last date Barak finally appointed the committee whose first meeting must take place soon if it is to complete its work in time for the Knesset to pass the law before the deadline.


All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.