Other placards read: “I am a Jew: Therefore I will not enlist in the Zionist army” and “The hardest place in the world for Jews to study and keep the Torah is in Israel”.
The IDF has begun issuing draft notices to members of the Charedi community, though some concessions on the issue are currently being negotiated.
One of the protest organisers, Shmuel Gershon Gradt, told the JC that Charedim are “fighting for our existence”.
“It’s a huge issue for us,” he said, “and its hitting hard Charedi Jews all over the world. [The Israeli government] is trying to destroy our [way of life] and our whole existence.”
He added that the State of Israel is a “secularising [force]” on Jews worldwide. “The Zionist Israeli government is pulling [people away] from the Torah and destroying all religious culture,” he said. “This is the reason [why the government] is doing this law, to take all boys from yeshiva to come and serve in the army, which [the government] needs for the safety of the country. [The government’s] aim is to turn these boys completely secular [and to] forget traditional Judaism.”
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Speakers on an elevated stage recited prayers and speeches in Yiddish through a microphone, and the crowd vocalised in unison which, organisers told the JC, represented their opposition to the State of Israel.
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The latest concessions on the topic put forward by the Israeli government, such as a limit on the number of yeshiva students called up to serve or postponing conscription until after students graduate yeshiva, are meaningless, says organisers of today’s demonstration.
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Gradt said: “Our aim is to keep the youngsters and to keep our tradition, which we have kept for thousands of years, and not to fall for the propaganda of the Zionists to turn our nation into a secular nation. We have been chosen by G-d to be the nation, to serve him and to learn his Torah, and keep the commandments which he set out.”
Some members of the Charedi community who oppose the demonstration had earlier in the day torn down signs advertising the protests put up in Stamford Hill, Golders Green and other areas of London.
A rabbi at the demonstrations said: “The Zionist State of Israel has opposed true Jewish religious observance. The attempts to draft religious Jews into a secular and anti-religious army are the harshest steps taken to date to force thousands of young Orthodox Jews into secularism, against their religious beliefs and principles.”
Hundreds of members of the Charedi Jewish community demonstrate close to the Israeli embassy in London opposing the mandatory conscription of yeshiva students and the state itself (Credit: Daniel Ben-David)[Missing Credit]
Another organiser, Yoel Herskovits, accused Israel of “terrorising” religious Jews. “We don’t recognise Israel as a state, we don’t want it,” he said. “[It goes beyond] the issue of conscription.”
He continued, “[We are] proud to be Jewish, the individuals in Israel are our brothers… But we would rather die than be forced to join the army.”
“It’s known to everybody that Israel is fighting… [the] number one agenda is not fighting the Muslims, it’s fighting the Charedi people. They want them erased. They want the Torah to be erased and forgotten. For them, that’s much more important [than conducting the war in Gaza].”
