Protest at the Barclays Center
Photo: Yiddishfeed
15,000 Haredim protest against IDF draft in New York
In what was planned to be a much larger rally, anti-Zionist Satmar faction protests against the arrest of draft dodgers in Israel and the 'persecution of the Torah in the Holy Land.'
Some 15,000 anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews protested in New York City on Sunday night against the arrest of IDF draft dodgers
in Israel and the "persecution of the Torah in the Holy Land."
In a protest rally at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, dozens of rabbis and Hassidic leaders attacked the State of Israel and the IDF, which they say harass Torah students and seduce them to leave their yeshivas and enlist in the IDF.
Rally organizers screened videos showing police violence against ultra-Orthodox protesting the draft in Israel and against those who attack religious IDF soldiers.
Ultra-Orthodox protest in Brooklyn (Yiddishfeed ומשה קליין)
While the American ultra-Orthodox Jews rarely interfere in Israel's internal affairs, the rally was still considered a failure as its organizers sought to have a rare show of unity between all ultra-Orthodox factions in the city—from the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidic dynasty to a faction more similar to Israel's United Torah Judaism. But only some 15,000 attendees arrived, mostly members of the Satmar faction.
Over the past few weeks, a war has been waged across continents between rabbis and politicians in Israel and in the US.
Protest at the Barclays Center (Photo: Yiddishfeed)
Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, whose Lithuanian Jerusalem faction is leading the extremist ulta-Orthodox protests against the IDF draft in Israel, realized his rival, Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, who leads the non-Hasidic Lithuanian world, was operating mostly in Israel.
The Jerusalem faction sought to take advantage of the vacuum in the US to organize a mass rally of unity. They recruited the help of the top rabbis and Hassidic leaders across the Atlantic and convinced them the IDF was persecuting yeshiva students and trying to force them to enlist.
Protest at the Barclays Center (Photo: Yiddishfeed)
The heads of the ultra-Orthodox parties in Israel, who represent the main religious sector, realized at the last minute they were losing their influence on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America (Council of Great Torah Sages of America).
They therefore used all of their power and influence in an effort to sabotage the rally: delegations of rabbis and politicos went to the US to explain the existing draft law was good for the ultra-Orthodox, letters were sent to colleagues abroad in support of Rabbi Shteinman and against Rabbi Auerbach, and ultra-Orthodox papers Yated Ne'eman and Hapeles were also recruited to their campaign.
Eventually, the goal was achieved and the rally was considerably smaller than initially planned.
