JPOST
‘We do whatever they say’: Yeshiva students defer to rabbis over response to IDF draft enforcement
Sam Halpern
October 26, 2026

Yeshiva students attending a massive United Torah Judaism election rally in Bnei Brak on Sunday told The Jerusalem Post that whether they would leave Israel, stay in the country, or enlist in the IDF if the next government stepped up draft enforcement would depend on their rabbis’ instructions. The rally, held two days before Israel’s election, drew tens of thousands of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews under the slogan “Gather and Stand Up for Our Lives.” Central to the gathering was military conscription for haredi yeshiva students, regarded as a red line by much of the haredi community but widely supported among Jewish Israelis. An October Israel Democracy Institute survey found that 72% of Jewish respondents supported legislation requiring young haredi men to enlist. Speaking at the rally, Rabbi Dov Landau, a leading haredi rabbinic authority, urged supporters to defend Torah study. “Never have yeshiva students and kollel scholars been persecuted as they are being persecuted now,” Landau said. READ MORE