The protracted dispute at the Ponevezh Yeshiva, which has repeatedly reached the doorsteps of the judicial courts and secular mediation bodies, raises a charged issue on the agenda:
How is it that the most important and prestigious yeshiva in the Charedie community needs the secular civil justice system to decide internal disputes?
"You can't hold a rope at both ends"
“As part of the program Black Kippahs, attorney Natan Rosenblat opened with sharp criticism of Ponovitz's turning to the secular courts, especially because their appeal was rejected this week
‘You cannot, on the one hand, hand over the most important and largest yeshiva in the Torah world to the secular court so that it will decide, and on the other hand shout at the court for ‘taking control of the yeshiva world,’’ Rosenblat argued.
According to him, turning to the secular courts and avoiding resolving the dispute according to Torah law is essentially raising a hand against the Torah of Moses, and it undermines the ability to complain about the judicial system when it intervenes in Haredi matters.”
"There is recognition of the state and the law here"
Maj. (res.) Yoav Adomi, one of the founders of the Milouimnikim movement, pointed in the discussion to what he described as built‑in hypocrisy:
“On the one hand, they take budgets and positions, and when it’s convenient they turn to the High Court of Justice — like with the kosher‑phone reform or daycare subsidies — and on the other hand they cry out against the state and against the High Court.”
Alongside his criticism, Adomi noted that he welcomes the trend:
“Personally, I’m happy, because this shows recognition that there is a state, there is law, and there is an enforcement system with obligations and rights.”
The surprising prediction: ‘Haredi Hesder Yeshivas’
Attorney Yair Gabay compared the situation to what happens in the national‑religious community and offered a sharp forecast:
“In Religious Zionism, you won’t find a boy from Merkaz HaRav or Har HaMor who goes into another yeshiva and beats the rabbis — it simply doesn’t exist,”
Gabay began, adding:
“These events hint at a deep change within the Haredi yeshiva world. In not many years, every Haredi parent who wants the best for his son will send him to a Haredi Hesder Yeshiva.”
A memory from ‘yeshiva ketana’ and the goal of Ponovezh
Yishai Cohen shared a personal conversation from the past with a friend at the coffee corner of their yeshiva ketana. When his friend said that his life’s aspiration was to reach the Ponovezh Yeshiva, Cohen asked him in astonishment:
“Your aspiration is really to go to a yeshiva where they throw leban (chalk) at each other? That’s your life goal?”
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