Several hundred Jewish boys took to the streets Wednesday to protest an Israeli military bill that would all but end draft exemptions for Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox students.
The event, which involved students at the United Talmudical Academy and their teachers, began with a rally on the school’s grounds off South Main Street about 4:15 p.m.
The students, mostly ages 6 to 13, stood in orderly lines, holding signs in Hebrew and English featuring such slogans as “The Israeli Draft Law: An Attack on Our Freedom of Religion.” The boys, mostly from the Satmar branch of Judaism, then left the school, marching along the side of the road north to Singer Avenue, west to Madison Avenue and back around to the campus.
Joseph Lieberman, a teacher at the academy, acknowledged that Wednesday’s event was small compared to other protests that have taken place recently, but said that word of such demonstrations has a way of spreading throughout the community. He said he disagreed with many of the policies of the Israeli government and that his people serve in their own right through study and prayer. “In the places we live — America in particular — they respect our religious laws. They understand that we are praying for the good of the land ... and they are not forcing us to go into the army,” Lieberman said. “But in the so-called Jewish state of Israel ... they now say that we are not allowed to learn in the yeshiva ... we have to go to the army.”
Children, most of whom would be hard-pressed to find Israel on a map or name Israel’s neighbors or enemies, held signs and banners attacking the State of Israel as their rabbis delivered speeches.
The signs reportedly equated Israel’s political leadership to the arch enemy of the Jewish people, the biblical pharaoh of Egypt who enslaved and would not free the Hebrews; the Roman emperor, Titus, who sacked the Jerusalem Temple; and a more recent enemy of the Jewish people – Adolph Hitler.
Rabbis accused Zionists of stealing the term Jew from those people – hasidim – who practice authentic Judaism, and called the looming haredi draft into Israel defense forces, “which are rife with immorality” the Zionists’ “latest attempt to exterminate the remnants of genuine Judaism,” according to a translation of one of those rabbinic speechespublished in the MidHudson News.
A Satmar teacher said the protest was educational for the children.
“In Israel, they have a government that is against religious freedom, and because of that, we want to explain to the children that it is against our religion and we are not with [Israel]. There is separate Zionism and Judaism. They are not the same thing. We are Jewish and they are not Jewish,” Rabbi Moshe Kaplan, who teaches ninth grade at the Satmar school told the paper.
“In Israel, they have a government that is against religious freedom, and because of that, we want to explain to the children that it is against our religion and we are not with [Israel]. There is separate Zionism and Judaism. They are not the same thing. We are Jewish and they are not Jewish,” Rabbi Moshe Kaplan, who teaches ninth grade at the Satmar school told the paper.
Locally, the story is largely the same. Michael Koplen, a New Hempstead village trustee and Republican candidate for Ramapo supervisor, served in an Israeli civilian defense unit in the 1970s. He said he does not agree with those who believe they should be exempt from service to the country. “If someone is living in Israel, benefits from the security, roads, housing and other programs and has the ability to sit and study the Torah, then I believe those people should make some type of contribution to Israeli society,” Koplen said.
