Ultra-Orthodox leaders have called for an international day of prayer and fasting on Thursday in response to recent government efforts to conscript ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students and arrest those who ignore government orders to enlist.
Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, one of the factions of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party, issued a public appeal to Jews around the world to treat the day as if it were Yom Kippur Katan, a minor fast day in which worshipers recite prayers usually read on the Jewish Day of Atonement.
In the United States and Europe, Haredi Jews are “preparing to tear open the gates of heaven to overturn the conscription decree that threatens the Torah world,” party newspaper Yated Neeman declared on its front page on Tuesday, quoting Lando as saying that “Jews are persecuting Jews because they are learning Torah.”
Ultra-Orthodox newspaper Hamodia, seen as a mouthpiece for UTJ’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, likewise called for a “day of prayer, fasting and the cessation of work to cancel the decree of forced conscription and religious persecution” on Thursday.
Despite the ongoing war in Gaza and the plight of the hostages held by Hamas in the Strip, the State of Israel has “found the time to persecute Torah students” and “deprive them of their civil rights,” the paper declared.
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Prayer rallies are expected across Israel, with mass gatherings in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem slated to take place.
The Bnei Brak religious council, a taxpayer-funded government body, was listed as one of the backers of an anti-enlistment event Thursday morning.
The event, set to take place at the central city’s Yeshua L’yehuda yeshiva, will consist of ideological encouragement for “the holy and mighty yeshiva and kollel students in the face of the conscription decrees,” a promotion for the event stated, using Biblical language used to reference soldiers and other fighting men.
The religious councils is one of three organizations listed as backers of the event, which will feature several top Haredi rabbis, including former chief Sephardic rabbi and current Shas party spiritual leader Yitzhak Yosef, a staunch opponent of military service for yeshiva students.
Rabbi Dov Lando in Bnei Brak, April 5, 2024. (Shlomi Cohen/Flash90)
Haredi leaders say military service is a threat to their way of life and would keep ultra-Orthodox men from studying Torah. Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, due to the strain on standing and reserve forces amid the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.
Last summer, the High Court of Justice ruled that longstanding mass exemptions for these yeshiva students were illegal. Since then, the IDF has significantly stepped up its efforts to recruit the eligible Haredi men, sending out 54,000 conscription orders in July alone, leading the Haredi community to declare “war.”
According to the HaMevaser newspaper, which is affiliated with another wing of Agudat Yisrael, prayer rallies are set to be held in Antwerp, London, Paris, New York, Chicago, Miami and elsewhere. The paper called on everyone aged 15 and older to fast for half the day, while stating that those unable to do so should donate to charity in an effort to appeal to God to “hasten their redemption by canceling the decree.”
Thursday’s prayer rallies are part of an effort by ultra-Orthodox leaders to internationalize the conflict over conscription. A source with knowledge of the senior rabbis’ thinking told The Times of Israel earlier this month that the rabbis are considering holding demonstrations outside of Israeli embassies around the world to protest increased IDF enforcement against evaders.
On Monday, anti-Zionist Hasidic Jews demonstrated against the draft outside the Israeli consulate in Manhattan, although the protest did not appear directly linked to the Haredi leadership in Israel.
Prison protests
This week’s global demonstrations are due to take place a week to the day after Lando — who has repeatedly told yeshiva students to illegally disregard conscription orders — and other leading Haredi rabbis gathered in front of Israel’s Beit Lid military prison to pray for draft evaders being held inside, capping off a week of anti-enlistment demonstrations at the site.
A member of the extremist ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem Faction holds up a sign calling on US President Trump to ‘please save us,’ at a rally against the arrest of draft-dodging yeshiva students outside of the military prison at Beit Lid, August 14, 2025. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)
Sitting behind a sign stating “All of Haredi Judaism stands behind you,” Lando and other prominent rabbis read Psalms and recited prayers for the prisoners, drawing scorn from Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern, who came to the Thursday demonstration to “see for myself the people who say that if they go to the army, they will be going to hell.”
“They’re parasites,” the former chief of the IDF Personnel Directorate told The Times of Israel. “They are reciting psalms that we read against our enemies, but are directing them against the army.”
While not officially part of the protest, a large contingent from the extremist Haredi Jerusalem Faction arrived outside the prison, screaming slogans such as “free the hostages,” in reference to the jailed draft dodgers, not the 50 Israelis who are being held captive in Gaza.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men block a road in Jerusalem during a protest against army recruitment, July 23, 2025. (AP/Leo Correa)
One Jerusalem Faction demonstrator held up a sign calling on US President Trump to “please save us” from the State of Israel, which is “forcing us to rebel against God.”
An extremist ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members, the Jerusalem Faction is considered among the most conservative of Haredi factions and regularly demonstrates raucously against the enlistment of yeshiva students.
Members of the group declared a “day of rage” set for Wednesday, in which ultra-Orthodox Jews are slated to demonstrate in several locations throughout central Israel in the afternoon hours.
Last month, similar demonstrations led to the closure of roads in Jerusalem as well as disruptions on Route 4 near Bnei Brak, the Shilat Junction by Modi’in and in Beit Shemesh and Petah Tikva.
Charlie Summers contributed to this report.
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