A historic meeting took place in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, as three leading Gedolim in America traveled to meet with the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Yechiel Leiter.
The discussion centered on the ongoing situation regarding yeshiva bochurim being drafted into the IDF, and the strong opposition voiced by the Chareidi community in both Eretz Yisroel and the United States.
Traveling to the nation’s capital were HaGaon HaRav Aharon Feldman, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel; HaGaon HaRav Malkiel Kotler, Rosh Yeshiva of BMG; and HaGaon HaRav Elya Brudny, Rosh Yeshiva in the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn—all members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America. The meeting was arranged and attended by noted philanthropist Reb Shloime (Sol) Werdiger, Chairman of Agudath Israel.
The Gedolim expressed that the Chareidi community in America stands fully united with the Chareidi community in Eretz Yisroel in their battle on behalf of Bnei Torah.
Ambassador Leiter, a shomer Torah u’mitzvos, warmly welcomed the Gedolim at the Israeli Embassy, where the private meeting lasted for nearly an hour. In an interesting moment, the ambassador—who grew up in Scranton, PA—shared that his father was a talmid of HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Ruderman zt”l.
It should be noted that the Gedolim undertook significant mesiras nefesh by leaving their yeshivos on only the second day of Elul zman to make the trip to Washington for this crucial meeting.
Due to the sensitivity of the matter, further details of the discussion remain confidential. However, Ambassador Leiter thanked the Gedolim for their efforts and assured them that he would remain in close contact as the situation develops.
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18 Responses
This post mentions the real mesiras nefesh of the choshiver Roshei Yeshivois Shlita leaving their makomei Torah on the 2nd day of Ellul. Indeed a true sacrifice but the question begs why couldn’t this meeting have occurred last month after 15 Av?
How in the world are they going to convince any normal person that their Chareidy children should have other boys risking their lives instead of them. Which normal mother wants their children to risk getting CH”V killed or kidnapped.
Nice to see the ambassador giving an ear to the talmidei chachamim that get run over online by so many Wicked Jews
nobody does more for klal yisroel than the Aguda, we owe all them hakaras hatov.
ader the fact that these wise men went shows the opposite that a person steeped in chashivus hatorah has the capability of impressing upon any level headed person how boys at that young impressional age belong in the beis medrash only
@ader: Yes, a normal religious person understands that the IDF has become the worst מקום פרוץ where no religious young man can sustain his Yiddishkeit!
Yes, a normal religious person understands, were it not for z’chus of the tens of thousands Bnei Torah, the casualty number in the most dangerous place on the globe would CH”V have been far higher.
Yes, every normal mother with a child in Gaza would beg the Bnei Torah; PLEASE CONTINUE TO LEARN HARD, AND WITH THAT Z’CHUS MY CHILD SHOULD COME HOME HEALTHY!
It must be so painful for Rav Aharon Feldman to see a talmid of his Rosh Yeshiva fall so far from yiddishkeit and become a tziyoni, R”L.
rebEmes,as a wicked Jew is vet helphen vie a toten bankes.
lakewoodbt, I prefer to believe that YU and the OU do a great deal more. The agudah does nothing for the overwhelming number of not yet frum Jews.
Harry, it’s all dependent on the ambassador’s schedule
@ader I’m curious do you know what percentage of the army are jobnicks and don’t see or go near the combat zone and have almost less of a chance of injury then a civilian? I can tell you it’s 75%-85% so wanting Chareidim to join the army has nothing to do making them risk their lives the same as those serving. The truth is that those who insist on Chareidi service only do so because they have no respect for Torah and the protection it offers.
When I say this the usual response is that if the Torah protects let’s put yeshiva guys on the front. To this I ask did you pray for the health and well being of the soldiers? If you did, you too agree that Torah and tefillah is important for the protection of our soldiers so please stop attacking our Torah and tefillah special forces “the Chareidim” embrace them and support them so they can learn better and protect us better.
So we don’t get to know what was discussed?
How do we explain to @ader that the Torah saves the soldiers, and without the Torah, all the soldiers die.
yechiel had a son killed fighting and does not share @ader’s attitude.
I used to eat by the Lieter family in scranton when the ambassador was single. Dr. Leiter z”l, was a brilliant Talmid chochom. He loved Eretz yisroel with all his heart, and because of that he was Zoche that his son should become the ambassador.
@ader, I also wonder about that. I also wish this fact would be mentioned more in our news coverage and in our confrontations with the chilonim. Not that those who are learning should leave learning to enlist in the IDF. Just that there shouldn’t be such animosity towards those who are not frum or Chareidi. The hatred spewed against those who simply can’t understand that learning Torah protects as much as, if not more, than the army, is mind boggling and disturbing. As ader commented, they are sending their sons and fathers to risk their lives and we confront them with hatred instead of compassion and calm explanations, bothers me to no end. It may be true that some of the chilonim want to uproot Yiddishkeit. But this is not the first generation of Tziyonim, who came from frum homes. Today’s chilonim are tinokim shenishbu and cannot even understand what we are talking and screaming and protesting about. We don’t make any headway by calling them names and protesting violently. This must be so painful for them also. How can we hurt fellow Yidden like this? Can’t we explain our position in a compassionate way?
DavidtheKanoi, when you write “..a normal religious person understands, were it not for z’chus of the tens of thousands Bnei Torah, the casualty number in the most dangerous place on the globe would CH”V have been far higher.” you are demonstrating the wisdom of Hazal – nevuah be’zman hazeh is given to shotim.
The ignorance displayed in these comments is astonishing.
FACT: Israel won its wars in 1948 and 1967 when there were only a few hundred/thousand yeshiva students.
FACT: There is not a single source in Chazal which says that Torah learning replaces hishtadlus, not for going to war and not for anything else. “Torah magna umatzlah” is being taken entirely out of context – check the Gemara there.
FACT: Of the 80,000 or so charedim claiming exemption today, tens of thousands are not even learning.
FACT: The reason why most Israeli are desperate for charedim to enlist is that there is a terrible manpower shortage in the IDF. This has meant that endless thousands of people have had to leave their yeshivot, their jobs, their families, for months on end, at great harm to their parnasah, their family lives, their mental and physical health.
FACT: There are over eighty hesder yeshivos which combine Torah learning with army service, including a few that are specifically for charedim, and which could accommodate tens of thousands of charedim.
FACT: There is not a single source in Chazal which says that Torah learning replaces hishtadlus, not for going to war and not for anything else. “Torah magna umatzlah” is being taken entirely out of context – check the Gemara there.
LIE: why?
yaakov told yosef i took shechem from the emori “becharbi u’bekashti” which can not mean sword because he was not involved in the battle it was shimon and levi who went (whom he rebuked) so chazal say what it means is with his tefillah and torah
that means yaakov was saying that it was him that conquered shechem not shimon and levi becuae he has the power of kol kol yaakov he didnt even give a drop of credit for it to his 2 sons who slaughtered by sword thousands of ppl
Everyone and their dog has an opinion.
Amazing how the people screaming that “the army needs soldiers” are sitting comfortably in America with zero risk of being drafted. If you feel so strongly, the IDF is still accepting volunteers — go ahead, trade in your laptop for a uniform.
And @Yissachar — you parade around your “FACTS” like you’ve uncovered something new. Trust me, the Gedolim know them all a thousand times better than you do. The difference is, they actually see past the headlines — while you’re still stuck pretending you’re the first guy to read Wikipedia.
Gedolim undertook significant mesiras nefesh by leaving their yeshivos on only the second day of Elul zman…
Those that lay down their lives are the “significant MESIRAS NEFESH”.
Nobody else comes should even be thought of even having 1 trillionth of that madrega.