As the persecution of Lomdei Torah in Eretz Yisrael continues, UTJ MK Yitzchak Pindrus sent a letter on Monday to President Isaac Herzog, asking him to prevent a civil war and stop the persecution of Lomdei Torah, just as he intervened to halt the judicial reform.

“Throughout your term, you turned the institution of the presidency into a unifying national body which seeks to bridge disputes and rifts among the people,” Pindrus wrote. “Thus is how you acted publicly and decisively during the debate over the judicial reform, when you didn’t hesitate to use the full weight of your public influence to prevent the rift in the nation. You held discussions, proposed frameworks, and warned against advancing the reform in every possible forum.”

“It is difficult to understand your deafening silence in the face of the severe crisis now striking the State of Israel through its persecution of the Chareidi public,” Pindrus continued. “A crisis into which the state was dragged by the High Court and the Attorney General, whom you defended so vigorously.”

“Tens of thousands of bnei yeshivos, toiling in Torah, now find themselves under threat of arrest, administrative proceedings, and targeted economic sanctions designed specifically to harm them and their children. An entire community is being trampled and incited against, and the rift grows deeper by the day – a rift whose end no one can foresee.”

“Lomdei Torah have been moser nefesh for Limmud Torah throughout all generations, and it seems that even in Eretz Yisrael, if they are required to be moser nefesh, they will do so – even if it means that the yeshivos of Mir, Ponovezh, Chevron, Gerrer, and others will have to learn in caves like in the days of the Greeks and Romans, as we learned from our ancestors.”

“I call on you to use your full influence on this matter and act urgently for healing and repair. I note in this context the words of your illustrious grandfather, Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog zt”l, in his letter to Ben-Gurion in 1959, when the proposal to draft yeshiva students was raised.

“‘It is an obligation upon the nation dwelling in Tzion under the skies of independence to grant bnei yeshivos – who have been entrusted with safeguarding the spiritual treasures of the nation (and who do so with ummeasurable mesiras nefesh, under difficult economic hardship) – exemption from any form of military service as long as they sit in the tent of Torah. For they too are enlisted and stand guard over the security of Toras Yisrael and its heritage, which are our glory and the reason we have reached this point… and no change whatsoever should be made to their status, not even by a hairsbreadth.'”

“Your intervention, before it is too late, is urgently needed at this time – and who knows if for just such a moment you have come to leadership.”

“With pain and sorrow,

Yitzchak Pindrus.”

(YWN Israel Desk-Jerusalem)