Speaking at a dinner at the Pillar Hotel in London, HaGaon Rav Dov Lando shlita, rosh yeshiva of Slabodka in Bnei Brak, delivered sharp remarks about the situation facing yeshiva students and kollel avreichim in Israel, describing them as persecuted by the authorities and scorned by parts of the public.
"You all know that bnei yeshiva and kollel avreichim in Eretz Yisrael are being persecuted, and day by day the decrees that the authorities issue against them multiply, Hashem should protect us," Rav Lando said. "Am ha'aratzim are humiliating bnei yeshiva, treating bnei Torah with scorn and disgrace."
He said that recently, people from among "our erring brethren" who once opposed one another are now competing over who can use more derogatory language about Torah learners.
At the same time, Rav Lando stressed the importance of the warm reception given to emissaries of Israel's yeshivos when they travel abroad.
"When emissaries of the tens of thousands of Torah learners in Eretz Yisrael arrive in the Diaspora, and in every city and in every country they are received by the nation of Hashem with joy and honor, and with a fierce desire to come to the aid of Hashem among the mighty, how precious and great is the encouragement thereby given to the groaning Torah learners in Eretz Yisrael," he said.
The rosh yeshiva added that the honor and support shown by Diaspora communities provide tremendous strength to bnei yeshiva and kollel avreichim, whom he described as refined as gold, toiling in Torah under duress and under the threat of decrees.
Rav Lando's remarks come amid ongoing tensions in Israel over chareidi military enlistment, an issue that featured heavily in the October 27 Knesset election campaign.
