Hundreds of Vizhnitz Hasidim are expected to take part Wednesday in an unprecedented protest outside the office of a senior figure in Israel's judicial system, under the banner "The Torah's Outcry," in response to the continued jailing of yeshiva students over the draft crisis.
The protest, ordered directly by the Vizhnitz Rebbe, will see hundreds of avreichim, men devoted to full time Torah study, gather to voice what organizers describe as a great and bitter outcry against what they characterize as the severe persecution of the Torah world, including efforts to demean Torah study and an intolerable assault on the sanctity of Torah and the standing of those who study it.
What sets Wednesday's demonstration apart from previous Haredi protests over the arrests of yeshiva students is its format. Rather than a standard rally, organizers plan to set up an actual functioning beit midrash, a study hall, directly outside the office of the senior judicial figure. Protesters will arrive equipped with Gemaras and prayer stands, continuing their regular learning schedule on site, a statement intended to convey that the answer to the persecution of Torah study is more Torah, more learning, and the sound of Torah study rising up in protest.
Leaders within the Vizhnitz Center community say the goal of the protest is to give voice to the pain felt by yeshiva students, their wives and their families, over a reality in which young men devoted to Torah study and obedient to their rabbis' instructions are being thrown into prison for that devotion alone.
The protest marks an escalation in the broader Haredi public's campaign against the arrests of yeshiva students, a campaign that has intensified significantly in recent weeks. It follows a series of mass demonstrations across the country, including large convoys of vehicles organized by Hasidic courts from Belz to Vizhnitz traveling toward Prison 10, the military facility where several yeshiva students have been held over their failure to report for IDF service. Wednesday's protest, organizers say, represents a new and unprecedented form of demonstration, the first of its kind in scale, marking a further escalation in the Haredi public's struggle against what it views as the persecution of the Torah world.
Further details on the protest's exact location and gathering time were not yet available at time of publication.
