Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

IN PHOTOS: Ultra-Orthodox Jews Protest Israeli Draft Bill in New York

It must have been a confusing sight for tourists. Some 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews crammed onto Water Street in lower Manhattan on Sunday afternoon, showing their support for their Haredi brethren in Israel. This week, the Knesset will vote on a bill to make conscription into the Israel Defense Forces mandatory for Haredi men. Sunday’s “Great Prayer Assembly” was as much about lending them emotional support as it was about protesting the draft bill ahead of the Knesset vote.

The ultra-Orthodox demonstrators came from Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Manhattan and New Jersey, and joined together in prayer, tears and shouts. After a little over an hour, they dispersed, and lower Manhattan went back to normal.

Photos by Shulamit Seidler-Feller

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.