Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather in March 2014 to demonstrate against any plans to make them undergo military service. Image by Getty Images

Israel Police arrested about 40 haredi Orthodox protesters in the southern city of Ashdod during a demonstration on behalf of four yeshiva students arrested for missing their army induction.

Hundreds of haredi men and boys protested Monday in Ashdod, Jerusalem and at major intersections in the area against the arrest of the yeshiva students, who did not appear at the Israel Defense Forces recruitment center as required by law.

The students reportedly could have requested and received a draft exemption.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The protesters are followers Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, leader of a non-Hasidic haredi faction who has called on his students to not deal with the army at all, including showing up for preliminary processing in order to request an exemption from the military draft, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The group did not have a permit for the demonstration.

The four yeshiva students reportedly were arrested last week.

Under a law passed in March 2014, haredi men will be criminally charged for evading the draft, but the penalties will not go into effect until 2017. The Tal Law, which allowed haredi men to defer army service indefinitely, was invalidated by Israel’s Supreme Court in February 2012 and expired in August that year.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount