A new draft resisters’ guide tailored for haredi yeshiva students
reportedly compares the draft of those haredi yeshiva students to the
Holocaust and reminds them that, like in the Holocaust, sometimes
suicide is preferable to complying with the decrees of an evil
government.
New Haredi Guide For Resisting Military Draft Tells Haredi Yeshiva Students That The Time May Be Coming When They Will Have To Choose Suicide Rather Than Army Service
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
A new draft resisters’ guide tailored for haredi yeshiva students reportedly compares the draft of those haredi yeshiva students to the Holocaust and reminds them that, like in the Holocaust, sometimes suicide is preferable to complying with the decrees of an evil government.
The 32-page guide was printed under the auspices of a new haredi organization called Fortress – The Center for Protection from Draft Issues. Ynet reports that the guide explains possible ways to dodge the draft and promises to help haredim who receive orders IDF draft notices.
The guide opens by declaring that, “the unbearable acts are before us in full intensity.”
The guide goes on to discuss the obligation for total sacrifice, giving several historical examples to prove its point. One of those examples is the story of 93 girls at a Bais Yaakov school in Krakow, Poland in 1942. All 93 of the girls committed suicide when they found out that Nazi soldiers were on their way to the school to rape them.
“We must learn from previous generations about the pride and intensity with which they gave their souls for the sanctification of God,” the guide says.
The guide also talks about the Cantonists, the Jewish boys who were drafted by the czars at very young ages. They were forced to serve for decades and were denied any contact with Jews or Judaism, other than themselves.Most lost almost all connection to Judaism. Some converted some to Christianity as a result.
The guide also mentions the Inquisition, and Soviet prison camps in Siberia are reportedly mentioned on the same line as the draft of haredi yeshiva students into the IDF. The guide tells those haredi yeshiva students that they are mandated to fight that draft with all their heart and all their soul, and warns them that they are forbidden to join the military.
Jewish law mandates that a person must choose death rather than committing incest, murder or worshipping idols – the three cardinal sins. The guide tells haredi yeshiva students that induction into the IDF is equivalent to these transgressions, and it stresses, “and if we ever get to the point where they put a choice before us to do one of the three [cardinal] sins or be killed, we will choose death rather than a life of betrayal of God.”
The guide closes with an emergency telephone number for haredi yeshiva students who receive induction notices and with a tip line for reporting “the boy or yeshiva student who has joined the army, or is tempted to do so.”