“[Haredi] yeshiva students are not entitled to the scholarships given to 220,000 [secular] students every year? Or to a scholastic budget equivalent to the annual 7 billion [shekels] allocated [by the government] for [secular] academic institutions? Israel is one of the few global Torah centers and it must be preserved!"
Originally published at 10:01 pm CST 12-24-2013
Chief Rabbi Of Rehovot Condemns Draft, Says Haredi Yeshiva Students And Haredi Yeshivas Should Get The Equivalent Government Funding As Research Universities And Grad Students
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Chief Rabbi of Rehovot Simcha HaKohen Kook reportedly spoke at Tuesday night’s Jerusalem protest in support of haredi yeshiva students draft dodging.
“[Haredi] yeshiva students are not entitled to the scholarships given to 220,000 [secular] students every year? Or to a scholastic budget equivalent to the annual 7 billion [shekels] allocated [by the government] for [secular] academic institutions? Israel is one of the few global Torah centers and it must be preserved!
“The HaBayit HaYehudi [right wing Zionist Orthodox political party] Knesset faction finds it difficult to stand up to other parties determined to draft [haredi] yeshiva students. The [High] Court [of Justice] has even dared to rule to postpone a circumcision indefinitely! [The mother does not want to circumcise her son, the father does, and the couple are in the middle of divorce proceedings.] These legislative acts threaten the spiritual core of our existence, and we must shout to the Almighty for salvation,” Kook insisted.
Although a great nephew of the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, Simcha HaKoen Kook and his siblings are all haredim.