Ultra-Orthodox leaders have called for an international day of prayer and fasting on Thursday in response to recent government efforts to conscript ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students and arrest those who ignore government orders to enlist.

Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, one of the factions of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party, issued a public appeal to Jews around the world to treat the day as if it were Yom Kippur Katan, a minor fast day in which worshipers recite prayers usually read on the Jewish Day of Atonement.

In the United States and Europe, Haredi Jews are “preparing to tear open the gates of heaven to overturn the conscription decree that threatens the Torah world,” party newspaper Yated Neeman declared on its front page on Tuesday, quoting Lando as saying that “Jews are persecuting Jews because they are learning Torah.”

Ultra-Orthodox newspaper Hamodia, seen as a mouthpiece for UTJ’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, likewise called for a “day of prayer, fasting and the cessation of work to cancel the decree of forced conscription and religious persecution” on Thursday.

Despite the ongoing war in Gaza and the plight of the hostages held by Hamas in the Strip, the State of Israel has “found the time to persecute Torah students” and “deprive them of their civil rights,” the paper declared.

Prayer rallies are expected across Israel, with mass gatherings in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem slated to take place.

The Bnei Brak religious council, a taxpayer-funded government body, was listed as one of the backers of an anti-enlistment event Thursday morning.

The event, set to take place at the central city’s Yeshua L’yehuda yeshiva, will consist of ideological encouragement for “the holy and mighty yeshiva and kollel students in the face of the conscription decrees,” a promotion for the event stated, using Biblical language used to reference soldiers and other fighting men.

The religious........

© The Times of Israel