Treachery from Toronto

A rabbi-philanthropist tries to recruit the USA against Israel

There are many wonderful religious and yeshivish Jews in Toronto who are major supporters of Israel and work hard to strengthen it during this difficult war.

And then there’s those who try to recruit non-Jews to do the opposite.

Rabbi Dovid Hofstedter is a Torontonian businessman and philanthropist. He created the organization Dirshu to restore the Torah scholarship that was lost in the Holocaust, a goal now exceeded a hundred times over. This also has an outreach branch called Acheinu, which (according to an article in Mishpacha) seeks to convert secular Israeli kids to being charedi. And now, he is trying to recruit non-Jews to stop Israel from solving its IDF manpower crisis.

First, Rabbi Hofstedter arranged a meeting between US Ambassador Mike Huckabee and charedi leaders R. Dov Landau and R. Moshe Hillel Hirsch, with the goal of convincing Huckabee to bring US government influence to push Israel for the universal draft exemption that the charedi community seeks. This was featured in Mishpacha magazine. At this meeting, Mishpacha proudly reports straight-out slander that Rabbi Dov Landau issues against Israel:

“It’s important to me to tell the honored ambassador of the dire straits that the Torah-observant public finds itself in, as the justice system has sent out arrest warrants for yeshivah students for the sin of studying Torah.”

This is simply a lie. And it’s nothing less than disgraceful that someone revered by many as a “Gadol b’Torah” can say such motzi shem ra. Not a single person has ever or will ever be arrested “for the sin of studying Torah.”

If you’re driving a car while studying intently from a Gemara resting over the steering wheel, you’re arrested for reckless driving, not for learning Torah. And if you’re avoiding the legal requirement to enlist in the IDF, you’re arrested for that, not for watching movies or learning Torah or whatever else you happen to be doing instead. This is no different from how if you’re learning Gemara instead of davening Shacharis, you receive Divine punishment for not davening Shacharis, not for learning Torah!

Then we have similarly offensive nonsense from Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch:

“The reason that half of the yeshivah had to leave Lithuania long before World War II,” he said pointedly, “was to avoid the military draft in Eastern Europe.” There was a silence in the room as Rav Hirsch’s point sank in — that total dedication to Torah study isn’t a new policy, and that yeshivah students will remain in the yeshivah no matter what.

How many perversions of the truth can you combine in one paragraph? Let’s list them:

1. They were fleeing the army of a non-Jewish state, home to many antisemites that later happily collaborated with the Nazis in massacring Jews, not a Jewish army dedicated to saving Jewish lives! When Moshe Rabbeinu conscripted Am Yisrael to fight, did Torah students flee?!

2. The Lithuanian army had zero interest in helping Jews maintain religious observance. The IDF might not be perfect, but it has actual charedi yeshiva frameworks for army service.

3. “Total dedication to Torah isn’t a new policy” - actually, it absolutely is. How many yeshiva students spending years in yeshiva after age 20 were there in all pre-war Europe? Not more than a few hundred, a tiny elite minority out of a population of many millions. Today there are over a hundred thousand charedim who are/were (at least officially) registered as being in yeshiva all the way to age 26; it’s the designated path for a full third of all first-graders in Israel.

4. “Yeshivah students will remain in the yeshivah no matter what” - no, they leave yeshiva for long vacations, for political rallies, for protests, and when they need to make a living. Things that are important to them. Why isn’t it important to them to help relieve the crushing burden on their brethren?

5. Edelstein was perfectly ready to exempt all chareidi yeshiva students from army service, as long as those not in yeshiva would enlist, which would enormously help with the manpower crisis. The charedi rabbinic and political leadership were not interested!

But Rabbi Hofstedter is not content with trying to rally the US government on behalf of the charedim and against Israel’s government and courts and army and most of its population. He is also trying to gain the support of the American public, writing about this topic for “American Thinker,” a conservative non-Jewish publication.

Of course Rabbi Hofstedter dishonestly frames the issue as being about preserving the essence of Judaism. He makes no mention of the over eighty hesder yeshivot which successfully combine Torah study with military service, and which produce young men who continue to become outstanding Torah scholars, preserving Judaism perfectly well (except when they are killed because there are not enough young men in the army and they have to serve instead). Nor does he mention the fact that you could draft every able-bodied young charedi yeshiva student and there would still be more Torah being learned full-time than at any period in history.

Rabbi Hofstedter also tries to present himself as being a reasonable voice, noting that the Talmud debates the balance between military defense and spiritual commitment, that there must be discussion, that there must be responsibility, and claiming that the charedi position is simply that not every yeshiva student can be conscripted.

Yet the people that he champions as the leaders of the Torah world, and that he brought Ambassador Huckabee to meet, say nothing of the sort! They insist that not a single yeshiva student can be conscripted, and that even those who are not yeshiva students must not be conscripted! They do not take any responsibility and they say that there is nothing to discuss!

Shame on Rabbi Hofstedter for distorting the situation. And shame on him for trying to rally non-Jewish support for charedim and against the rest of Israel. He is harming Israel, trying to increase the IDF manpower crisis that is causing so much terrible suffering for reservists and their families, and that is making the IDF less able to defend the nation. I hope that Israel’s supporters in Toronto will register protest. You can also write to Mishpacha magazine at inbox@mishpacha.com.

And instead of supporting Dirshu and Acheinu and similar organizations, please support Torah institutions that are working to help Am Yisrael and to create crucial change in Israeli charedi society. Rav Dovid Leibel is visiting Toronto and the US soon, to meet prominent philanthropists - he runs the kinds of Torah institutions (for charedim) that deserve support, along with Dati-Leumi institutions. And every time you refuse a solicitation from a charedi Torah institution, please make sure to tell them why. We need to get the message across. The Jewish People needs Torah that helps, not Torah that harms.