American Jews to Demonstrate Against Israeli Draft

NEW YORK, May 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by Congregation Ayeles Hashachar:

About one hundred Orthodox rabbis and their students will demonstrate TODAY Thursday May 23, 2013 in front of the Israeli Consulate at 800 Second Ave between 4:30 and 6:00. Wearing sackcloth as a sign of mourning, they will protest against the current effort by the Israeli government to force Orthodox Jews into the army.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130523/DC19789)

"No country in the world oppresses the Jewish people as does the so-called Jewish State, the State of Israel," said Rabbi Joseph Gottlieb, a native of Jerusalem, who organized the protest in close consultation with Jerusalem's Chief Rabbi Tovia Weiss. "The laws of the Torah, upheld and observed by the Jewish people for over 3000 years, teach that Jews in the era of exile are forbidden to fight wars or have their own state.  For 65 years our families have gone hungry rather than accept a penny from the State. We have suffered indescribably under their rule, yet persevered by insulating our communities and preserving our way of life. Now they want to take us away and force us to fight in their army. They want us to help them make enemies in the world and portray us as partners in their military campaigns.

"The draft has already begun. Dozens of men who refuse to serve have been beaten and tortured, placed in dark cells and starved for days at a time. Their hatred for us knows no bounds. Since the Nazis, no one has treated Jews the way this Zionist State has been treating us, now and in the past.

"Jews have lived in the Holy Land for centuries. Their non-Jewish neighbors always respected them and allowed them to live according to their beliefs. But then came the Zionist movement. The Zionists established a state in violation of Judaism, brought millions of Jews from around the world and educated them to be atheists. But they are not content until they force their rule upon the Jewish communities that predate them, together with other Torah-true Jews. Orthodox Jews would prefer to live under a non-Jewish government in the Holy Land.

"The Zionist goal is clearly to oppress all who stand in their way, whether non-Jewish or Jewish. It should be clear to the world that they don't represent Jews or Judaism.

"The Orthodox Torah-true Jews of the Holy Land, with the help of the Almighty, will continue to go to jail and submit to whatever punishments the state can devise, but they will not succumb to this decree of forced conscription. And we, their brethren in America and throughout the world, support them all the way," concluded Rabbi Gottlieb.

For more info visit: www.truetorahjews.org

To see video of leading rabbis of Jerusalem demonstrating in front of the United nations office in Jerusalem in 2007, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es0EkJbz5qU

SOURCE Congregation Ayeles Hashachar