Thousands of seminary girls fundraise for yeshivas after draft dodgers lead to budget cuts - report

KAN reported that 25,000 seminary girls participated in the phone-calling campaign and raised over NIS 11 million. Each girl was given a personal fundraising goal of NIS 8,400.

Thousands of seminary girls were recruited for a mass fundraising campaign for Keren Olam Hatorah, a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) organization that supports yeshivas after the Israeli government cut their budgets due to the draft issue, KAN News reported Wednesday.

KAN reported that 25,000 girls participated in the phone-calling campaign, raising over NIS 11 million. Each girl was given a personal fundraising goal of NIS 8,400.

During the campaign, rabbis gave speeches to the seminary students from behind a curtain.

One rabbi, a spiritual leader for the Degel HaTorah party, told the girls that "the more embarrassed you are, the greater the mitzvah."

The girls were not compensated for their fundraising activities, KAN reported, which occurred at the expense of a school day.

High Court blocks law shielding draft evaders from arrest, investigation

Earlier this month, the High Court of Justice unanimously struck down a law shielding haredi yeshiva students from arrest, investigation, and other proceedings over draft evasion, finding that the coalition had used a fundamentally defective legislative process to deprive the IDF of central enforcement tools.

Eight of the nine justices went further in the verdict, ruling that the law’s substance was also unconstitutional because it protected one group from criminal enforcement while leaving intact the legal obligation to report for military service to the group’s members.

This law never took effect. Justice Ofer Grosskopf froze it on July 15, one day after it passed, and the full nine-justice panel maintained that freeze following a hearing later that month.