Nrp Resolution Calls for Compulsory Military Duty for Yeshiva Students

The newly elected central committee of the National Religious Party is expected to overturn a controversial resolution adopted Friday evening by a substantial majority at the stormy closing session of the NRP’s national convention in Tel Aviv which calls for compulsory military service for yeshiva students, hitherto exempt.

That was the clear impression conveyed today by NRP secretary general Zvi Bernstein when he appealed to Israel’s two chief rabbis not to take any action until the central committee meets, sometime in the next two weeks. Both Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren and his Sephardic colleague, Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, issued separate appeals to the NRP Friday to withdraw the resolution.

Rabbi Goren, former chief chaplain of Israel’s armed forces, urged the NRP leadership not to advocate changing a practice that has been in effect since Israel’s establishment. Rabbi Yosef said he was “shocked” by the resolution and demanded to know why the NRP failed to consult the Chief Rabbinate before acting on it.

The resolution was adopted at the NRP convention by a vote of 298-170, precipitating near pandemonium as rabbis and yeshiva heads-opposed to it stormed the rostrum in an attempt to seize the microphone. Rabbi Mordechai Frenkel, of Haifa, tore up his NRP card in front of the convention and left the hall. Because of the turmoil, a vote could not be taken on a modifying amendment and the matter was left to the party center to decide.

The controversial resolution was introduced by Yaacoy, Tsur, a member of the Religious Kibbutz movement whose son had volunteered for service and was killed in action. He suggested that because some religious youths abuse their exemptions and in view of Israel’s mounting military needs, military service be made obligatory for yeshiva students within a framework that combines Army service with Torah studies.