The heads of two leading religious wings of the Zionist movement in the United States today assailed yesterday’s demonstration before the Israeli consulate here as “a shameful desecration of religious principles” put on by “extremists” who thus “offered aid and comfort to the enemies” of the State of Israel.
The demonstration, in which police estimated 3,000 participated, protested Israeli legislation which would draft Orthodox girls for civilian duties such as nursing, teaching and office work.
Today’s statement condemning the demonstration came from Rabbi Max Kirshblum, president of the Mizrachi Organization of America, and Rabbi Issachar Levin, president of Hapoel Hamizrachi of America. The two organizations claim a membership of nearly 150,000 in this country and the leaders said that the demonstrators represented only “an infinitesimal percentage of religious Jewry in America.”
Rabbis Kirshblum and Levin pointed out that the National Service Law in Israel had been approved by the Mizrachi and Hapoel Hamizrachi there after consultations with the Chief Rabbinate and after receiving assurances from the Israel Government of religious safeguards in implementation of the law. The law has not yet been put into effect and, according to today’s statement, “completely exempts ultra-religious girls.”
The statement declared further that “elements such as those that demonstrated yesterday have indulged in similar shameful, riotous conduct before the Knesset in Israel, hoping to disrupt the proceedings by means of intimidation.”
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