Yeshiva students

Knesset passes contentious haredi-backed bill to enshrine Torah study in Israel's Basic Law

The haredi-backed Basic Law passed its final Knesset votes after weeks of coalition tensions and warnings that it could encourage draft evasion.

MK Yitzhak Goldknopf (United Torah Judaism) attends a House committee meeting at the Knesset, July 12, 2026.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at Knesset plenum to vote in favor of Basic: Law Torah Study bill, shaking hands with Degel Hatorah leader MK Moshe Gafni, Wednesday, July 1, 2026.

Israel's hysterical Torah study bill will backfire on the ultra-Orthodox - opinion

Haredi anti-draft protesters block Highway 4 near Bnei Brak denouncing the detention of a draft dodger, February 9, 2026.

Laundering human capital: The reckless amnesty bills and their debasement of the Torah - opinion

People walk past election posters for the upcoming elections in Jerusalem on October 24, 2022.

Israel cannot afford Netanyahu’s capitulation to haredi demands - editorial


Yeshiva student charged with raping minor at public pool, threatening to cut off penis

Yeshiva student Yitzhak Frankel, age 19, was arrested for raping and assaulting a 14-year-old boy at a swimming pool, cutting his stomach to taste his blood, and threatening to cut off his penis.

Yeshiva student and accused rapist Yitzhak Frankel.

High Court: Haredi students with unsettled military status won't get national insurance discounts

Yeshiva students who have not settled their status with the military or procured a valid exemption will not be eligible for relevant discounts on national insurance.

 Haredim protest against the IDF draft outside Tel Hashomer recruitment base, April 28. 2025.

Yeshiva students seize house in Hebron's old city for dorms

A press release from the yeshiva claimed that this was the first time Jews had entered the old city since 1929.

Students from Yeshiva Shavei Hevron claim the Valero house in the old city.

A need to pass on wisdom: Yeshiva, academia has failed to produce new sages - opinion

We need sages. And the yeshiva and academia have failed to methodically produce sages. But we can fix that.

Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi delivers a torah lesson at Ateret Yisrael Yeshiva in Jerusalem, November 19, 2019.

International yeshiva students answer IDF's call as Har Etzion breaks records

This week, 32 overseas students from the prestigious yeshiva will be drafting into the IDF alongside their Israeli peers – the highest number in the yeshiva’s 56-year history.

HARAV AHARON LICHTENSTEIN, longtime rosh Yeshivat Har Etzion, with IDF soldiers in 2008.

Bismuth elected FADC head, ousting Edelstein over haredi draft bill

Edelstein, prior to the vote, published for the first time the draft of the conscription law, which was sent to committee members. 

MK Boaz Bismuth attends a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem July 8, 2025

'To Be Holy but Human': A look into the life ‘hesder yeshiva’ creator Rabbi Yehuda Amital - review

One of a kind: Rav Amital was that unique and unparalleled leader who lived at a time when he was needed the most.

Israelis carry the body of Rabbi Yehuda Amital during his funeral in Jerusalem, on July 09, 2010

Yeshiva students spat at, insulted by Arab man with knife in Lucerne, Switzerland

An Arab man with a knife approached a group of yeshiva students while shouting antisemitic insults and 'free Palestine' in Lucerne, Switzerland.

 People walk past as Swiss police vehicles stand by to prevent expected illegal gatherings amid restrictions due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in the old town of Zurich, Switzerland, April 9, 2021.

'We failed, made a mistake' on judicial reform, haredi draft bill deal, UTJ's Goldknopf says

UTJ was told to support the judicial reform as it would allow for a "basic law of Torah study," and another law as an override clause, Yitzhak Goldknopf claimed in an interview with Kikar HaShabbat.

 Yitzhak Goldknopf at a United Torah Judaism meeting at the Knesset, Jerusalem, May 19, 2025.

Deri and Lapid clash over IDF draft law, sanctions on ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students

Aryeh Deri responded to the Attorney-General's discussion on the High Court of Justice consideration over the draft law and the plan to toughen sanctions against yeshiva students who don't enlist.

A view of the Shas party offices in Jerusalem, June 4, 2025